Co-teaching or team teaching is the division of labor between educators to plan, organize, instruct and make assessments on the same group of students, generally in the a common classroom,[1] and often with a strong focus on those teaching as a team complementing one another's particular skills or other strengths.[2] This approach can be seen in several ways. Teacher candidates who are learning to become teachers are asked to co-teach with experienced associate teachers, whereby the classroom responsibilities are shared, and the teacher candidate can learn from the associate teacher.[3] Regular classroom teachers and special education teachers can be paired in co-teaching relationships to benefit inclusion of students with special needs.[4]
To evaluate the effectiveness of co-teaching, partnerships can use the Magiera-Simmons Quality Indicator Model of Co-Teaching, which gives standard definitions for co-teaching skills through 25 quality indicators and a rating scale.[5] Co-teaching is often evaluated on the amount of shared leadership is present, the amount of co-planning time, honest communication between the two educators, and how much respect and trust is present in the relationship.[6]
^Cherian, Finney (1 January 2007). "Learning to Teach: Teacher Candidates Reflect on the Relational, Conceptual, and Contextual Influences of Responsive Mentorship". Canadian Journal of Education. 30 (1): 25–46. doi:10.2307/20466624. JSTOR20466624.
^Friend, M.; Cook, L.; Hurley-Chamberlain, D.; Shamberger, C. (February 2010). "Co-teaching: An illustration of the complexity of collaboration in special education". Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation. 20 (1): 9–27. doi:10.1080/10474410903535380. ISSN1047-4412. S2CID143670464.