13/02/2017
Collaborative Teaching with SEN Team.
Dr. Fiona King
INTO Special Education Conference
Outline of session
• Defining collaborative teaching
• Rationale for collaborative teaching
• Models of collaborative teaching
• Challenges and some solutions
• Planning and evaluating collaborative
teaching
Terminology…
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13/02/2017
Definitions: Co-Teaching
• Relatively recent application…inclusion
• Vehicle for adhering to the least restrictive environment (IDEA,
2004)
• Illustrates the complexity of collaboration – “ a professional
marriage”
• Future dependent on increasing the quantity and quality of
research on it (Friend et al., 2010)
• “co-teaching as partnering of a general education teacher and a
special education teacher or another specialist for the purpose of
jointly delivering instruction to a diverse group of students,
including those with disabilities or other special needs, in a
general education setting and in a way that flexibly and
deliberately meets their learning needs” (Friend 2008 in Friend et
al., 2010, p. 11)
Bauwens and Hourcade, (1995)
Developmental Stages of Co-Teaching
Beginning stage
Guarded, careful communication
Compromising
Stage
Give and take communication,
with a sense of having to “give
up” to “get”
Collaborating
Stage
Open
communication
and
interaction, mutual admiration
(Gately and Gately, 2001, p. 42)
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Evolution of Co-Teaching
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Team Teaching (TT)in the 1950s
Rooted in efficiency and effectiveness of delivery
Lecture on a topic delivered once V four times
Followed by groups for discussion e.g. 100 children
and 3 teachers
• TT now: two teachers teach two groups together
• Co-teaching:
– student teacher ratio improves
– Expertise of professionals is different (Friend et al., 2010,p.
13).
Policy documents…
• Co-operative teaching: ‘….two or more teachers
work together in a collaborative manner with a
class of students who have diverse learning
needs’ (DES, 2007)
• In-class support: Circular 02/05 & Literacy and
Numeracy strategy (DES, 2011) …
“the use of team-teaching to facilitate in-class
support” was advocated in the Chief Inspector’s
Report (DES, 2013, p. 90).
Rationale
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Rationale
• Personal choice?
• School directive?
• Policy directive?
A New Approach to Supporting Pupils with Special
Education Needs
• “…changing the way we think about inclusion
from ‘most’ and ‘some’ to everybody” (Florian
and Spratt, 2013, p.129)
Supporting inclusive learning
• Inclusive classrooms
• Wise use of resources
• Opening up dialogue…work samples,
assessment data…reflection on lessons
• Opening up classrooms e.g. co-teaching,
lesson study, peer observation, learning
walks…
• Individual and collective responsibility
Models of Collaborative Teaching
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Models of collaborative teaching
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•
•
•
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•
•
Co-operative teaching
Peer coaching
Peer tutoring
Co-operative / Collaborative Learning
Parallel teaching
Station teaching
One teacher, one support teacher
(Friend et al. 2010; Ploessl et al. 2010)
Peer Tutoring
 Pupils working in pairs
 Tutor / Tutee
 A method of engaging in one-to-one teaching
 Effective from an academic and social point of view
(Topping, 1998; Butler, 1999).
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Peer Tutoring
• Peer tutoring
 Tutors and tutees of same age but different
abilities
• Cross age tutoring
 Tutors are older than tutees
• Reciprocal teaching
 Same age and similar ability pairings
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Peer Tutoring
 Active learning
 Pupil engagement
Pupils like it
Allows for
◦
◦
◦
◦
immediate feedback
verbal interactions
structured repetition
formative assessment (King, 2006)
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Teachers’ Responses
• Fosters social skills and ‘getting to know other
pupils’
• All teachers would recommend it and would
use it again
• ‘Ticks all the boxes’/’must for all schools’
• Transfer of learning and generalisation of skills
• Increased interest in reading outside the
‘English lesson’
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Typical Session
5 mins:
• Layout of materials on desk
• Recap on what read yesterday – same book
• Look at title, pictures, author – new book
• Discuss what it might be about
5 mins: Reader one
5 mins: Reader two rereads same piece
15 mins: Sight words and dictionary work
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Ethical issues
• All pupils must benefit from Peer
Tutoring
– Tutors and Tutees
• Pupils’ personalities considered
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Jigsaw Activity for Class Reader
Sample Activity:
Group of 20
5 in each mixed ability group sitting together– numbered 1 to 5
List of vocabulary
Day one - Each number individually looking up words
Day two – Number ones together, number twos ….
- sharing definitions and explanations
Day three – Back to original group as expert and share
one word
Day four – Share another word each in the group
https://www.jigsaw.org
Examples of activities for Jigsaw Groups
SESE: Vikings: ‘Expert’
Groups:
Comprehension: ‘Expert’
Groups:
• Group 1: Food they ate
• Group 2: Viking
invasions
• Group 3: Clothes they
wore
• Group 4: Beliefs and
customs they had
• Group 5: Work and
leisure (King, 2006)
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•
•
•
Group 1: Predictions
Group 2: Connections
Group 3: Visualisation
Group 4: Determining
importance
• Group 5: Inference
(Brennan, 2017)
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Challenges of Collaborative Teaching
Challenges of collaborative teaching
• Space
• Noise
• Teacher Personalities / Attitudes
• Perspectives on assessment, fairness, behaviour
management (Dieker, 2008)
• Pet peeves (Friend & Cook, 2013)
• Co-Teacher Questionnaire (Noonan et al. 2003)
04/02/2015
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•
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Parental involvement
Training
Needs of Pupils
Content
Teaching Styles (King, 2006)
• Value each other’s expertise
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Challenges of collaborative teaching
• Time Keeping and Timetables (King, 2006)
• Roles and Responsibilities of each Teacher
• It’s we, not I. Equal parity.
• Time for Planning, collaboration and assessing pupils’
work
• Google docs
• Monday and Friday?
• Focus on planning a lesson for all students (Ploessl & Howard,
04/02/2015
2014)
• Reflection or debriefing
• Have critical co-teaching conversations
• 2+2 log or 2 stars and a wish
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Models of collaborative teaching
• No one model is said to be the ultimate…context is
key
• Better to use a variety of models
• Which model one uses depends on the focus of
instruction or the outcome you are looking for i.e. if
the focus of instruction is reading accuracy and
fluency, then peer tutoring might be used for a term
• Abilities / learning styles of pupils need to be
considered
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Planning and Evaluating Collaborative Teaching
Planning Co-Teaching
• Time to plan - does not have to be face-to-face… technology
• Protocols for meetings- agenda outlining purpose and goals
(facilitates joint ownership)
• Timeline- visual
• Co-plan lessons
• Pick a co-teaching model first – fit for purpose (support
curriculum, meet students’ needs…)
• Co-teaching planning form
• Teach together and monitor student progress
• Let data guide decision making
• Reflecting afterwards (Ploessl et al., 2010)
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Collaborative Teaching: Evaluating
• Planning and evaluating are inextricably linked
• What are we looking for: co-planning, co-delivery, coassessing, co-evaluating? Outcomes you want?
• Level of engagement, differentiation and environment
(Beninghof, 2014)
• Co-planning, co-instruction and co-assessment
(Murawski & Lochner 2011)
• Observation Tool (Honigsfeld & Dove, 2015)
• Roles, professionalism, communication, assessment
and instruction & quantifiable measures (Beninghof,
2015)
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Why am I promoting co-teaching?
• Need for “collaborative cultures for successful inclusive
schools” (Kugelmass, 2001, p. 50)
• Need for communities rather than organisations
• “Move from a collection of independent classrooms to an
interdependent organization in which individuals routinely
contribute to others’ improvement” (Johnson et al 2012, p.
119).
• Reduce fear and anxiety around inclusion
• “[Inclusion] is like a wedding in which we, as special
educators, have forgotten to invite the bride (general
educators)” (Liberman in Snyder, 1999, p. 173).
• Shares the responsibility and lightens the load for teachers
Role of the SEN advisor
• Collaborator and team facilitator
• Skills development in this area
• All teachers are SEN teachers
• Move away from single ‘expert’ teacher
• Have expert = Having rising numbers of pupils with SEN
• Move from medical model (assessment of deficit)
towards transformative pedagogy
• Develop system capacity within school
(O’Gorman and Drudy, 2010, p. 165).
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Good Teaching is Good Teaching
•Explicit instruction
•Systematic instruction
•Gradual Release of Responsibility
•Modelling, Sharing, Guiding and Independent (ref??)
•Groupings of students: pairs, small group instruction
•Reciprocal teaching, peer tutoring, jigsaw groups…
•Opportunities to practise new skills
•Ongoing feedback
•TPS, Numbered Heads, Give one, get one, move on…
Placemat activity, Bloom’s Taxonomy
•UDL
Things to consider…
04/02/2015
• Teaching what’s in the book V teaching pupils
• Textbook as a “surrogate curriculum” (TIMMS,
1995)
• Many topics, insufficient opportunities for
repetition
• Feel under pressure to complete books
• Focus on strategies, content to be taught
• In-class support is not an ‘add-on’
• It is an alternative way
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Fullan (1993)
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• King, F. (2006) Special education in Irish
classrooms: A practical guide.
Dublin: Primary ABC.
• King, F., & Gilliland, A. (2009).
Peer tutoring: An inclusive approach
to supporting reading: Case study in
five disadvantaged schools. LEARN: Journal of
Learning Support, 31, 50-61.
Thank You!
[email protected]
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