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Philosophy of Special Education Collaboration

Sean Laughlin

University of Kansas

SPED 898

Dr. Brasseur-Hock

June 15, 2020

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Philosophy of Special Education Collaboration

Introduction

This assignment was the start of SPED 854; by expressing each student’s own

philosophy on collaboration in special education. On the assignment page there was a list

of questions to be answered in our philosophy essay including ‘Why is collaboration in

special education important?’ and ‘What are potential barriers to successful collaboration

in special education?’ Questions such as these allowed for the entire essay to express how

we as students early in our masters program believe collaboration can impact a special

education classroom. The philosophy essay needed to be a minimum of two double-

spaced pages and at the end should be a good representation of how we believe

collaboration is important in special education. 

Purpose

The purpose of this assignment is to really think about all of the collaboration that

occurs in special education. Though I had worked in special education for over a year as

a paraprofessional, I never took the time to realize how much collation happened between

co-workers and the students’ parents. This assignment allowed me to understand not only

how much collaboration occurs in special education, but also how impactful and

necessary it is to collaborate with co-workers to make the best learning experience for the

special education students. 

Revisions

When this assignment was first submitted in the opening week of the course, the

grade I received was a 48/50 with some recommendations to make changes. For the

portfolio submission at the end of that course, I needed to make those revisions so the
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revisions then were mainly about the references I used as well as adding sentences

throughout the essay to create a better understanding for the reader.

What was learned

This assignment was less about learning new information and more about

thinking about how we think collaboration impacts special education classrooms.

Understanding that collaboration does not just occur when class is going on, but also

during IEP meetings, when the students go outside the classroom as well as collaborating

with each student’s parents so they are aware of what is occurring during the school day.

This assignment allowed myself to think about all of the different interactions that occur

during the day to help improve each student’s learning experience and how that is

collaborating.