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Effective Communication Between Special Education And Regular Education Teachers

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Effective Communication Between Special Education And Regular Education Teachers

Abstract

Teachers often do take teaching as an individual act whenever dealing with their students.

This study seeks to examine and analyze the nature, need and manner by which special and

general education teachers can communicate and work together to address the educational needs

of their students. The literature review described below reveals that the educational community

is always burdened due to the following laws passed: first, to wholly integrate special needs

students in the general classrooms, secondly, to conform to the mandatory state laws on a

particular general education curriculum to be followed and lastly, it is to implement the required

instructions as set by Individual Educational Plans (IEP) for students with special needs. The

reviewed literature also confirms that teachers from both special and general education teachers

face difficulties while trying to secure the support they require to enable the students with special

needs to achieve their IEP goals while guided by the general education curriculum. The

participants interviewed included two (2) teachers from an elementary school in Northern

California. Observation was also used to collect data on the communication between the two

different sets of teachers. The research findings confirm that communication is key to fuel

collaboration and its primary aim its to coordinate IEP goals according to the general classroom

following the set laws on integrating special needs into general classroom. This information is

relevant in addressing not only behavioral issues but also to monitor IEP goals.

Keywords: Communication Skills, Students Academics, Physical Education, Individual

Education Plans (IEP), educational community and curriculum

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Introduction

Background

Over the last few decades, many laws and regulations have been made and passed to ensure that

all students have a fair and equal access to education. However, despite this, learning institutions

are urged to make their own policies which would help them adopt the set regulation effectively.

Thus, there are various individual perceptions of local schools making the best policies that

ensure special students attain education as dictated in the law. Despite the variations, the

educators as their administrations always wish to help students achieve their best goals. So to

achieve the above, the following issues emerge within my school: the way we could work

together to achieve the described items above yet time was critical within the school day. In this

struggle, teachers find themselves tagged in various directions yet they have to identify ways to

ensure the special education students achieve the best education while still torn between two

classes. To ensure that the special education students are included, they find themselves going in

between classes back and forth. Both the special and general education students expect their

edcators to be knowledgeable on what is happening and rely on a framework they heard from

other sources. They expect the teachers to know this, yet the teachers find themesleve sin various

direction that they lack intel of whatever would be happening outside their classrooms. I saw this

and I want to change the situation in my school. But, how am I going to do so? How can I

collaborate and communicate with the special education teacher so that my students grow as

students?
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Problem Statement

The general and special education teachers lack effective communication currently

therefore hindering special education students from receiving much help in both of the

classrooms they attend: general and special education classroom. According to Cornelius (2013)

“…57% of students with disabilities receive most of their instruction from the general education

classroom approximately 80%.” Therefore, since the special education students spend most of

their time in the in the general education classes, emphasizing the essence of collaboration

between the special and general education educators is very necessary. Thereby, emphasizing the

need for collaboration between general and special education teachers. Effective communication

between the two sets of teachers would significantly impact the growth of students in need of

special education. This can be greatly achieved by identifying the best practical means to adopt

to ensure that the special and general education teachers collaborate on daily basis. Information

sharing among teachers is necessary to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.

Research questions

1. What would be the most effective practical means when collaborating between special

and general education teachers on a daily basis?

2. What barriers could occur within schools to impede successful collaboration and

communication?

3. What are the benefits of effective communication between regular education and special

education teachers on the special education students?

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Literature Review

Over the years, educators have been expected to show academic improvement and

growth to students including the special education students. The federal and state laws have been

made to ensure that all students need education therefore, learning institutions had to show

growth of the students. With the increasing pressure on educators and districts, collaboration has

become an increasingly important aspect of a teacher's daily routine to ensure the growth and

success of students. This topic hits very close to home for me. Since enrolling to get my master’s

degree, I have become increasingly aware of the shortcomings that my school has been privy to.

Bad habits, such as not collaborating between special education teachers and regular education

students, have run rampant within my school for far too long. As a teacher, I know that peers will

not follow suit without concrete examples, benefits, and solutions to how to incorporate a

successful collaborative atmosphere.

Potential Barriers in Collaboration

Time and practice are essential in developing collaboration within individuals. The Time

theme is a huge barrier in collaboration. DaFonte & Barton-Arwood (2017) confirms that time is

a key determiner on whether collaboration will even occur because teachers are highly occupied

with day to day activities already. What the article fails to describe is where the needed time will

come from. In a world where we already spend well over the minimum required time at school,

how will teachers find more time to work together to help special education students? ` Other

barriers include gaps in knowledge and material. Financial obligations do not always guarantee

that a certified special education teacher will be there for students, or what the special education

teacher will know in a content area. Kirkpatrick, Searle, Smyth & Specht (2019, p. 26, PARA 3)
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specify that “lack of knowledge and skill, educator confidence, lack of resources, and teacher

education” are detrimental to collaboration within a school. It is hard to teach students with

special needs, and having to teach an adult how to teach is simply overwhelming. Teacher

personalities can be detrimental to the process of collaboration as well. “Relationship, attitude,

understanding students’ needs, and time spent working together” (Kirkpatrick, Searle, Smyth &

Specht, 2019) are themes teachers identify as barriers. If a teacher perceives a relationship as

negative or has a bad attitude towards collaboration, it will not exist. All involved professionals

must be willing and open to doing whatever is necessary to help the student.

Potential Benefits of Collaboration

There are many benefits to effective collaboration between the regular education teacher

and the special education teacher. According to Peterson & Strom (2019), meaningful

collaboration “promotes retention, resiliency, and job satisfaction among teachers''. Educators

often feel unappreciated and overworked, we have all been there, and school administration is

constantly challenged with incorporating staff appreciation within the district, so these positive

relationships built among teachers is priceless. After all, successful collaboration that keeps

teachers together and builds rapport increases workplace satisfaction that will keep these teachers

together and builds that relationship even more. According to Ludlow (2011). “Collaboration is

a hallmark of effective collaboration.” He describes that this collaboration in areas of

assessment, identification, curriculum development, instructional delivery, and service

coordination. While Ludlow identifies the aspects for which the teachers should collaborate and

what it means to collaborate, help, or work with students, they fail to identify any strategy that

would be beneficial to teachers. Simply telling someone what to work collaboratively in will not

meaningfully implement positive changes within a teaching community. Suggesting to teachers

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how to overcome issues would be far more impactful. Kirkpatrick, Searle, Smyth & Specht

(2019) detail benefits to the learner as having “the perception of more support, learning different

teaching approaches, and a feeling as being more valuable”. As a teacher, we should know that

what helps one student does not always resonate with another. Multiple approaches to the same

topic could be the “fix” that special education students need to be successful. To see more

personal success and feel more successful, one could assume that student achievement of goals

would improve as a result. Ultimately, the entire goal for special education is the achievement of

IEP goals, so clearly we should be embracing the attribution of such benefits.

Strategies for Effective Collaboration

Strategies in the classroom that could potentially demonstrate effective collaboration

include “co teaching, peer coaching, collaboration consultation, and collaborative problem

solving” (Lingo, Barton-Arwood, & Jolivette, 2011). All three of these strategies, incorporate at

one level or another, “direct interaction between at least two co-equal parties voluntarily engaged

in shared decision making as they work toward a common goal.” The teachers have to work

together, effectively, to best help their students. While one strategy may work in one workplace,

another may be beneficial in another. Data must also be streamlined between the regular

education teacher and the special education teacher. Teacher notes, work samples, event

recordings, interval recording, duration recording, and latency recording offer several advantages

to the regular education teacher and special education teacher to document and report learning

and or behavior goals. A possible strategy outlined by DaFonte and Barton-Arwood (2017) is

described as information sheets. These sheets accompany the student and outline the IEP goals

and accommodations while also providing each teacher with the ability to add information to aid

the other. Kangas (2018) outlines a strategy for collaboration being that of co creating IEP’s. I
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find that this strategy is unhelpful. It is law that one member of the regular education classroom

and one member of the special education classroom are present during the IEP, so to suggest this

as a strategy is simply null. We do not have a choice in creating an IEP. The error in itself is the

management of students, disabilities, planning, and implementing education to help the student

the best way possible. The “plan” is a small portion of the issue, not a strategy for the solution.

Other suggestions mentioned by Kirkpatrick, Searle, Smyth & Specht (2019) to aid in the

collaborative partnership includes “alternative modes of communication by phone or email” or

“alternative meeting such as shorter meetings more frequently” to aid in the perspective of lack

of time.

Summary

In summary, special education teachers and regular education teachers must work in an

effective collaborative effort in order for the special education student to grow and accomplish

set IEP goals. Teacher attitude, time and knowledge must be cohesive in order for a successful

plan to be implemented. Clearly, the mental and academic gains are beneficial to an

immeasurable extent to the student as outlined by every article. The problem lies in adopting a

successful plan within a school that teachers are consistent in implementing on a daily basis.

Finding the time necessary is a common theme of research as the most challenging aspect of

successful collaboration, but very few articles suggest how to overcome this issue. No matter the

communication, whether in person or through email, or through the use of documentation

through data, success in collaboration can only take place with a time commitment by both

educators. The research identifies benefits such as student growth while also outlines barriers

that occlude the possibility of collaboration such as time or commitment. Most importantly, the

information available offers many solutions and strategies that schools have available to
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implement. Whether taking these strategies of communicating different ways, teaching different

ways, or developing informational notebooks that accompany learners, schools must find a

successful mechanism to support the collaboration between teachers for a successful inclusive

teaching plan.

Research design

1. Research objectives

This research aims to achieve the key objective being establishing effective communication

between the special and general education educators so as to benefit the special education

students. This research also aims to respond to the research question developed to explore the

difficulties that general education and special education teachers encounter that hinder them from

attaining a symbiotic relationship.

The research design used would be both interview and observation. The research held at a local

school a classroom and also via zoom was between 2 classrooms where in one class, there were 5

students, 1 female and 4 males and while in the other class there were 5males. The teachers there

even used email for communication to the students. The research also seeks to emphasize on and

Identify the various reasons why teacher’s partnership would help the special education students

and also how the lack of communication could harm the students. This work will also emphasize

on Peterson and Stroms (2019) work, where he describes that successful collaboration keeps

teachers together and builds rapport which increases workplace satisfaction that will keep these

teachers together and builds that relationship even more. This collaboration results in better

performance by special education children.

2. Methodology
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Participants

For my research design, I plan to implement a qualitative research plan where the students and

teachers from my sample are observed. One classroom teacher has 5 special education students,

4 boys and 1 girl, I decided to carry out this research following a qualitative analysis. I had

communicated to these teachers through email and asked then to suggest the time when they

would be ready for interview which would be held via zoom. It involved the use of open ended

questions designed in a way to determine I also employed the observation method of data

collection where i joined classes where lessons were on going. The interview process was 30 to

45 minutes long and it involved the use of open-ended interview questions designed to explore

co-teaching relationships between middle school general education and special education

teachers in inclusion classrooms.

Data Collection

To collect data I interviewed the two teachers. I reviewed the participants interview notes

searching for themes related to communication and collaboration techniques. I also used

observations to determine the type of communication used and whether it was effective in the

learning for the student or students. I will document when collaborating occurs between the

teachers, time taken, ease of use, teacher attitudes toward the collaboration, and any pertinent

information about the collaboration and lastly, I will then interpret the effectiveness of the

collaboration on the students and the impact that the communication had towards their lessons, if

any.

Data Analysis
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I used qualitative analysis techniques to examine my data collected. Inductive analysis gave me

the opportunity to reduce my observations into organizing, interpreting and presenting my

findings. By using inductive reasoning, I will evaluate the effectiveness and practicality of the

collaboration method used.

Ethical considerations

The following research was conducted following the principles of ethics. It applied honesty and

transparency where by the participants attended the interview out of consent and not coercion.

Therefore, the teachers’ participation in the research was voluntary. I also informed them prior

that the interview would be recorded for future reference.

Results

The results were got from conducting a qualitative analysis from the comments got from the

interviews and from the observations made. The above figure represents the findings of the

research; I was able to develop chart codes in various colours to represent the feedback from the

participants. The codes were then used to come up with various themes. The themes represent

particular interest as well as the codes that emerged from the interviews. The main themes is
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represented by the inner circle while codes are represented by the outer squares. The

communication and coordination the described that teachers working together integrates both the

students and their parents are well as the school together. When the teachers work together the

students are able to achieve their set goals and hence the school grows while they advance

academically.

Discussion

This study establishes an important element of respect whereby the teachers can co-exist in the

same room respectfully. However the teachers lack common timing and parity hence the Push In

system does not go above the coteaching level. It also shows that students perform more when

the teacher has great communication skills. The 5 male students have an extensive collaboration

with the teacher. This also means that technology motivates the students to perform best. From

the study, it is seen that technology is highly incorporated by not only the teachers but also the

parents. This shows that the teacher can communicate from anywhere put necessarily appearing

face to face. This also shows that students perform best then when technology is incorporated.

The study also proves that the Grade Level Teams are effective in teaching in the general

education curriculum but are not as effective in perpetuating collaboration due to peer

consultation.

The general education teachers also complained that dealing with IEP goals was not part

of their work hence this reveals he stigmatization of special students that’s in existence. The

fluidity in curriculum can overcome this stigmatization. This research study achieved its goal of

exploring and coming up with ways to ensure that Co-teaching between general teachers and

special teachers was effective in inclusion classrooms. From the results got, leaders can borrow
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some ideas on effective collaborative strategies that would be applied to solve the problems of

collaboration or working together between special education teachers and general education

educators while conducting inclusive classes. The comments got from the interview questions

significantly helped in identifying the existing gaps between the general education teachers and

the special education teachers while trying to work together to enhance the performance of the

special education children.

Limitations

This research study has some limitations. I conducted it in my school and since I am a

special education teacher I may have been biased and made some interpretations from personal

experience unconsciously. This may have been influenced by the passion I have for the research

however I wanted it to be pure and transparent. Other limitations included the location of the

setting of the study, the participants’ demographics, and the sample size. The research setting

was within my local school. All the participants needed to have certifications in general and

special education. They also needed to teach an inclusive class for even once in a day. I also

used a small number of teachers since its only the few that met the expected conditions for the

interview.

Summary

Collaboration of teacher is very essential in empowering teachers in inclusive classrooms

so as to meet the needs of the students. However teachers still face a challenge with the

collaboration because they lack time to plan, parity as well had a lot of interpersonal differences.

This research study is detailed to explore on hoe to since it takes into account the teachers views

as well discusses them and considers the teachers suggestions. It is also necessary to identify
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challenges that hinder teachers from both general and special education from having a symbiotic

relationship. When teachers plan for their classes individually , they need time so as to come up

with specific instruction for particular students however coming up with this planning time is

hard for them when working teachers commonly known as co-teachers. However, despite that

Khairuddin et al. (2016) suggest that collaboration is vital between general education and special

education teachers, especially in 40 schools with limited experience.

Major Conclusion

This study was designed purposely to identify how the coteaching relationship was

among the special and general education teachers and to finally come up with solutions on how

to make the collaboration among them effective in inclusion classroom for the sake of the special

education children (Baptiste, 2015). This was achieved because the teachers addressed their

concerns which included; inequality in the classroom, inadequate coplanning time,

administrative involvement, and also addressed the importance of interpersonal relationships

while co-teaching. Collaboration of teachers aims to combine and utilize the varied expertise

from the teachers so as to help each and every student achieve their goal.

Future research

From my above research, I can make the following recommendation to future

researchers.

1. They can come up with a comparison special educators and general educators on various

factors that affect their collaboration either positively or negatively and hence they could

come up a school suture that affects the collaborations between teachers as well as the

variations of inclusive education within the school culture.

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2. From the research, researchers can identify the impact of school cultures towards the

collaboration of teachers and come up with ways to prepare teachers for the collaborative

cultures within the education community.

3. The search can also inspire research on the changing roles of the administrators and teachers

in various school cultures.

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References

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