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As I have been working alongside of these individuals, I have noticed that our workplace allows for collaboration, co-teaching, and consultation to be very present. Each member has a role to play and value is placed on each and every one of us. As mentioned under consultation, some educators may seek help by using administrators and others may do so among themselves. We are a small staff and so it all comes naturally through conversation.

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The interviewees consisted of three middle school staff members. The participants included Samantha, a special education teacher, Barbara, a general education science teacher, and Mary, a special education paraprofessional.

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All of the participants in the interview identified consultation to be defined as receiving and giving advice to each other with ends to obtain advice, feedback, and information from an expert source. Each of the participants were already exposed to seeking consultation during the years they have worked in the education field.

In order for the obtainment of consultation to work effectively, the interviewees mentioned that one must be open to seeking information and have the ability to reflect on their own teaching styles. One who has the ability to self-reflect and self-criticize, has the ability to utilize consultation in ways that will benefit their teaching for the better.

Each of them also mentioned that they have sought advice from an expert many times when there was confusion on a specific topic. For instance, new teachers that enter the classrooms may want to speak to an administrator or someone who has had years of classroom exposure so that the new teacher could take the advice given and put it to use. The interviewees knew that they could seek for help among one another because they all have backgrounds that require assistance. The special education teacher is an expert on the backgrounds of students with an IEP (Individualized Education Plan), while the science teacher is an expert in the sciences, and the paraprofessional may as well be equipped with the same information as a special education teacher while she may also seek information on how to create lesson plans.

Although there may be barriers to consultation, such as the disagreements over different styles, the inability to reflect, and the inability to welcome additional thoughts. There are still many ways that consultation is very much used with teachers, especially beginning teachers that are full of questions on what to expect in the classroom.

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The interviewees, in unison, defined co-teaching to be the act of aligning two styles of teaching performed in front of classrooms with the hopes of reaching every student. Each participant stated that in order for co-teaching to occur, one must allow for helpful insight between teachers and plan according to the styles of the teachers, what works and does not work inside the classroom.

Co-teaching also has its set of boundaries that does not allow it to thrive in order to help struggling students. There may be times that an open-minded teacher is paired with a teacher that does not respond well to constructive criticism. When these imbalanced types of pairings occur, they allow for straying off of the co-teaching goal that aims to deliver effective instruction. However, once effective co-teaching is set up in class, the pair could work miracles in the classroom and create effective teachings to reach every student.

According to the interviewees, the barriers encountered in co-teaching are identified as the imbalance of leadership, different styles, lack of motivation to participate, and lack of planning time. They believed co-teaching thrived on members who set aside time for planning and organizing, thought of themselves as a team, and had the same goals in mind.

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"Sharing ideas with hopes to come up with a combined project," stated Barbara as she gave her definition of collaboration. Out of the three, she had been very much exposed to collaboration and has stated she worked well under collaborative circumstances. Samantha and Mary both shared similar answers as Barbara, as the sharing of ideas was their initial answer.

In the education field, many members are becoming more acquainted with the definition of collaboration. In what people did not understand in collaboration, they began to understand through working with one another for a common purpose. Barbara mentions sharing ideas because it is what most members have to understand about each other in order to work together.

The interviewees all seemed to understand that in order to have collaboration, one must understand that there is a mutual feeling of respect that must be set on the table. Based on their answers, the members in a collaborative team should always be open to ideas, humble, and available. This brings forth a way for people to be able to work collaboratively with one another in search of positive results. Barriers to collaboration include not dedicating time to work collaboratively, other members of the collaborative groups not participating, and miscommunication can often occur that will not allow collaboration to work effectively among members.

Each of the participants had been previously exposed to working in groups that included collaboration, so they knew how collaboration had to be included in an educational setting.