by Amanda Kovac |

When it comes to managing a classroom, it appears two heads are better than one, especially in the case of co-teaching.

“It is a collaboration of two teachers who share the responsibilities of the classroom, the teaching, the instruction,” Rhonda Ross, Algebra and Geometry teacher said.

Co-teaching is not new to Liberty, but it is starting to become a bigger part of the education at the high school.

The math department started co-teaching last year. Many people at the high school see co-teaching as a highly helpful tool. The Eastern Washington Co-teaching Consortium states, “[Co-teaching] engages students in active learning.” The two collaborating teachers may have completely different teaching styles, enabling the students to learn in different ways as well.

“I think it will definitely benefit some of the students to have more than one person in the room. I think the extra support in the class will benefit all of the students,” Candice Cole Algebra Two teacher said.

In a five year study at St. Cloud University, it was found that students in co-taught classes on average outperformed those in regular taught classes due to the extra attention each student receives with more than one teacher in the classroom.

Cole and Ross confirmed that even though co-teaching is more time-consuming, if done right, co-teaching can be a very beneficial way to learn. They shared that the students have responded to the co-teachers really well.

“I was at a bit of a disadvantage because Mr. [Patrick] Williams knew a lot more of the students in my class than I did to start with, which I think was great because a lot of the students were more familiar with him than they were with me and so I think he came in and it was a very positive response from the students,” Cole said.

The reason co-teaching works so well is because the teacher-student ratio is lower and each individual has a chance for more attention.

“My co-taught class is great because the teachers work really well together,” sophomore Daryn Brown said.

The study on co-teaching at St. Cloud found that co-teaching creates a strong bond between the two teachers, allowing them to share ideas freely and give students the best learning experience in a comfortable environment.

Continued studies on the subject are trying to overcome the lack of constants in the experiment to better find how co-teaching affects the students. In the meanwhile co-teaching is becoming what Wichita State University calls a national trend.