ABSTRACT

Universities often struggle to translate theory of inclusive education into real life practices for pre-service teachers (PSTs). In this paper, we evaluate an innovative partnership between Australian secondary school teachers and university academics where they co-designed and co-taught an undergraduate inclusive education course. We used a quasi-experimental design where 67 PSTs were grouped into two cohorts: one co-taught by the team of school educators and university academics (n = 26), the other taught only by university academics (n = 41). PSTs’ scores on teaching efficacy, attitudes and intentions to teach in inclusive classrooms were measured at the pre and posttest stages of the course. Our evaluation showed significant increases in positive attitudes and teaching efficacy skills, decreased concerns and higher intentions to teach in inclusive classrooms among PSTs who were co-taught. The co-teaching team also identified various professional and personal benefits of collaborating. We further discuss the implications of our research for teacher education programmes and the usefulness of including school educators’ expertise in bridging the gaps between theory and practice.

摘要

大学常常难以将全纳教育理论转化为职前教师（PST）的现实生活实践。在本文中，我们评估了澳大利亚中学教师和大学学者之间的创新伙伴关系，他们共同设计并共同教授本科全纳教育课程。我们使用了一种准实验设计，其中 67 个 PST 被分为两组：一组由学校教育工作者和大学学者团队共同教授（n  = 26），另一组仅由大学学者教授（n = 41）。在课程的前测试和后测试阶段，对 PST 在包容性课堂教学的教学效果、态度和意图方面的得分进行了测量。我们的评估显示，共同授课的 PST 的积极态度和教学效能技能显着提高，担忧减少，在包容性课堂中教学的意愿更高。联合教学团队还确定了合作的各种专业和个人好处。我们进一步讨论了我们的研究对教师教育项目的影响，以及将学校教育工作者的专业知识纳入弥合理论与实践之间差距的有用性。