Chapter 3 Part 1 (in Friend)

-As schools increase inclusive practices, the working relationships among all the adults involved in the education of students with disabilities becomes critical.

-Professionals in inclusive schools usually assert that collaboration is the key to their success in meeting the needs of all students.

-Collaboration is how people work together, is a style professionals choose to accomplish a goal they share

-True collaboration exists only on teams when all members feel their contributions are valued and the goal is clear, when they share decision making, and when they sense they are respected.

-Key attributes to defining collaboration:

 is voluntary

 based on parity (individual contributions are equally valued)

 requires a shared goal

 includes shared responsibility for key decisions

 shared accountability for the outcomes (whether positive or negative)

  based on shared resources (each teacher participating in a collaborative effort contributes some type of resource. This contribution increases commitment and reinforces each professional’s sense of parity)

 its emergent (want participants to have shared decision making, trust, and respect among participants)

 prerequisites for collaboration:

 reflecting in your own personal belief system (for collaboration to occur, all the people participating need to feel that their shared effort will result in an outcome that is better than could be accomplished by any one participant, even if the outcome is some what different from what each person envisioned at the outset.)

refining your interaction skills (you need effective skills for interacting, 2 major interaction skills: communication skills and steps to productive interactions, *the most needed interaction process for you as a teacher is shared problem solving*)

contributing to s supportive environment (administrative support is important especially principals, these people can raise staff awareness of collaboration by making it a school goal and distributing information about it to staff.