Abstract
The implementation of co-teaching in the inclusive classrooms in Malaysia is still in the earliest of stages. Hence this study highlighted the element of challenges in terms of positive relationship among school administrators, teachers and parents. This quantitative study also predicted the relationship by the spirit of acceptance, trust and cooperation stated in the questionnaires. It involved 240 respondents in Malaysia. The application of SEM-PLS 2.0 was used and the study showed that there is a positive relationship between the three variables. There are also few factors from the element of challenges that need to be addressed by the Ministry of Education (MOE) as an administrator to improve the referral process of implementing the co-teaching approach in an inclusive classroom.
1. Introduction
The implementation of inclusive education in Malaysia has been introduced to provide opportunities for students with special educational needs (SEN) to follow the concept of least restrictive environment (LRE) (Mohd Zaman et al., 2014). According to the MOE (2013), Special Education Integration Program in the mainstream schools has to implement an inclusive program for students who are able to learn in the mainstream classes. The implementation of co-teaching in an inclusive program requires active involvement of teachers and administrators (Friend, 2008). The implementation of inclusive education seems to be incomplete in the absence of challenges and it should be emphasized. According to Friend (2006), Murawski (2008) and Scruggs et al (2007), inclusive education should be resolved with the implementation of co-teaching approaches, including the SEN which would benefit more consistently (Rytivaara, 2012).
8. Discussion and Conclusion
It was challenging regarding the implementation of co-teaching. In this study the views of three parties are measured. Administrators, teachers and parents is what determines the success of co-teaching approach. A culture of collaboration among the parties involved in enabling all parties are satisfied with the program designed because it involves consenting administrators, teachers and parents. Acculturation involves the construction of collaboration in the implementation of the IEP (Branding et al., 2008) because teachers act as executor and parents see the changes and improvement in the quality of the IEP as a successful way. This study introduces the co-teaching model implemented in Malaysia.
