Two Tips That Make Co-Teaching Work

Module 5 artifact. Shared with classmates as practical guidance.

Tip 1 — Planning Time First

Teachers should schedule protected, recurring co-planning time before deciding how to split the room. Most co-teaching failures aren't about personality; they're structural — without shared planning time, the special educator slides into an aide-like role because there was never a plan for them to do anything else. Scruggs et al. (2007) found in their metasynthesis that the dominant pattern in practice was "one teach, one assist," which can be resolved by having the hard conversation beforehand.

Example: Before the semester starts, a general and special educator block 45 minutes every [insert day] to map the next week's lessons and decide, lesson by lesson, who leads, who supports, and which co-teaching model fits the objective.

Reference: Scruggs, T. E., Mastropieri, M. A., & McDuffie, K. A. (2007). Co-teaching in inclusive classrooms: A metasynthesis of qualitative research. Exceptional Children, 73(4), 392–416.

Tip 2 — Content over Personality

There is no single best co-teaching model; the effective move is to choose the model deliberately from the lesson's instructional goal. Cassel (2019) lays out the common approaches — one teach/one observe, one teach/one assist, station teaching, parallel teaching, alternative teaching, and team teaching — and argues that the right choice depends on what you're trying to accomplish that day, not on which arrangement is most comfortable. Additionally, rotating strategies and who leads keeps both teachers in the balance of parity which a personalistic decision can undermine.

Example: For a lesson where you need fine-grained data on which students have mastered a math concept, station teaching lets both teachers work with small groups and collect that data; for re-teaching a subgroup who struggled, alternative teaching is the better fit; for introducing a brand-new concept where two perspectives help, team teaching works. The tip is to ask "what does this lesson need?" first, and let that pick the model.

Cassel, S. (2019). How to choose a co-teaching model. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-choose-co-teaching-model

Friend, M. (2021). Interactions: Collaboration skills for school professionals. (9th ed.). Pearson.

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