Author: Norben Pabondia Agas
ABSTRACT: Purpose. The Philippine Inclusive Education Act of 2022 shifted the teaching of disabled students to general education classrooms wherein collaboration between the special education (SNEd) teacher and the general education teacher shall be an ordinary condition of basic education. The benefit of international synthesis, however, is that they highlight that co-taught classrooms tend to become setups where one teacher teaches and the other teacher helps, and there is little use of small group teaching, moving the specialist to an assistant role. The current research explored that phenomenon from a practitioner’s perspective was most impacted by the phenomenon.
Method. The convergent mixed methods design was used and total enumeration, covering sixty (60) special education teachers in one Schools Division Office in the National Capital Region in the Philippines was employed. Validated (by 5 experts; S-CVI/Ave = 0.94) and pilot-tested (externally; α = 0.84-0.93) researcher-made instrument was used to generate quantitative data, while two focus group discussions were used to generate qualitative data, which was achieved with open-ended prompts. Weighted mean, standard deviation, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis H tests were used for analysis, and reflexive thematic analysis was used for the narrative strand.
Findings. The one teach–one assist configuration was used Often (M = 4.18) and the three small–group –generating configurations had a composite rating of 2.49 (Rarely). The highest level of implementation was for in-lesson behaviors that a specialist engages in alone, while the lowest was for recognized instructional parity (M = 2.12) and joint planning pre-lesson (M = 2.25). Learner perceived confidence was rated Very Highly Evident (M = 3.29), engagement Highly Evident (M = 3.16), and cognitive engagement was the lowest (M = 2.95). Of all the outcome domains (implementation: H = 18.44, p < .001), only common planning time distinguished all three sections, with the threshold between “almost none” and “thirty minutes weekly”. There was significant correlation between implementation and confidence (ρ = .617) and engagement (ρ = .584).
Contribution. The study provides a mechanism for implementing inclusive education at the configuration level, which is not included in Philippine inclusive education research, demonstrates that the limitation of inclusive practice in an urban division is administrative, not attitudinal, and, pinpoints an intervention point that is low cost and high yield in protected weekly co-planning time.
Keywords: co-teaching; inclusive education; special education teachers; small-group learning; learner engagement; Philippines