Summary chapter 7 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Summary chapter 7 - Essay Example Schloss and Schmidt (2006) stress that special education is a collaborative process and the consultant teacher plays a crucial role in it. The consulting teacher provides services to both secondary teachers as well as their students. Key elements of effective collaboration are willing participants, understanding roles of the two teachers, agreement on goals, sharing responsibility for the student’s problem, sharing responsibility for success (failure) of the intervention developed. The authors identify a number of advantages of using the consulting teacher and some of these benefits include increased level of students, efficient teamwork, reduction of costs of special education. Exposing nondisabled students to collaborating with disabled learners has a positive impact on both parties as students acquire the necessary communicative skills. Schloss and Schmidt (2006) note that it is possible to develop an effective consultant teacher program by considering characteristics of the consultant teacher, responsibilities of consultants, gaining acceptance. The consultant teacher’s responsibilities include identification of the problem behavior, establishing objectives, designing the program, developing an evaluation plan, provision of in-service training, implementation and monitoring of the program, termination of the program, dissemination of results. It is also noted that resource rooms may be a good alternative to the secondary setting. Schloss, M.A., & Schmidt, R.J. (2006). Collaboration and the role of the consultant teacher. In P.J. Schloss, M.A. Schloss, & C.N. Schloss (Eds.), Instructional methods for secondary students with learning behaviour problems (pp. 176-193). New York, NY: