How to successfully collaborate while co-teaching

There are many barriers to successful communication among teachers and staff who are practicing inclusion. There is a lack of staff training for teachers and all other staff who are involved in assisting disabled students through inclusion. It is unrealistic and unfair to expect general education teacher’s to creatively and productively educate and include students with disabilities in their classrooms in the absence of adequate training. General education teachers must be provided with the training they need in order to meet the special learning and behavioral needs of students. It is also vital that general education teachers have frequent opportunities for collaborative planning with other teachers, especially special educators, and have ready access to the disability network and inclusion specialist who can address specific questions educators might have (Schultz, 2001).
There is a lack structure and support for collaboration. Collaboration between teachers and all stakeholders and participants is seen as the key to successful inclusion of all students in a regular class and involves a nonhierarchical relationship in which all team members are seen as equal contributors, each adding their own expertise or experience to the problem solving process. Collaboration needs to occur all along the path of inclusion: during the initial planning stages, during implementation, between home and school, between all members of the student’s individual planning team, and between teachers and administrators. It is especially important that the time be built into teachers’ schedules to allow for collaboration. It is very difficult for inclusion to be successful if full collaboration is not taking place.

Schultz, K. (2001). Research on Inclusion. Retrieved November 7, 2007, from
http://www.lrecoalition.org/04_benefitsOfLRE/index.htm