Date of Award

5-1-2001

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Specialist in Education (Ed.S.)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Dr. Martha Bruckner

Abstract

Special area teachers in five middle schools were interviewed for the study. Questions were derived from research on the advantages of team-teaching. The team structure gives support for improving teaching strategies and lends a sense of community to the learning environment. Teams can collaborate in meeting student needs and in solving discipline problems. Their classrooms are clustered together lending to the development of a sense of unity by affiliation. The special area teachers were not included on such interdisciplinary teaching teams. The qualitative trends and themes that developed in this study indicated that the advantages available in team-teaching were difficult to maintain in the special areas. Due to scheduling logistics and the distance between special area and team classrooms, little possibility for collaboration and communication exists. The sense of unity that comes from consistent proximity to a group was weak. Feelings of alienation were expressed. The teachers felt that they taught more class periods, prepared for more variety of curricula, and covered more duties than team teachers.

Comments

An Educational Specialist Field Project Presented to the Department of Education Administration and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Specialist in Educational Administration University of Nebraska at Omaha. Copyright Cecelia A. Birckhead May, 2001

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