Facilitating cooperative teaching practices in inclusive settings: A quantitative and qualitative study of pre-service teachers' perceptions

The study investigated preservice general and special education teachers' willingness to use or facilitate cooperative teaching practices in general education classrooms. The preservice teacher participants' gender, age range, area of study, special education course hours, and discipline of study were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively in determining the willingness to use or facilitate cooperative teaching practices.;The quantitative study used a six-point Likert-type scale survey of 22 items relevant to the research questions developed by the researcher. The survey assessed the preservice general and special education teacher participants' (N = 62) willingness to use or facilitate cooperative teaching practices in general education classrooms.;The qualitative study used an interview protocol of eight open-ended questions and follow-up questions relevant to the qualitative research questions developed by the researcher. The interview questions assessed a target sample of preservice general education teacher participants (n = 7) and a target sample of preservice special education teacher participants (n = 2) of concerns for using or facilitating cooperative teaching practices in general education classrooms.;The results of the quantitative study indicated that there were significant differences between preservice general and special education teacher participants' willingness to use or facilitate cooperative teaching practices in general education classrooms. The areas of significance existed in the areas of age range and the amount of special education course hours received.;The results of the qualitative study indicated that there were significant differences between preservice general and special education teacher participants in areas of concern involving teaching students with disabilities in the general education classroom, facilitating cooperative teaching practices, and preservice teacher training for using or facilitating cooperative teaching practices.;The findings of the qualitative study are congruent with the differences between preservice general and special education teacher participants' differences in the quantitative study. The differences between the preservice general and special education teacher participants existed in areas involving age range and number of special education course hours received during their preservice teacher training.