Oddny Judith Solheim

Reading comprehension is widely recognized as a fundamental skill that enables active participation in society and influences both social and academic well-being (Lane & Conlon, 2016; OECD, 2023; U...

School leaders play a pivotal role in fostering change and improvement, including via teacher-led interventions, such as co-teaching. Leaders’ vision and support create the conditions for teachers to maximize the effectiveness of school interventions. However, there is limited understanding of how school leaders provide support for the intervention of co-teaching. This gap in knowledge is crucial because co-teaching has the potential to be transformative, but teachers must actively drive pedagogical changes. We conducted a mixed-methods study involving 150 Norwegian elementary schools participating in a multi-year co-teaching initiative for literacy instruction. We collected data through open and closed survey questions, inquiring about school leaders’ beliefs and support practices regarding co-teaching. Our descriptive analysis examined school leaders’ practices and explored potential associations with their epistemological perspectives. Our findings indicate that leaders who approach co-teaching with cautious optimism tend to provide more thoughtful support compared to those who are overly optimistic and may underestimate implementation challenges. Moreover, most leaders prioritize structural support elements while potentially overlooking psychological and emotional support practices aligned with self-determination theory (SDT). We conclude with practical recommendations for school leaders to offer support to teachers that are grounded in the principles of SDT and organized according to implementation phases.

Students with reading difficulties such as dyslexia receive most of their instruction in mainstream classrooms, but many teachers feel inadequately prepared to teach students with dyslexia and/or report that dyslexia was inadequately addressed in their training. However, depending on a school’s organization, it may be sufficient that classroom teachers know enough to realize when to ask for support with identification and accommodation from specialized teachers with greater knowledge. In the present study we first investigate dyslexia knowledge in a sample of Norwegian upper-elementary-school teachers (N = 269). Second, we examine whether specialized (“resource”) teachers are more knowledgeable about dyslexia than classroom teachers. Finally, we explore whether teaching experience and having encountered reading-related themes in formal training predict dyslexia knowledge. Overall, we find that only a small share of teachers holds misconceptions about dyslexia. However, a notable proportion of them are uncertain, especially regarding the role of visual deficits in dyslexia. Somewhat surprisingly, resource teachers have only marginally higher dyslexia knowledge than classroom teachers. Finally, neither experience nor reading-related course content in formal training are substantial predictors of dyslexia knowledge. The large extent of uncertainty concerning dyslexia suggests a need to reconsider teacher training curriculum and opportunities for teacher professional development.

Having two teachers work collaboratively in the same class has been suggested as a possible solution to several instructional challenges, including the inclusion of students with special needs in mainstream classrooms and as part of school-wide prevention models to increase student achievement. In this, shared responsibility between teachers is regarded as a prerequisite to successful co-teaching. However, few studies have investigated whether shared responsibility between teachers actually leads to improved student achievement. This mixed methods study investigates shared responsibility in a sample of 148 classrooms where two general educators worked collaboratively in literacy instruction through first and second grade. First, we analysed whether the degree of shared responsibility between the two teachers for planning, enacting, and evaluating literacy instruction predicted student reading when controlling for pre-reading skills at baseline. Second, we carried out in-depth individual interviews with six collaborative teacher dyads purposefully selected from high- and low-performing classrooms to investigate what characterized their sharing of responsibility. The results show that shared responsibility significantly predicts students’ reading achievement. Further, the interviews reveal a surface level collaboration between coteachers in low-performing classes, yet a more profound level of collaboration with influence on key teaching decisions in high-performing classes.

Co‐teaching offers a unique opportunity space for literacy instruction; however, this opportunity is rarely optimized and the result on students' literacy growth is often unimpressive. We propose that co‐teaching is only a structural intervention, but it can become a powerful pedagogical intervention if teachers approach co‐teaching as an opportunity space to try out effective pedagogical practices that lead to student literacy growth. Studying, through mixed methods, the practices of literacy co‐teachers in early elementary, we identified important trends connected to student growth. We concluded that shared responsibility was a feature of highly effective pairs. Next, through interviews, we captured nuances of how effective dyads formed working relationships, planned together, communicated, reflected on instruction together, and organized resources. From such findings, we propose a model of change for how co‐teaching may lead to student growth—via positive co‐teaching relationships and continual shared reflection of instructional practice. Mirroring highly effective co‐teachers' approach, we provide a series of reflective co‐teaching guides to support other pairs of co‐teachers. These guides lead reading teachers throughout a school year and continually return to the essential question of: What can we do together that I cannot do alone?