Jeanne Bauwens

Cooperative Teaching: A Model for General and Special Education Integration

A variety of social and educational forces are resulting in significant changes in the traditionally dichotomous relationship between general and special education. One service delivery model that may be especially useful for reducing the gap between the two delivery systems is cooperative teaching, in which general and special educators work in a systematic and coordinated fashion in educationally integrated settings. This article describes cooperative teaching and outlines various arrangements through which it might be implemented.

Cooperative Teaching: The Renewal of Teachers

ittle has affected American education as dramatically as the growing sense that the way education has been structured in the past is less than adequate today and will be even more inadequate in the future. The increasing cultural, linguistic, academic, and behavioral diversity of Americas classrooms is challenging longestablished approaches to curriculum and instruction. In terms of cultural and linguistic diversity, the state of California may be the best example of what America will look and sound like in the future. As of 1997, students with limited English proficiency composed 25 percent of Californias total school population, up from 15 percent less than ten years earlier (California Department of Education 1997). Such growth in diversity is increasingly common throughout the nations schools. By the mid-1990s, of the nations ten largest central city school districts, white enrollment ranged from a high of 31 percent (San Diego) to a low of 6 percent (Detroit) (Orfield et al. 1997). In fact, in several states, including California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Texas, and Mississippi, so-called minority students actually constitute a majority of the school populations (U.S. Department of Education 1996). As students with disabilities are increasingly placed in Americas general education classrooms, teachers are also encountering greater diversity in student ability and achievement levels. During the 1995-96 academic year, 45 percent of students with disabilities received the entirety of their educational programs in regular classrooms, and another 29 percent were in resource room programs. Thus nearly three-fourths of students with disabilities received most or all of their education-

Managing Resistance: An Essential Consulting Skill for Learning Disabilities Teachers:

Consultation has become an increasingly important part of the special education service delivery system for students with learning disabilities (LD). However, special education teachers implementing consultation programs with general education teachers should expect to encounter some resistance to their efforts. This article explores the characteristics of resistance and discusses various manifestations of resistance in consultative interventions. It offers teachers of students with LD strategies for managing specific types of resistance as well as a general plan for minimizing resistance. Suggestions for evaluating the impact of resistance management strategies are also included.