Co-Teaching Resources
Co-Teaching Defined
Two teachers working together with groups of students; sharing the planning, organization, delivery and assessment of instruction, as well as the physical space (Bacharach, Heck and Dank, 2005)
History
Co-Teaching is not a new phenomenon. It began in the early 1970s with the advent of Public Law 94-142 (now IDEA), providing a structure for general and special educators to work together to deliver instruction (Cook & Friend, 1995). Over time, the practice expanded to include content teachers, various intervention specialists, and multilingual (EL) teachers.
This model was later applied to the student teaching experience, where a cooperating teacher and teacher candidate co-teach in the classroom. Research at St. Cloud State University found that K-6 students co-taught in math and reading statistically outperformed students in classrooms where a teacher candidate used a traditional approach—and outperformed students in classrooms with no student teacher at all (Bacharach, Heck & Dahlberg, 2010).
Click here to download a PDF with more information on the data from this study.
These findings led St. Cloud State to reimagine student teaching. Rather than “giving away” responsibility, cooperating teachers partner with teacher candidates—co-planning and co-teaching so candidates can develop and practice every aspect of teaching with support. As the experience progresses, pairs seamlessly alternate between leading and assisting with planning, instruction, and assessment, choosing co-teaching strategies when they will most benefit student learning. Qualitative data from cooperating teachers, teacher candidates, and P-12 learners overwhelmingly identified positive benefits of this model (Bacharach, Heck, and Dahlberg, 2010; Heck & Bacharach, 2010).
