UCLA

To adequately prepare competent certified special education teachers, teacher preparation programs must incorporate early co-taught fieldwork experiences for preservice teachers to engage and acquire practical co-teaching and collaborative skill sets. As extant research has focused more on in-service teachers’ co-teaching, existing studies on preservice co-teaching are less numerous, and less is known about two preservice special education teachers co-teaching in an inclusive co-taught fieldwork and their perceptions overall. This phenomenological qualitative study focused on eight preservice special education teachers’ perceived benefits and challenges of co-teaching in a semester-long early co-taught fieldwork over time. Analysis of data sources included preservice teachers’ weekly journals and semi-structured interviews, which resulted in understanding the factors that supported co-teaching, the benefits and challenges of co-teaching, and lessons learned from co-teaching for preservice teachers.