Date of Award

Fall 2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Committee Chair

Prince Bull

Abstract

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to investigate how general and special educators’ attitudes, efficacy, and collaboration promote co-teaching relationships that benefit exceptional students in urban middle schools. The impacts of co-teaching on the attitudes, efficacy, and collaboration of secondary teachers were explored. A questionnaire was distributed to general and special education teachers, and focus groups were held. The methodology included using a quantitative phase and a qualitative phase research design to collect the data. The quantitative measure used was surveys. Participants, who were qualified, were chosen for the interview and focus group portions of the study. In addition, participants were questioned about co-teaching strategies in their schools and district. The survey responses were evaluated to determine teacher opinions and tendencies. The dependent variables were student involvement (Model 1), instructional tactics (Model 2), classroom management (Model 3), and overall self-efficacy (Model 4). The results of the TSES and STATIS surveys were examined. The key findings and results of the TSES, based on student involvement, instructional tactics, and classroom administration were all significant between general and special educators in an inclusive classroom setting. According to the STATIS poll, both student involvement and professional issues are significant to both general and special instructors. Neither philosophical issues nor the STATIS model as a whole was statistically significant. The researcher concluded with qualitative themes. There were three emergent themes derived from the interviews: (1) Teacher self-efficacy, (2) Attitudes, and (3) Collaboration (i.e., teamwork) between general and special educators. Each theme were consistent with quantitative analysis. Implications of the findings: The implications include establishing some level of professional development training (i.e., PLC’s) for both general and special educators separately. After teams have been established, training should proceed as a unit for both general and special educators with emphasis placed on comprehension of their roles and responsibilities to remain effective educators in an inclusion setting.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Download

Share

COinS