Co-teaching—an approach in which two educators team up to support all learners in a single classroom—arose in response to the perceived shortcomings of traditional, lecture-based instruction.
For decades, lecture-based teaching—i.e., instructors delivering uninterrupted spoken presentations to note-taking students—was the go-to approach at the secondary and postsecondary levels. While the lecture approach is great for imparting copious information quickly,; it often falls short when it comes to keeping students genuinely engaged.
As our understanding of how people learn has evolved and new technology has made interactive learning easier, more and more educators are questioning whether lectures should still be the norm. New educational theories emphasizing the importance of participation and collaboration have given rise to innovative teaching models.
Co-teaching is one such innovation. It is an instructional model in which educators collaborate to support all learners in a shared space. The goal is to create classroom spaces that prioritize access for all learners via individualized attention and a variety of learning experiences, including group work, discussions, and hands-on activities. As a result, students with disabilities are able to receive services alongside their nondisabled peers.
Consider one kindergarten classroom at PS 212 in Jackson Heights, Queens. Lori Brosgole and Kelly Aguilar have created a space where one teacher guides the entire class while the other zooms in on a particular student who needs extra help.
“We’ve even made adjustments in the middle of a lesson,” Aguilar says. “If what I’m doing right now isn’t working for a student, maybe he goes to sit with Lori for a few minutes.”
Providing individual attention is just one of many ways that co-teaching benefits students. The approach also helps children with disabilities thrive while meeting the growing demand for inclusive teaching strategies in diverse school settings. In this article, we’ll dive into different co-teaching models, explore their benefits, and look at how NYU’s Master of Arts in Teaching in Inclusive Childhood Education prepares teachers for this approach, while also setting them up for other settings, such as self-contained classrooms.
Explore Co-Teaching Models in Inclusive Classrooms
Gain Practical Co-Teaching Skills at NYU
What is Co-Teaching?
One classroom, two teachers—often, one generalist and one specialist. Two professionals working together toward a common instructional goal.
Co-teaching is rooted in collaboration and inclusion. The model is particularly beneficial in classrooms with multilingual learners or students with disabilities.
In their book Collaborative Teaming, authors Margaret E. King-Sears, Rachel Janney, and Martha E. Snell include the story of Catherine, a math teacher who unexpectedly found herself in a co-teaching situation with no time for preparation. She and her new teaching partner faced multiple challenges, including not knowing each other beforehand.
They quickly developed shared goals and methods, including ensuring that students consistently heard both of their voices and incorporating ideas from both into their lessons.
Co-teachers “must be willing to get out of their comfort zone, accept that there is never enough planning time, and be okay with the fact that the best laid plans do not always pan out,” Catherine told the authors, adding “We found a great deal of humor in working through these challenges to our flexibility.”
The experience left Catherine and her co-teacher with a few key takeaways:
- Be flexible.
- Be honest.
- Make both your voices equally heard.
- Create a solid lesson plan template.
- Commit to shared planning time.
- Seek out professional development opportunities.
Common Co-Teaching Models
The New York State Education Department identifies seven co-teaching models. They are:
- One Group: One Leads, One “Teaches on Purpose”: One teacher delivers the lesson while the other circulates, providing targeted support and scaffolding as needed. Roles are flexible and interchangeable.
- One Group: Two Teach the Same Content: Both teachers instruct simultaneously, taking complementary roles to enrich instruction by demonstrating varied approaches or strategies.
- One Group: One Teaches, One Assesses: One teacher leads instruction while the other observes students closely, collecting assessment data to guide future teaching.
- Two Groups: Two Teach the Same Content: Students split into two groups; each teacher presents identical content separately, allowing for more individual attention and differentiated methods.
- Two Groups: One Pre-teaches, One Teaches Alternative Information: Teachers divide students; one group receives preparatory instruction (such as vocabulary or background), while the other explores related enrichment content.
- Two Groups: One Reteaches, One Teaches Alternative Information: Class splits into two groups; one revisits prior lessons for reinforcement, while another engages in enrichment activities or alternative tasks.
- Multiple Groups: Two Monitor and Teach: Students work in several small groups rotating through stations or mini-lessons guided by both teachers, who monitor progress and differentiate instruction.
Of course, co-teachers don’t have to stick to just one of those approaches. They may adapt and change according to the circumstances. In its online article “What is Co-Teaching? An Introduction to Co-Teaching and Inclusion,” CAST, a nonprofit that promotes inclusive education, observes: “The method chosen by the teachers is determined by their individual teaching styles, the unique needs of the classroom, and the lesson being taught.”
Why Co-Teaching Matters in Inclusive Education
Co-teaching ensures instruction from multiple perspectives, giving teachers a much better chance to meet the needs of individuals and small groups. For these and other reasons, co-teaching aligns with the values of inclusive education.
Benefits of co-teaching include:
- Differentiated instruction
- Lower student–teacher ratios
- Modeling of collaboration
- Improved student engagement
- Interactive, student-centered learning environments
- Individualized support to address diverse needs
- Support for a sense of classroom community and shared responsibility
Co-teaching makes it easier for educators to support students unobtrusively without singling them out. Understood, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the millions of students with disabilities across the country, observes that co-teaching’s increased individualized instruction and diversity of teaching styles co-teaching’s increased individualized instruction and diversity of teaching styles “make it easier to implement differentiated instruction, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and individualized instruction.”
The Role of Family Engagement and Multilingual Learners
The benefits of co-teaching extend beyond the classroom to reach families and caregivers. The practice supports family engagement and communication, especially when teachers work with multilingual learners or students receiving special education services.
In a blog post about a particularly challenging student who had struggled in school for years, Bridget Gengler, a fourth-grade teacher in Long Beach, California, describes a breakthrough produced through strong parent-teacher communication. According to Gengler, such communication “is essential to the betterment of students in any classroom. In a co-teaching classroom, it can become the core of the strength of your relationship as co-teachers.”
Connecting with the challenging student’s parents changed the relationship for everyone concerned. “Connecting with his parents created a connection with him that became ever-changing that year,” Gengler wrote.
Gengler suggests four ways to maintain good parent communication in a co-teaching classroom:
- Share consistent newsletters/weekly updates.
- Determine the primary platform for communicating with parents.
- Ensure all communication with parents is discussed in advance.
- Send positive messages regularly.
Effective communication with parents also helps co-teachers better understand a family’s cultural background, attitudes, and needs, fostering more culturally responsive instruction.
Preparing for Co-Teaching at NYU
If you’re an aspiring educator interested in co-teaching and collaborative learning environments, you’ll find great preparation in the NYU TRES Inclusive Childhood Education concentration. The program covers essential curriculum topics like arts integration, inclusion, and culturally responsive pedagogy.
Program modules:
- What is inclusive education across all grades?
- How can we build a class community?
- How can I teach literacy for all learners?
- How can I teach math and numeracy for all learners?
- How do I know what all learners know and can do?
NYU Steinhardt’s curriculum helps future educators develop the mindset and practical tools to lead in inclusive classrooms. As teacher residents, students gain significant classroom experience teaching alongside experienced educators. While the program offers fantastic opportunities to practice co-teaching, it prepares educators for a variety of environments—meaning some residents will gain their hands-on experience working in self-contained settings.
Teaching is Stronger Together
Co-teaching is about more than sharing a classroom. It’s about shared vision, shared practice, and a commitment to all learners. Collaborative models, such as co-teaching, are central to NYU Steinhardt’s approach to preparing inclusive, equity-minded educators.
Take the next step to a career in collaborative education by scheduling an application walkthrough, connecting with an enrollment advisor, or starting an application.