Collaboration Across Special Education and General Education: Preservice Teachers' Views

Abstract

Teacher effectiveness is fundamental to educational reform. Good teachers of children and adults demonstrate critical, decisive, intellectual work, and caring, personal interactions. Effective teachers believe in diversity, meeting individual learner needs, and interacting with others to support shared decision making. Educational reformers studying teacher effectiveness find a sense of teaming: Effective teachers strengthen alliances with students, parents, and peers, rather than achieve professional status by sequestering knowledge and insulating themselves from those they serve (Andrew, 1997; Darling-Hammond, 1996; Goodlad, 1994; Hudson & Glomb, 1997; Manouchehri, 1997; National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, 1994; National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, 1996; Slavin, Madden, Dolan, & Wasik, 1996). Collaboration skills are key to teacher effectiveness and teaming. Reviewers of school organization have long held that understanding collaboration is critical to teaching success (Schmuck & Runkel, 1985). Collaboration advocates recognize that teaming skills must be addressed directly (Idol, Paolucci-Whitcomb, & Nevin, 1986; Larson & LaFasto, 1989). Many teacher preparation programs may not stress collaboration and communication skills; beginning teachers may lack skills and crucial experiences. Preservice teachers (PTs) make complex decisions, yet specific collaboration preparation is rare, especially in decision making for special needs learners (Dynak, Whitten, & Dynak, 1997; Little & Robinson, 1997). Having a sense of how PTs might collaborate to define, design, and implement discrete structures for instruction can be particularly important in anticipating critical stages of successful student teaching and beginning teacher experiences (Coben, Chase Thomas, Sattler, & Morsink, 1997; Dynak et al., 1997; Hudson & Glomb, 1997; Little & Robinson, 1997; National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, 1996). The current inclusion emphasis implies that special education and general education teachers must coordinate services and adapt materials and instruction. Exposure to collaboration experiences can enable PTs to make more informed decisions about how and when to use collaboration teaching strategies to meet the needs of all students (Bauwens & Hourcade, 1995; Council for Exceptional Children, 1995; Englert & Tarrant, 1995; Hudson & Glomb, 1997; Putnam, 1993; Rosenberg, O'Shea, & O'Shea, 1998). Our purpose in this study was to gain an understanding of PTs' collaboration perceptions and types of collaboration patterns evolving in university preparation. We wanted to determine whether PTs believe they can prepare for their future collaborative roles. We sought data on whether PTs believe that collaboration preparation can assist them in addressing needs of students with disabilities. We wanted to explore alternative means of preservice collaboration opportunities across special education and general education preparation. Thus, we requested PTs to collaborate by use of electronic mail technology, face-to-face contacts, and written products devised jointly for diverse learners in the language arts curriculum. Methods Participants. Participants were PTs enrolled in the College of Education at Slippery Rock University. There were 103 total PTs enrolled in elementary education or special education coursework. Elementary education PTs included 43 females and 11 males. Six of these were sophomores; 48 had junior status at the study's initiation. Forty female and 9 male special education PTs participated. Fifteen were first semester sophomores; 34 had junior status or higher. Only 6 participating PTs across groups indicated previous tertiary collaboration experience. Measures and Procedures. Our purpose was to determine PTs' views of collaboration experiences, incorporated in the course assignments, in preparation for future roles. …