Co-Teaching Model Description Advantages Disadvantages
One Teach, One Assist One person would keep
primary responsibility for teaching while the other professional circulated through the room providing unobtrusive assistance to students as needed. One teacher leads, the other teacher adds visually and verbally Content teacher provides most instruction; individual assistance readily available. No co- planning time. Any specialist can do support this model. Greatest potential to be abused and overused; one teacher becomes glorified aide. Doesnt fully utilize expertise. Styles may differ. Teaming Both teachers share the entire instructional process. Both teachers are delivering the same instruction at the same time. Most integrated for students. Fully utilizes all expertise. Appropriate for all grade and content areas, very energizing. Most time intensive. Loses valuable instructional strategy of grouping; comfort level of both teachers. One Teach, One Observe Co-teachers can decide in advance what types of specific observational information to gather data. Afterward, the teachers should analyze the information together. Monitoring of student skills, ability to collect data. Potential to overuse; should not be used in a new co-teaching partnership; may be seen as a evaluation of teacher leading instuction Complementary Instruction General education teacher focuses on curriculum. Special education teacher focuses on study, skills, survival skills, and special education strategies through mini lessons or input. Good for related professionals. Focused expertise sets up expectations that special education will be provided in general education setting. May slow down pacing. Alternative Teaching In most class groups, occasions arise in which several students need specialized attention. In alternative teaching one teacher takes responsibility for the large group while the other works with a smaller group. Provides intense, small- group instruction; enrichment and intervention opportunities. Small-group instruction may be seen as equivalent to a special education classroom, special education students are over-identified to participate in small group instruction Station Teaching One teacher works with small group of students to pre-teach, re-teach, supplement or enrich instruction while the other teacher instructs large group. Students are taught mastery of concepts. Greater depth of knowledge level. Use When some students are working in a parallel curriculum. Focused expertise Impacting only a few students with the expertise of the specialist Parallel Teaching Class is broken into two heterogeneous groups. Good student teacher ratio. Requires equal expertise. Lots of planning time. Each teacher takes a group. Interpreted from Beninghof, A. (2012) Co-Teaching that Works, www.Jossey-Bass.com