Impact of Co-Teaching Approach in Inclusive Education Settings on the Development of Reading Skills

This study was conducted on three students with special education needs and their 16 non-disabled classmates in the 2nd year of an elementary school in Cyprus where inclusive education is offered to them and their parents. In the mentioned inclusive education setting, student and parent opinions with regard to the effectiveness of reading comprehension applications based on a one teacher one assistant model, which is a co-teaching model, conducted by the classroom teacher and special education teacher, have been evaluated. For this purpose, opinions have been obtained from students during the application that consisted of 14 sessions between October 2017 and January 2018 and from parents after the applications with regard to the effectiveness of the co-teaching practice using semi-structured interview forms. When the research findings were evaluated, it was seen that the students felt happy, successful and academically prepared during the co-teaching practices, they found the materials used by their teachers interesting, they were willing to attend the class, and were pleased to be in the school / classroom environment. When the findings of the parents' opinions were evaluated, the parents stated that they had some concerns prior to the co-teaching practices were implemented. However, they stated that the variety of materials and homework used during the practices and seeing their child's academic progress made parents feel at ease with the new approach. The parents also stated that the reading skills of their children had improved, their willingness to read had improved and their writing skills had improved as well.