This study was conducted in an inclusion class in M inclusion day care center in Busan. Even though they recognized that cooperation between general education teachers and special education teachers is an important factor in the inclusion class, they...
This study was conducted in an inclusion class in M inclusion day care center in Busan. Even though they recognized that cooperation between general education teachers and special education teachers is an important factor in the inclusion class, they have been played separated roles in the class in that the general education teacher was a main teacher only for children of non-special education in the inclusion class and the special education teacher was only for handicapped children. Both general education teacher and special education teacher have been recognized that cooperation teaching is necessary. Thirteen sessions of cooperation teaching were applied in an inclusion class. In this sense, the purpose of this study was to identify what kinds of changes were happened in the perspectives of teachers' roles on both the general education teacher and the special education teacher during cooperation teaching.
A research question was developed based on the purpose the study.
1. What kinds of changes were happened in the perspective of teachers' roles on both general education teacher and special education teacher during cooperation teaching?
Subjects of this study were a genera leducation teacher and a special education teacher working with the researcher in an inclusion day care center in Busan. The data were collected through participation observations, teachers' reflective journals, and interviews. Participation observation notes and reflective journals were transcribed. Data analysis were focused on finding out perspective changes on teachers' roles of the general education teacher and the special education teacher.
The results of the study were as follows:
First, it was found that a type of instruction-support in cooperation teaching leaded to separated roles to both teachers rather than cooperated roles. Thus, the general teacher was recognized as a main teacher in charge in the inclusion classroom, and the special education teacher was recognized as a surrounder or a helper. It was appeared that the general education teacher was in charge of 20 unhandicapped children, and the special education teacher was in charge of 3 handicapped children. Moreover, the general education teacher planned and conducted all schedule of daily routines, on the other hand, the special education teacher supported only handicapped children by conducting limited roles in the classroom. Based on the findings of teachers' roles in the inclusion classroom, it was suggested that apparent individual‘s roles and attitudes to implement effective cooperation teaching, necessity of cooperation teaching, practical teaching methods of cooperation teaching needed to be provided in the beginning of the school year.
Secondly, cooperation teaching evoked sympathy to both teachers. Both general education teacher and special education teacher played an inactive role in the beginning sessions of cooperation teaching. But as the time went, they started to recognize each other in assigning and conducting individual's roles in the course of cooperation teaching. They felt the feelings of fun and enjoyment in caring services and realized positive aspects of cooperation teaching. Simultaneously, they had hard time in dividing each teacher's roles and conducting their own roles individually. As the sessions of cooperation teaching passed by, both teachers began to help each other and recognize themselves as the co-partner by sharing their ideas and opinions in planning daily activities, understanding the roles of the other teacher, giving more attention to the other teacher, and realizing themselves as a group of "us" with the same responsibility.
Many changes were happened during cooperation teaching in that both teachers experienced various teacher roles instead of stereotyped teacher roles and their perspectives have been changed in a positive way.
From the results of the study, it could be suggested that various types of teaching strategies need to be introduced to both teachers from the beginning of inclusion so that general teacher and special education teacher could understand the other teacher's roles and tasks, share opinions and ideas about daily activities, and experience the roles of the other teacher.