Benefits of Co-Teaching
K-5/6 Students
- Increased student achievement
- More student-teacher interaction
- Tier II, & ELL interventions with students are more comprehensive with the co-teachers presence allotting more time for in depth supplemental instruction. This also benefits the higher-level students to receive instructions for independent lessons sooner versus waiting, while the teacher attends to Tier II students.
- More attention to meet students’ needs; the ability to provide better interventions
- Benefits to students are many, more time, and increased preparation time.
- Classroom management is also enhanced.
Cooperating Teachers (classroom teacher) and the School Community
- Having teacher candidates from the beginning of the year to the end has led to the respect of the students seeing the teacher candidates as classroom professionals; the co-teaching team is important.
- It’s the little things, like the participation in the chalk art for example, and their visibility in the school, that has created a presence in the community.
- “We haven’t had collaboration and involvement with UNM faculty like this for a long time” (Administrator)
- “I found that these TCs are way more prepared then other student teachers I have had in the past and I attribute some of that to being in the classroom in a different way.” (Cooperating Teacher)
- “It’s brought in high quality teacher candidates who have lowered the pupil to teacher ratio in the classroom. They provided a great number of resources to the school, as a whole, and they also work in developing relationships with students” (Administrator)
- “They definitely feel very rooted at the school having a professor here, having themselves as a cohort here.” (Cooperating Teacher)
Teacher Candidates
- A much more robust experience for TCs—”I’m learning more about teaching than I thought”
- Both TCs and CTs are simultaneously the teacher and the learner in this situation.
- Teacher candidates become more proactive as the relationship evolves and equality is increasing.
- The familiarity of the cohort with parents, staff, and community has led to a successful partnership.
- “The pieces that help us enormously is the ability of these teacher candidates to be able to move from classroom to classroom and support the needs of the school as a whole, and I think that creates a resiliency within them, a confidence in their ability to manage classrooms and their ability to adapt what they learned at UNM to the classroom.”(Administrator)
- Well prepared for beginning years as a classroom teacher
UNM embedded faculty
- Sense of renewal
- Working along school-based partners
- Changes made to UNM teacher preparation
- Immediate attention is given to areas for growth of teacher candidates