EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
FOR CO-TEACHERS
IN INCLUSION
CLASSROOMS
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS
Overview of Presentation
The first section of our
presentation will focus on three
areas:
Characteristics of Effective Interpersonal
Feedback in Inclusion Classrooms
Co-Teaching Communication Conflicts
Personality Styles that Create Conflict
Between Co-Teachers
Characteristics of Effective Interpersonal
Feedback in Inclusion Classrooms
It is obvious to say that if you have
poor interpersonal communications
skills (which includes active listening),
your ability to co-teach will suffer
Lines of communications must be
open between people who rely on one
another to get work done.
Characteristics of Effective Interpersonal
Feedback in Inclusion Classrooms
Considering this, co-teachers must be
able to both give and receive
feedback if they are to perform to
expectations, avoid conflicts and
misunderstandings, and ultimately
succeed in and outside of the
classroom
Characteristics of Effective Interpersonal
Feedback in Inclusion Classrooms
Knowing your own preferred way to
receive feedback from your colleagues
is a significant first step in
determining how you and your coteacher will give each other feedback
about your activities in a shared
classroom
Characteristics of Effective Interpersonal
Feedback in Inclusion Classrooms
To collaborate successfully with other
teachers and administrators in the coteaching process, you will need to be adept
at giving effective feedback.
You will also want to learn to solicit and
accept feedback from others as a means of
securing valuable information about your
own communication behaviors and about
your collaborative relationships
Characteristics of Effective Interpersonal Feedback in
Inclusion Classrooms
Feedback has a clear set of characteristics. It should be:
Descriptive
Specific
Directed toward changeable behaviors and situations
Well-timed
Direct
Solicited
Concise
Any feedback statement includes ALL of these characteristics
When Giving Feedback to Your Co-Teacher, be
Descriptive Rather than Evaluative or Advisory
An individual is more likely to listen
when someone simply describes what
has been observed
Descriptive information is
nonthreatening and nonjudgmental
When Giving Feedback to Your Co-Teacher, be
Descriptive Rather than Evaluative or Advisory
Say: “I noticed that you raised your voice” or “I noticed that
when Billy approached you, you immediately told him to sit
down and didn’t listen to what he was going to tell you”
Rather than:
You talk too loud all the time…or
“You shouldn’t yell”….or
“Have you tried keeping a calm voice?”…or
“You didn’t do that very well”
“Your system makes no sense”
These comments are likely to cause the person to feel
defensive and criticized rather than willing to make a change
When Giving Feedback to Your Co-Teacher,
the Feedback Should be
Specific Rather than General
“You sounded angry” communicates
much less than
“I noticed that every time you spoke
you frowned and raised your voice”
When Giving Feedback to Your Co-Teacher, the
Feedback Should be Directed Toward Behavior or
a Situation that He/She Can Change
In order for feedback to be useful, it needs
to be directed at something that the receiver
can control or do something about
Feedback directed toward an attribute or
situation the receiver cannot control is
generally pointless and likely to interfere
with effective communication
When Giving Feedback to Your Co-Teacher, the
Feedback Should be Directed Toward Behavior or
a Situation that He/She Can Change
Physical traits such as height, sex,
age, or sex and situational aspects
such as the size of the room or the
administrator’s leadership style are
not behaviors that an individual can
change
When Giving Feedback to Your
Co-Teacher, the Feedback Should be WellTimed
Corrective feedback is most beneficial to
learners when it is given immediately
following the relevant event or behavior
You should always ask yourself “Is now the
best time to give my co-teacher feedback?”
If your co-teacher is extremely busy or
rushed, the feedback may be an irritating
intrusion
When Giving Feedback to Your Co-Teacher,
the Feedback Should be
Well-Timed
Or if some event has left your colleague
upset and confused, immediate feedback
may be seen as unduly demanding or even
critical
It’s recommended that you provide feedback
as soon as is “appropriate”, not only so that
it is recent but also so that it demonstrates
your sensitivity to your co-teacher’s
receptiveness
When Giving Feedback to Your Co-Teacher,
the Feedback Should be
Well-Timed
Some prefer to hear their co-teacher’s
reaction to a co-taught lesson immediately
upon its completion
Others are more receptive if they have a
break for an hour or as much as a day
before “debriefing” with their partners
As important as “how” teachers give each
other feedback is “when” they do so
When Giving Feedback to Your Co-Teacher,
the Feedback Should be
Direct Rather than Indirect
Feedback is most effective when it is given
directly to the person who can use it by the
person who has made some observation
For example, instead of asking the principal
to tell your co-teacher about ineffective
teaching behavior, generally you should tell
him or her personally
When Giving Feedback to Your Co-Teacher,
the Feedback Should be
Direct Rather than Indirect
Note writing can also be
misinterpreted and can decrease the
effectiveness of feedback
This is because the giver cannot check
the feedback for accuracy and the
receiver cannot adequately clarify it
When Giving Feedback to Your Co-Teacher,
Ideally, the Feedback
Should be Solicited
Feedback, like advice and explanations, is most
effective when someone has requested it
Unsolicited feedback may make the receiver feel
defensive and assume a “Who asked you” attitude
When you work with your colleague, you should
not assume that your colleague actually wants
feedback.
You and your co-teacher need to discuss this issue
on when feedback should be given
When Giving Feedback to Your
Co-Teacher, the Feedback
Should be Concise
Concise feedback is easier to
understand than feedback that
contains extraneous detail or
information
When Giving Feedback to Your Co-Teacher,
the Feedback
Should be Concise
“In terms of your language, I mean the
words you uses, you used complex and
technical words that I didn’t understand.
The vocabulary you used was too
specialized for me to understand. I didn’t
know what all your vocabulary meant so I
didn’t understand your main points.
Everything has to be explained well or I get
really disturbed and close out everything
you say.”
When Giving Feedback to Your Co-Teacher,
the Feedback
Should be Concise
“When you used technical terms I got
lost. It would help me out a lot if you
would define your terms and make
your point again.”
Questions to Ask Before
You Give Feedback to Your Co-Teacher
In general, when giving feedback to your co-teacher, ask
yourself these questions:
Will this person understand me?
Will this person be able to accept my feedback?
Will this person be able to use the information?
What is the best way to give my co-teacher feedback?
What is the best way to ensure that both positive and negative
issues are raised?
Remember: Feedback should include not only highlighting
those aspects of instruction that are especially successful
and satisfying, but also planning alternatives to less
successful and satisfying aspects
Co-Teaching Communication Conflicts
The following have been reported in the
research as the most often cited problems
regarding feedback and communication
between co-teachers:
Philosophy and Beliefs
Parity Signals
Classroom Routines
Discipline
Noise
Pet Peeves
Communication About
Philosophy and Beliefs
Understanding each other’s general
instructional beliefs, especially those
that affect decisions about
instruction, is essential to a strong coteaching relationship
Question to ask: How do our
instructional beliefs affect our
instructional practice?
Communication About
Parity Signals
The nature of co-teaching relationship
requires that co-teachers have parity and
recognize it
Questions to ask:
How will we convey to students that we are
equals in the classroom
How can we ensure a sense of parity during
instruction
Examples of
Parity Signals
Both teachers names on the board or in the
printed course schedule
Both teachers’ signatures on
correspondence to parents
Includes participation in teaching, grading
assignments, and assigning report card
grades
Remember-Co-teaching is about
partnership
Communication About
Classroom Routines
Experienced teachers all have preferred classroom
routines
These include organizational routines and
instructional routines
Teachers are rarely aware of how many routines
they have
Remember-It’s not so important as to whose
routines get adopted but the co-teachers, but it is
important that both teachers know what the
routines will be so that they can consistently
communicate them to students
Communication About
Classroom routines
Questions to ask:
What are the instructional routines for
the classroom?
What are the organizational routines
for the classroom?
Communication About
Discipline
What each teacher believes is acceptable behavior
and what each views as appropriate responses to
unacceptable student behavior should be
discussed and “negotiated”
Questions to ask:
What is considered acceptable and unacceptable
student behavior?
Who is to intervene at what point in students’
behavior?
What are the rewards and consequences used in
the classroom?
Communication
About Noise
Teachers differ significantly in their
tolerance for noise as they do in preferences
for discipline strategies or classroom
routines
Noise includes teacher talk as well as
student generated noise
Question to ask: What noise level are we
comfortable with in the classroom?
Communication About
Pet Peeves
All teachers have a few issues that are especially
important to them, or more likely, that bother
them a great deal
Pet peeves are specific triggers that could put
relationships in jeopardy
For some, it could be interruption during
instruction, while for others it may be the
removal of supplies from their desks or failure to
put materials away
Communication About
Pet Peeves
Some co-teachers do not permit students to
return to their lockers after they have come
to class
Some are very particular in how grades are
recorded in the grade book
Pet peeves can be about student issues,
classroom arrangements or materials, or
adult issues
Communication About
Pet Peeves
Questions to ask:
What aspect of teaching and classroom
life does each of us feel strongly about
How can we identify our pet peeves so
as to avoid them?
Personality Styles that Create
Conflict between Co-Teachers
Blocking
Being negative and stubbornly resistant
Disagreeing and opposing without or
beyond "reason"
Attempting to maintain or bring back an
issue, direction, or task after it has been
rejected or bypassed
Personality Styles that Create
Conflict between Co-Teachers
Attacking:
Deflating the status of others
Expressing disapproval of the values, acts,
or feelings of others
Attacking the team, the leader or the
problem being worked on
Joking aggressively
Trying to take credit for another's
contribution
Personality Styles that Create
Conflict between Co-Teachers
Being Playful:
Displaying lack of involvement in the
team's efforts by cynicism,
nonchalance, horseplay
Personality Styles that Create
Conflict between Co-Teachers
Seeking Recognition:
Boasting, reporting on personal
achievements
Acting in unusual ways
Struggling to prevent being placed in
an "inferior" position
Personality Styles that Create
Conflict between Co-Teachers
Deserting:
Withdrawing in some way
Being indifferent, silent, aloof,
excessively formal, day dreaming
Deliberately doing tasks that are
unrelated to team's functions and
goals (i.e., grading papers, knitting)
Personality Styles that Create
Conflict between Co-Teachers
Dominating:
Asserting power or superiority to
manipulate the team or certain members of
the team by flattery
Asserting a superior status or right to
attention
Giving directions autocratically
Interrupting the contributions of others
