Educational Psychology, Department of
Title
Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Variations on a Theme
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
March 1995
Abstract
Twenty years ago, Nicholas Hobbs, in The Futures
of Children, advocated an interdisciplinary
team-based approach to educate handicapped, disadvantaged,
and delinquent children and youth (Hobbs,
1975). Hobbs emphasizes the school as a social system
and the need for professional collaboration in
educating children with special needs. Although the
team-based approach was originally proposed as a
promising model specifically for educating special
needs students, there is a growing recognition that
the education of all youth [emphasis added] is the
shared responsibility of classroom teachers, special
educators, administrators, related professionals, and
parents (Welch et al., 1992, p. 1).
Several factors make this shift to an interdisciplinary
team-based approach appropriate for all students:
the perception that schools are not well serving the
increased numbers of at-risk students; the increased
emphasis on site-based decision-making and parental
involvement in education; and the recognition that
schools are social systems set within the context of the
larger community, offering a range of social services
that if better integrated, could better meet the needs of
students and their families (Welch et al., 1992).
Download
Comments
Published in Journal of Teacher Education 46:2 (March-April 1995), pp. 109–119. Copyright © 1995 American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Published by SAGE Publications. http://jte.sagepub.com Used by permission.