Shared
Learning for Teachers
Description
Optimal
learning not only requires collaboration and cooperation between students
and teachers, but also between the teachers. There are four types of
instruction associated with shared teaching.
Individualized
instruction creates unique educational goals and objectives for each
student. For students with special needs, an Individual education program
or IEP is developed in accordance with legal requirements.
Cooperative
teaching is any formal or informal arrangement in which two or more
teachers work together to plan or deliver instruction. This type of
teaching covers a wide array of teacher-to-teacher interactions, ranging
from simply exchanging educational ideas and materials to sharing the
instructional responsibilities in a particular learning environment.
Collaborative
consultation is a form of cooperative teaching developed for
special education and is associated with Individualized Education Programs.
It refers to all the joint planning and decision making that a group
of educators conducts in order to determine the best options for students'
learning and development.
Co-teaching
involves sharing the instructional responsibilities in a single learning
environment. When co-teaching is part of an IEP, the special education
teacher works in a regular classroom where he or she helps the teacher
work on the specific instructional objectives for the identified students.
If other situations, like integrated instruction, co-teachers can be
regular classroom teachers with different subject-matter expertise.
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