UNDERSTANDING COLLABORATION AND TRUST BETWEEN COTEACHERS
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Date
2022-04-20
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Johns Hopkins University
Abstract
Students with exceptionalities primarily receive their instructional service minutes in a regular class setting through the practice of coteaching. While coteaching can be an effective instructional approach, the limited time general education and special education teachers have to coplan can impact their collaboration and trust. Utilizing a mixed-methods parallel convergent design this study sought to explore how training sessions and reflective practices could change coteachers’ collaborative practices and trust of one another. Additionally, given the unique context of an all-charter school system, the study explored educators’ perception of district-led professional learning. Over the course of seven weeks participants engaged in two training sessions on the topic of coteaching and completed weekly reflection prompts. The findings of the study showed that coteachers increased their confidence to try new instructional strategies and were more intentional about coplanning. Participants also became comfortable providing feedback and input to their coteacher and shifted towards equitable role parity when designing lessons. Finally, participants indicated a positive experience with the training sessions being facilitated by the school district. This study contributes to the literature on the ways reflective practices could be used by coteachers to increase the effectiveness of coplanning.
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Keywords
coteaching, collaboration, coplanning, trust, reflection, charter schools