Benefits of collaborative teaching models in teacher education programs: Sharing disability knowledge and promoting inclusion

ABSTRACT

This article presents an exploratory study aimed to document co-taught education courses across the general-special education curriculum and to determine perceived change in students’ disability knowledge as a result of taking the courses. Collaborative teaching taught by a general and special education university faculty was examined over a 10-week quarter at a large public university. The infusion approach of teaching disability utilized in the study shows great promise for providing disability knowledge to general education pre-service students who may otherwise receive minimal disability-related coursework. Recommendations for future research and practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Infusion
• disability
• teacher education
• collaboration
• pre-service

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Talya Drescher

Dr Talya Drescher is an Assistant Professor of Special Education at California State University, Channel Islands. She has over a decade of experience as a K–12 special educator in Los Angeles area public schools. Her areas of research include co-teaching in pre-service programs and the use of mixed reality simulation in post-secondary education.

Ya-Chih Chang

Dr Ya-Chih Chang is an Associate Professor at California State University, Los Angeles. Dr. Chang earned her Doctorate of Philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with an emphasis on intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders. Dr Chang has worked with children with autism for over 10 years. She has extensive experience in training and collaborating with interventionists, parents, and teachers in evidence-based practices.