Educational leaders are turning to the co-teaching model because of The No Child Left Behind mandates. A co-teaching model is designed to provide necessary accommodation for students with disabilities into a regular education classroom. In the co-teaching model a general and special education share responsibility for teaching and providing needed support for a disable student. The objective of co-teaching is to increase instructional choices, participation, and performance of the disable student. In peer-tutoring, students are given the opportunity to use their own knowledge of the subject to assist other students. Peer tutoring is perceived as being less intimating by students, and is an effective way to produce academic improvement. Implementing of co-teaching and peer-tutoring together is a way to enhance learning of students with and without disabilities. .
Summary.
The purpose of the experimental research design conducted by Kimberly McDuffie, Margo Mastropieri, and Thomas Scruggs was to examine several factors; the effects of a peer-tutoring intervention on the academic achievement amongst students with and without disabilities, differences in students' academic achievement between co-taught and non-co-taught settings, and what is the added value of peer tutoring is implemented in the context of a co-taught setting (McDuffie et al., 2009). The authors hypothesized that students in peer tutoring would do better than those without the peer tutoring, a co-taught classroom would lend some benefit to the effectiveness of the intervention, and the co-teaching environments would be characterized by individual student teacher interactions (McDuffie et al., 2009). The study also examines variables such as interaction between the student and teacher and instructional methods used in co-taught versus non-co-taught classrooms. Experimental research was evident in this study through the authors stating hypotheses, randomly selecting participants who fit the criteria for the study, and using the pre/post-test data as a statistical measure.