General education and special education teachers\u27 perceived responsibilities and preparation for collaborative teaching

As collaborative teaching becomes a common approach to inclusion, special education and general education co-teachers with different education and expectations work as teams in general education classrooms. How do special education and general education teachers differ in their perceptions of their responsibilities and opinions of collaborative teaching? What is the extent and perceived usefulness of preparation for collaborative teaching experienced by special education and general education co-teachers? The Collaborative Teaching Survey was mailed to 302 collaborative teachers, defined for this study as, general education and special education teachers working together in a general education class, planning together regularly and teaching the class together on a daily basis, in Nebraska public schools. One hundred sixty-eight surveys were completed. Comparisons of co-teachers\u27 perceptions of their responsibilities showed differences on t tests concerning instruction (p $\u3c .028\rbrack$ and behavior management (p $\u3c .001\rbrack$. Correlations of the groups on task clusters yielded agreement on the special education cluster (r =.7460 ($p \u3c .01$)) and disagreement on the general education cluster (r =.0764). Responsibilities which most affect curriculum and teaching formats were ranked as general education, and support tasks were considered special education. Opinions toward collaborative teaching were quite positive, but not significantly different between groups. Special education teachers held slightly more positive opinions than general education teachers. Fewer general education teachers received preparation for collaborative teaching, and both groups report a lack of scheduled, mutual plan time, deemed essential for successful collaboration. Collaborative teaching may have little effect on general education classes, since co-teachers believe that special education co-teachers perform traditional special education tasks in collaborative classrooms. Lack of team planning time may prevent their sharing responsibilities for curriculum and lesson planning that result in more inclusive formats. Different educational preparation for general education and special education teachers may hinder effective communication. Teacher preservice and inservice preparation for collaborative teaching may need reexamination if teachers must share responsibilities that affect teaching formats and curriculum. Administrators could support collaborative teaching by providing scheduled mutual planning time