Consultation, Collaboration, and

Co-teaching
Presentation By:
● Stephanie Saylors
● Tony Shen
● Mark Santos

Consultation/Collaboration/Co-Teaching Group Presentation

ITL 602

Eric Fraunfelter

December 10, 2017

 Stephanie’s Personal Collaborative Experiences

Throughout my education, I can only recall a few times where I was asked to collaborate with my
peers on an assignment. Each of these times were when I was in college. Now granted, I graduated from
college twenty years ago and I do see that things have changed. I have been a substitute teacher for two
years and witness collaboration every day between the students and amongst the teachers. Before I start
my day in a new classroom, I meet with the other teachers, at that grade level, to discuss the class
environment, students and lesson plans. I find the teachers to be more than helpful and their willingness
to share ideas with me has been a great asset in my learning how to become a better teacher. At the
elementary level, group collaboration is happening every day in the classes I substitute for. It does not
necessarily have to be a project that they are working on. I find that the students work together on
everything from math, to reading comprehension and science. They are not only learning from their
teacher but from each other as well. They are becoming better communicators and learning how to work
well with others. This can only help them as they navigate the education system and apply what they
have learned into the real world.
Mark’s Personal Collaborative Experience

Throughout my undergraduate coursework, there were several opportunities for me to collaborate with my
classmates. I majored in Child Development at Fresno State, and many of the classes required for that particular
major made use of collaborative assignments. I am a relatively introverted person, and collaboration is not my
strongest ability. I typically prefer to work alone, but I understand the importance of collaboration in regard to
working with children. Collaboration allows for multiple perspectives, and it can benefit both the teacher and the
students. As a teacher, I understand that there will always be things to learn and areas of my job to improve upon.
Keeping this in mind, it will be important for me to collaborate and work together with my peers, in order for myself
and my peers to continue learning and improving.
 Tony’s Personal Collaboration Experience

My early collaboration experience started during my undergraduate career. I was good at chemistry class,
many peers asked me questions related to the content and eventually I started to arrange review sessions for the
classmates. I enjoyed this process because I was able to help others while mastering my own knowledge. I started
working as a substitute teacher right after graduated from college; last year, due to teacher shortage, I worked as a
science teacher under short term staff permit in a tough middle school. I took the position without any prior
knowledge of how to handle tough classes and deliver science curriculum effectively to the students. I realised the
importance of working closely with the other school staff almost the second day of my job. I built close relationships
with the teachers, primarily the ones that I share the same group of students with, so that I was able to know my
students better and learned ways to help individual student who need special attention and help. I also built
connections with the school staff who can speak Spanish so that I was able to communicate with Spanish speaking
parents without difficulties. Now, I concluded it’s extremely important to have collaboration skills in career life and
learning programs such as this online credential program at National University. In our future teaching practice, we
should let students have opportunities to work closely with their peers, so they can expose to collaboration and gain
those skills early on.
 What Is Collaborative Learning?
“Collaborative learning is an educational approach to teaching and learning that involves groups of
students working together to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product. It is based on the
idea that it is a naturally social act in which the participants talk amongst themselves (Gerlach, 1994). It is
through the talk that learning occurs.”

➢ It involves use of small groups so that all students can maximize their learning and that of their
peers
➢ It is a process of shared creation: two or more individuals interacting to create a shared
understanding of a concept
➢ It shifts away from teacher-centered classrooms
➢ It’s an exchange of different ideas and beliefs
➢ It can challenge learners both socially and emotionally as they listen to different perspectives

Stephanie Saylors
Collaborative Learning Builds Deeper Understanding

Stephanie Saylors
 Why Use Collaborative Learning?
➢ Develops better critical thinking skills
➢ Increases knowledge retention
➢ Helps promote social interaction skills
➢ A sense of responsibility is established for each other
➢ Develops problem solving techniques
➢ You become aware of different learning styles amongst your group
➢ Establishes an atmosphere of cooperation
➢ Provides a safe environment to explore different ideas and opinions
➢ Confidence building

For a more extensive list please visit http://www.gdrc.org/kmgmt/c-learn/44.html (Srinivas, n.d.)

Stephanie Saylors
 Co-Teaching
Definition of Co-Teaching:

In co-teaching classrooms, two teachers

share all aspects of the classroom including
the planning, organization, instruction,
assessment and physical space of the
classroom (Hartnett, 2013, p6).

Tony Shen
 B f f C -T
Having two teachers leading a classroom opens up many opportunities for students as well as the teachers. Some of the benefits of
co-teaching in an inclusion classroom include (Ferguson, Desjarlais, & Meyer, 2000):

● More opportunities for one on one interaction between students and teachers, leading to stronger relationships.

● Students with disabilities have access to the general education curriculum as required by law, which includes the classroom

community and activities they otherwise wouldn’t take part in.

● Students still have opportunities for specialized instruction when needed.

● All students can benefit from the additional supports, resources, and diversity in the classroom.

● Increased independence for students with disabilities.

● Stronger, more creative, lessons due to teachers sharing the planning process with each other.

● Teachers are able to support one another by complementing each other’s strengths and weaknesses, building camaraderie and

dividing the workload in the classroom.

Tony Shen
 S A C -T
1. One Teach, One Observe. One of the advantages in
co-teaching is that more detailed observation of
students engaged in the learning process can occur.
With this approach, for example, co-teachers can
decide in advance what types of specific observational
information to gather during instruction and can agree
on a system for gathering the data. Afterward, the
teachers should analyze the information together.
(Friend & Cook, 2004)
2. One Teach, One Assist. In a second
approach to co-teaching, one person
would keep primary responsibility for
teaching while the other professional
circulated through the room providing
unobtrusive assistance to students as
needed.
3. Parallel Teaching. On
occasion, student learning
would be greatly facilitated if
they just had more supervision
by the teacher or more
opportunity to respond. In
parallel teaching, the teachers
are both covering the same
information, but they divide the
class into two groups and teach
simultaneously.
Tony Shen
S A C -T ( ) (Friend & Cook, 2004)

5. Alternative Teaching: 6. Team Teaching: In team teaching, both

4. Station Teaching. In this
In most class groups, teachers are delivering the same instruction
co-teaching approach, teachers divide
occasions arise in which at the same time. Some teachers refer to
content and students. Each teacher
several students need this as having one brain in two bodies.
then teaches the content to one
specialized attention. In Others call it tag team teaching. Most
group and subsequently repeats the
alternative teaching, one co-teachers consider this approach the
instruction for the other group. If
teacher takes most complex but satisfying way to
appropriate, a third station could give
responsibility for the co-teach, but the approach that is most
students an opportunity to work
large group while the dependent on teachers' styles.
independently.
other works with a
smaller group.

Tony Shen
 What is consultation?
“The general education teacher is the primary individual to present lessons to the
students and to implement learning strategies. He or she consults regularly with
other professionals and families to acquire information that facilitates the learning
of students.” (The IRIS Center, 2007)
 Consultation
Application: For example, a teacher who is having difficulty articulating material to a specific student could consult with
others to help to remedy the issue. The teacher could consult with the student's teacher from the previous school year, in
order to determine if there were any strategies that seemed to work with that student. The teacher could consult with the
student's family, in order to determine if there have been any changes around the home that could be resulting in a lack of
focus on the part of the student.

With who/what can a teacher consult?

- other teachers at their school or with whom they are acquainted

- the school psychologist/guidance counselor

- the school principal or other administration personnel

- the family of a student

- academic research or other internet resources

 Consultation

Whereas collaboration and co-teaching focus on actively working together,

consultation involves obtaining information from others that can help the individual
teacher to succeed.

“School-based consultation typically focuses on individual student problems and

on a small number of students rather than on changing the classroom system.”
(Reinke et. al, 2008)
 References
Ferguson, D., Desjarlais, A., & Meyer, G. (2000). Improving Education: The Promise of Inclusive Schooling[Brochure]. Newton, MA: National Institute for Urban
School Improvement.

Friend, M & Cook, L. (2004). Six Approaches to Co-Teaching. State Education Resource Center.

Gerlach, J. M. (1994). "Is this collaboration?" In Bosworth, K. and Hamilton, S. J. (Eds.), Collaborative Learning: Underlying Processes and Effective
Techniques, New Directions for Teaching and Learning No. 59.

Hartnett, Joanie; Weed, Rahila; McCoy, Ann; Theiss, Deb & Nickens, Nicole (2013). "Co-Teaching: A New Partnership During Student Teaching" (PDF). SRATE
Journal. 23 (1): 1–12.

Reinke, W. M., Lewis-Palmer, T., & Merrell, K. (2008). The Classroom Check-up: A Classwide Teacher Consultation Model for Increasing Praise and Decreasing
Disruptive Behavior. School Psychology Review, 37(3), 315–332.

Srinivas, H. (n.d.). 44 Benefits of Collaborative Learning. [online] Gdrc.org. Available at: http://www.gdrc.org/kmgmt/c-learn/44.html [Accessed 12 Nov.
2017].

The IRIS Center. (2007). Serving students with visual impairments: The importance of collaboration. Retrieved on [December 9, 2017] from
https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/v03-focusplay/