The Effect of Co-teaching on Student Cognitive Engagement

Authors

  • Wendy Whitehair Lochner 2 Teach, LLC
  • Wendy W. Murawski California State University at Northridge
  • Jaime True Daley University of Delaware image/svg+xml

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3776/tpre.2019.v9n2p6-19

Keywords:

co-teaching, collaboration, collaborative teaching, cognitive engagement, student engagement, Instructional Practices Inventory, co-teaching competencies, Co-Teaching Solution System, co-teaching observations, rural education, secondary education, inclusive education

Abstract

Delivering special education to students with disabilities requires highly prepared and collaborative teachers, inclusive learning environments, and strategies that promote cognitive engagement, but many students lack access to these necessities. In rural schools teacher shortages and traditional teaching methods may contribute to disengagement. Some rural districts have turned to co-teaching to disrupt this pattern of inequity. Effective co-teaching between two highly prepared teachers in a general education setting offers students the opportunity to be included and may improve engagement for all students. To investigate the relationship between co-teaching and student cognitive engagement, this study observed teachers in eight rural secondary schools in West Virginia to evaluate differences in student cognitive engagement in co-taught versus solo-taught classrooms. Four district personnel were trained on both cognitive engagement strategies and co-teaching approaches and collected observational data. The Instructional Practices Inventory was used during short walk-throughs to measure cognitive engagement during 701 solo-taught and 181 co-taught observations. Observations occurred in 5th- through 12th-grade classes in reading, mathematics, science, and social studies throughout one full school year. Statistical tests compared mean engagement scores across the different models of instruction. Results indicated that students in co-taught classrooms were more cognitively engaged than students in solo-taught classrooms. These results suggest the need for increased professional development for teams to move beyond the one teach, one support model of co-teaching, additional research on cognitive engagement and co-teaching, and teacher preparation programs to include more examples of, and training in, quality co-teaching models.

Author Biographies

  • Wendy Whitehair Lochner, 2 Teach, LLC

    Wendy Whitehair-Lochner, EdD, is adjunct professor at Shepherd University and vice president of 2Teach, LLC, an educational consulting firm that specializes in inclusive education and co-teaching. She worked for the West Virginia Department of Education for nine years as a school improvement coordinator after a career as a PK-12 special education teacher. Her expertise is in strategic planning, school improvement, data analysis, curriculum and instruction, pedagogy, collaboration, inclusion, and professional development. She is co-author of the book Beyond Co-teaching Basics: A Data-Driven, No-Fail Model for Continuous Improvement (2017) and of the software Co-teaching Solutions Systems. wwlochner@2teachllc.com

  • Wendy W. Murawski, California State University at Northridge

    Wendy W. Murawski, PhD, is executive director and Eisner Endowed Chair of the Center for Teaching and Learning at California State University Northridge. Her research and scholarship focuses on co-teaching. She is a past president of the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children, author of 12 books, and an internationally known speaker on co-teaching and inclusive education. Dr. Murawski is the CEO of 2Teach, LLC, an educational consulting company. wendy.murawski@csun.edu

  • Jaime True Daley, University of Delaware

    Jamie True Daley, PhD, is senior associate director of literacy at the Professional Development Center for Educators at the University of Delaware. She earned her doctorate in special education from Johns Hopkins University in 2016. Most recently, she developed and taught graduate courses for the University of Delaware M.Ed. in Exceptional Children and Youth program. Dr. Daley focuses on evidence-based practices for delivering explicit instruction in literacy, mathematics, and self-regulation to children with disabilities in general education settings. She specializes in training teachers to effectively use co-teaching models to provide specially designed instruction to culturally and linguistically diverse learners with disabilities in under-served communities. She has a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification as an Exceptional Needs Specialist. She recently authored three chapters on instruction and is completing her first book, titled Specially Designed Instruction: Evidence-Based Practices for Self-Determined Learning. jtdaley@udel.edu

Downloads

Published

2019-10-11

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2019): Co-Teaching in Rural Contexts: Exploring Collaboration in the Classroom

Section

Research Forum

License

Copyright Notice

Articles will be published using a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Sharealike license. (For more information on this license, please visit the Creative Commons license page.) Please also note that the authors are explicitly granting permission for Academic Library Services to store a copy of the article in The ScholarShip, ECU's Institutional Repository under the terms of the current ScholarShip license. As a North Carolina agency, ECU contributes copies of all publications to the North Carolina State Archives.

How to Cite

The Effect of Co-teaching on Student Cognitive Engagement. (2019). Theory & Practice in Rural Education, 9(2), 6-19. https://doi.org/10.3776/tpre.2019.v9n2p6-19