Special teachers and the use of co-teaching in Swedish-speaking schools in Finland

Abstract

ABSTRACT Co-teaching has been highlighted as a possible response to classroom diversity. This study investigated the use of co-teaching by general education teachers and special teachers in Swedish-speaking schools in Finland. The data consisted of special teachers’ (N = 126) responses to a questionnaire. On average, the respondents co-taught for 13% of the time. However, nearly a fifth of respondents did not use co-teaching at all, while sixth of them used it for 30–50% of the time. Most of the respondents co-taught for less than 30% of the time. Co-teaching was more common during Swedish and mathematics lessons than during lessons for other subjects. A significantly higher number of respondents used co-teaching during Swedish lessons in primary schools than in lower secondary schools. Parallel teaching was found to be the most common method of co-teaching. Although the results indicated that co-teaching was more common among respondents who had recently received their special education certification, this difference was not statistically significant. Similarly, no significant differences were found among respondents who worked in different regions, at different school levels or in schools of different sizes. The possible reasons for the differences between the respondents with regard to their time spent co-teaching are discussed.