Running Head:  BENEFITS OF MATH CO-TEACHING                                                  

The Benefits of Math Co-Teaching

Joni L. Gricar

Lamar University

     Co-teaching and its’ benefits to students has been questioned and discussed everywhere I have worked over the past twenty years.  There seems to have always been staffing issues in special education and the benefits of co-teach classrooms have consistently come up in the conversations. Since our campus combined the special education students and the LEP students this year, many in co-teach classes, my data covers those populations as well as student gender and ethnicity.

     The vision for this research is hoping to determine if there is a benefit of having a general education teacher and a special education teacher in a classroom compared to having just one general education teacher.  Making data comparisons between students without a special education teacher and students having both should provide some valuable information for future scheduling.

     Team teaching, where both teachers were active instructors, rarely occurred in mathematics classes (Magiera, Gebauer, Smith, Zigmond, 2005).  A special education teacher reported that her choices of classroom roles were constrained by the general education teacher’s reliance on whole class instruction (Magiera, et. al, 2005).  These statements reflect pieces of my decision surrounding my action research project.  The parties involved are a general education teacher, a special education teacher, special education and general education students.  Since I am about mid-way through my project, there have been no final decisions.  The decisions that had to be made to begin were to choose the specific co-teach situations, decide on specific data, and what specific accommodations students had access to. 

     My vision was communicated with my principal through a one-on-one meeting, explaining that I felt it important to weigh the academic benefits in 5^th grade math in a co-teach classroom vs. a non co-teach classroom.  There has been no need to communicate my vision to parents at this point in the research, nor to the community.  As far as the students, when distributing the student surveys, I explained that we would like to know their opinions on having two teachers in their math classroom.  Finally, as far as staff communication is concerned, I had a discussion with both teachers and asked them if they were in agreement.  One was very accepting and the other seemed more reticent. 

     Using Eduphoria, our district program, for test scores, etc., I would pull the benchmark and common assessment scores, creating a spreadsheet.  Then I created a timeline for student/teacher surveys, classroom observations, and pulling scores throughout the school year based on benchmark and common assessment dates provided in the district calendar.  Money has not been spent on this project to date and I have routinely asked both teachers to provide an acceptable time to come to the classroom, so as not to disturb or interrupt instruction.

     My strategy for leading the operation of the project was talking with the principal, asking for her recommendations as to which teachers I might use for the research, then communicate with the parties involved to create an understanding of the research and its’ importance.  Most importantly, reassure the teachers that this was not a critique of their teaching, but actually looking at data to arrive at a conclusion.  The next most important factor was creating the timeline based on district testing dates, using the needs assessment to tap into the weakness in the area of data and using data to drive decisions.  Lastly, the communication involved with all parties reflected the group process skills and built consensus.  Also, because one of the teachers was reticent, I was able to resolve that conflict. 

     Collecting data in a co-teach classroom directly addresses those students with special and exceptional needs, as well as students with diverse backgrounds.  The classroom involved in my action research includes 14 students of Hispanic ethnicity, 2 students of African American ethnicity, 1 student of Asian ethnicity, and eight students of Caucasian ethnicity.  In addition, 6 of these students receive special services and 10 students are Limited English Proficient.  We are a culturally diverse campus and, because of the cultural diversity in this particular classroom, it will be interesting to review the final data.  In summary, this project could impact student scheduling and staffing numbers in the future. 

    

THE BENEFITS OF MATH CO-TEACHING

References

Magiera, Kathleen, Smith, Cynthia, Zigmond, & Gebauer, Kelli (Jan/Feb. 2005) Benefits of             Co-Teaching in Secondary Mathematics Classes.  Council for Exceptional Children, 20-24.

Dana, Nancy Fichtman, (2009) Leading with Passion and Knowledge, The Principal as    Action Researcher, 164.