Three articles on Collaboration

Collaboration Article #1 

Title: Physical Educators and School Counselors Collaborating to Foster Successful Inclusion of Students with Disabilities

Author: Webb, Daniel, Webb, Tammy T., Fults-McMurtery, Regina, Physical Educator, 00318981, 20110101, Vol. 68, Issue 3

Summary: This article did a good job of explaining the following:

1. Explained the impact of federal legislation and it’s impact on education students with disabilities.

2. Explained the changing roles of physical educators and counselors

3. Explained collaborative approaches to successful inclusion of students with disabilities in physical education. 

Recent legislation has put emphasis on professionals to foster successful inclusion of students with disabilities.  Physical educators are no longer solely confined to addressing issues pertaining to safety, developmentally appropriate activities, and/ or optimizing instructional time, but they must now as a result of various legislative mandates address issues pertaining to advocacy for students with disabilities, collaborating with paraprofessionals, and serving on IEP teams. Counselors now provide services to students with and without disabilities in order to provide successful inclusion.   The article explained that collaboration is an important component of fostering successful inclusion of students with disabilities.   It emphasized that physical educators and school counselors should begin to collaborate to increase both students with disabilities and schools level of achievement.  The counselor should be utilized by the physical educator by assisting with making practical programmatic decisions relative to grouping, planning inclusive developmentally appropriate activities, and teaching functional skill development regarding students with disabilities.   PE teachers should invite the counselor out to watch the class and be receptive to advice given such as best practices etc. The knowledge and resources needed to increase students with disabilities success requires a collaborative effort amongst direct service providers in order to ensure that students with disabilities needs are being met.  Overall I believe this was an okay article.  It did not mention the role of the Adapted Physical Educator, Special Education Teacher, or Behavior Analyst.  I believe collaborative experiences with all of those providers could also help to provide the best opportunity for the special needs student to be successful.   

Collaboration Article # 2

Title: Collaborative Teaching of Motor Skills for Preschoolers with Motor Delays.   

Author: Nathan M. Murata Æ Carol A. Tan

Other Information: Early Childhood Educ  J (2009) 36:483–489

DOI 10.1007/s10643-007-0212-5

This article emphasizes the collaborative approach in teaching the motor domain and how that facilitates developing preschool readiness skills such as motor imitation, bilateral coordination and sequencing, and also spatial awareness while simultaneously taking the child’s special needs into consideration.   The article states that in some cases. Collaborative efforts reduce the amount of time required for direct service in isolation and promote a sense of shared responsibility and accountability between services for addressing the motor domain.  A natural setting might be the ideal context to provide a collaborative model of service delivery.  APE teachers, PT’s, and OT’s should design activities that first address preschool readiness skills like imitation skills, bilateral integration and sequencing skills, and spatial awareness skills while being sure to consider the special needs of the child.  Implementing a sound motor program for preschoolers with developmental delays will likely lead to age appropriate functional skills, including independent activities of daily living and the ability for the student to access community activities and sport.  

Article #3 Collaboration:  General Education and Special Education Teachers collaborate to Support ELL’s with Learning Disabilities.

Article Information: H Nguyen, CSU Longbeach, Pg 127-129.  Issues in Education, 2012. 

This article has to do with language skills and students who are English language learners and also have learning disabilities.   It gave examples of how students became considered ELL students and students with Learning Disabilities Ex: Students fall 20 points below IQ scores.  The main point of the article is to make sure that teachers who work with these students are especially needed to ensure the students success.   Teachers and DIS providers should work collaboratively to make sure these students are provided with the most appropriate instruction.  The article mentioned that if teachers were more successful with collaborating with each other that many of these students would not need to be considered ELL or LD.