Collaborative Teaching in Secondary Schools: Making the Co‐teaching Marriage Work!

Citation

McNeil, M.M. and Nevin, A.I. (2010), "Collaborative Teaching in Secondary Schools: Making the Co‐teaching Marriage Work!", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 48 No. 1, pp. 123-126. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578231011015476

Wendy Murawski's book comes at a crucial time in the development of quality educators in the USA. Historically, special education emerged as a separate system of special classes or residential schools for children with specific categories of disability like mental retardation, emotional disturbance, or sensory impairments. Motivations for that separation ranged from providing humanitarian treatment of vulnerable children concurrently with alleviating or removing the children who were viewed as interrupting the routines of the general education system.

In the US, recent federal legislation, such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) of 2004 (Pub. L. No. 108‐446), have focused attention on students with increasingly diverse learning characteristics achieving high academic performance in general education. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 (Pub. L. No. 107‐110) requires high standards and student performance. Both mandates are intended to foster conditions for better instruction and learning, equality of opportunity to learn, and excellence in performance for all children. In contrast to segregated special education, inclusive education or inclusion has become viewed as a process where schools welcome, value, support, and empower all students in shared environments and experiences for the purpose of attaining the goals of education (Villa et al., 2008). However, today's teachers are under‐prepared to deal with the complexities of a classroom that represents diversity of all kinds: racial, ethnic, linguistic, and ability. Murawski's book will be welcomed by those who are concerned about the daunting challenges that recent data reveal. For example, Cochran‐Smith and Zeichner (2005) summarized the review by Hollins and Guzman (2005, p. 21):

… studies reveal that in addition to being White and middle‐class females, the majority of teacher candidates are from suburbs or small towns and have limited experience with those from cultures or areas different from their own.

Furthermore, teachers are under‐prepared to teach students from diverse cultural backgrounds, particularly immigrant children and English language learners.

Let us be clear: these challenges are not limited to educators only the US. The principles of inclusive education are being implemented in other countries, as well. Bartolo and Smyth (2008) describe how students in today's multi‐lingual and multi‐ethnic classrooms be addressed through differentiated instruction in European classrooms. Jordan et al. (2009) describe what is happening in Canada to prepare teachers to work in schools where all children and youth are integrated. Symeodidou and Phtiaka (2009) describe how in‐service programs can be structured in Cyprus to expand teachers' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about inclusion. Florian and Rouse (2009) describe the inclusive practice project in Scotland which focuses on changing teacher preparation programs to make sure that new teachers can teach more inclusively.

Wendy Murawski's book allows readers to delve into the day‐to‐day interactions that make it possible for teachers to work together so that students with diverse needs can be successful in the inclusive classroom. She provides specific tools that will help both general educators and special educators to become competent as they learn together how to implement collaborative teaching in secondary schools. Dr Murawski is eminently qualified to teach about collaborative co‐teaching, as she has earned the distinction of being a California Teacher of the Year (2004), is an experienced co‐teacher in K‐12 and university classrooms, and has generated an impressive track record of research and publications related to implementing co‐teaching approaches.

The book is organized into four major sections that are correlated with the various stages of co‐teacher development – The Dating Scene, The Engagement, The Wedding, and The Marriage. The author uses the analogy of a marriage because she has discovered that (p. xii) “humor encodes learning and the marriage analogy invites a variety of comedic comparisons”. In fact, Murawski's first co‐teacher was to become her mother‐in‐law! The book is grounded in the literature as well as reality‐based teaching experiences at several school sites. Murawski uses scaffolding techniques that feature self‐assessments, references and resources, and engaging section entitled “Matchmaker, Matchmaker” throughout each of the four sections. “Matchmaker, Matchmaker” is devoted to advice for administrators. She tackles sensitive issues such as how co‐teachers should be appointed, how co‐teachers can be supervised fairly, and under what conditions should co‐teachers stop working together. She explains how co‐teaching fits into the Response to Intervention (RtI) system of identifying learning disabilities in children and youth. She links her research‐based techniques to the literature, similar to Linz et al. (2008) who reported an increasing number of high school science classes that are being team taught so that students with and without special needs can be taught together. Linz et al. emphasized that (2008, p. 8):

Both teachers must work to ensure that they are competent in terms of presenting content and understanding the special needs of their students.

This book allows teachers to gain the competence and confidence to do this.

Murawski communicates clearly that co‐teachers have many choices in designing their co‐taught lessons to reach a variety of learners' needs as well as meet the demands of rigorous curriculum standards. In explaining the various approaches, she describes what it should look like, what it should not look like, and provides word pictures of the approach in action (emphasizing the role of each co‐teacher). She articulates the pros and cons of each approach and offers templates for lesson plans that have been field tested by high school teachers.

Why should leadership personnel care about this book?

There are at least three reasons why leadership personnel should care about the principles and practices revealed in a collaborative co‐teaching model. First, teachers become less isolated and more invigorated and innovative when they are involved in co‐teaching arrangements. As a result, their effectiveness is increased for all of their students and collaborative efforts with families in enhanced. The second reason that leadership personnel should care about this book is that most school leaders want to hire new teachers who can survive the first three years without leaving the profession. A key reason for leaving is the feeling that they cannot reach students who are difficult to teach (i.e. students with special needs, students learning English as a second language, students under‐prepared in the various content areas, etc.). The resilient implementation of the principles and practices described so vividly in Murawski's book will help to ensure that beginning special educators and their general education counterparts will go beyond survival to thrive as they collaborate to teach their students.

The third reason that leadership personnel should care about this book is because of the impact on the teachers who work together and their students. There is a growing body of research that indicates that, in classrooms using a co‐teaching model, the non‐disabled students demonstrate increased respect and appreciation for their peers with disabilities. Additionally, more individualized attention is provided for all students in these classrooms according to Kochhar‐Bryant (2008). Professional collaboration has been linked to (p. 27) “gains in student achievement; improved collaboration among teachers and related school personnel; systematic assistance to support beginning teachers; an expanded pool of ideas, methods, and materials that benefit all teachers” in their work with children and families.

In summary, Dr Murawski helps educators tackle several thorny issues that will increase the benefits of inclusive practices for families, students, educators, and school systems. Specifically, her book is chock full of ideas to:

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  Create more open‐minded views of what it means to fully integrate teenagers with special needs into general education classrooms.

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  Increase skills and expertise related to the characteristics, components, and strategies that are needed to make co‐teaching a meaningful reality in secondary classrooms.

We believe that leadership personnel in K‐12 public schools as well as university educational administration and teacher preparation programs will find the book useful as a professional development tool at both the preservice and the inservice levels. We offer the following caveat to readers: remember that teachers are at different stages of development that may reflect their willingness to co‐teach as well as their ability to co‐teach. Murawski's book helps administrators, professional development personnel, faculty in higher education programs to recognize and honor these differences. It takes time to achieve mastery of a complex teaching repertoire such as co‐teaching – time to digest information, to reflect and engage in meta‐cognitive thinking, to engage in guided and independent practice, and to celebrate. The outcomes are well worth the effort.