Benefits of Collaborative Teaching Models in Teacher Education Programs: Sharing Disability Knowledge and Promoting Inclusion

Overview & Synopsis

This article presents an exploratory study aimed to document co-taught education courses across the general-special education curriculum and to determine perceived change in students' disability knowledge as a result of taking the courses. Collaborative teaching taught by a general and special education university faculty was examined over a 10-week quarter at a large public university. The infusion approach of teaching disability utilized in the study shows great promise for providing disability knowledge to general education pre-service students who may otherwise receive minimal disability-related coursework. Recommendations for future research and practice are discussed.