Course Enhancement Modules

Teaming

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Overview

What Learners Should Know and Be Able to Do

Multimedia Illustrations

This module expands on the curriculum module for EI/ECSE Standard 3, Collaboration and Teaming, and its component 3.1. The learning resources provided are designed to be used in both pre-service and in-service to facilitate the integration of the knowledge and skills addressed by this topic. The learning resources specifically address legislative requirements for teams and teaming, team models, team members (i.e., professionals, paraprofessionals, family members) and their roles, collaboration/communication strategies, supervision of paraprofessionals, and team meetings.

The following EI/ECSE Standards and components are addressed in this curriculum module.

Standard 3: Collaboration and Teaming, Component 3.1

Purpose

The purpose of this module is to: (a) identify what learners should know and be able to do specific to teaming, (b) provide higher education faculty and PD providers with a variety of learning resources for this topic, and (c) identify the relationship of these resources to adult learning practices. It is designed to be used flexibly for preservice and ongoing professional development.

Objectives

After engaging with these resources, IHE faculty and PD providers will be able to:

Identify learner outcomes specific to Teaming.
Identify resources to integrate into the higher education curriculum and/or content for PD.
Identify the relationship of the resources with evidence-based practices for adult learners.

PowerPoint Presentations:

This sample syllabus provides ideas for resources, activities, readings, and assignments, aligned with the EI/ECSE standards. Consider state and university policies and add them as appropriate. This is a sample only and is not a complete syllabus.

Sample Syllabus Teaming Curriculum Module

What Learners Should Know and Be Able to Do

Learners Who Have Mastered this Component/Topic Know and Understand:

Legal requirements for teams and teaming,
Teaming models,
Teaming skills and processes, including uses of technology, and
The skills, expertise, and roles of team members include professionals from other disciplines, paraprofessionals, and family members.

Learners Who Have Mastered this Component/Topic Are Able To:

Apply teaming models, such as:

Primary service provider,
Transdisciplinary,
Interdisciplinary, and
Multidisciplinary

Apply teaming skills and processes, such as:

Participate in and lead team meetings.

Collaborate and communicate with families, other professionals, and paraprofessionals.

Multimedia Illustrations

This section includes short videos, video vignettes, TED Talks, and webinars that relate to the topic. The majority addresses the evidence-based practice for adult learners of illustration. Some are informational and relate to the practice of introduction.

Component and Title	Key Content	Duration	Link
3.1 Active Listening: No Concerns	In this video from CDC's early educator training tool, Watch Me! Celebrating Milestones and Sharing Concerns, a mom and early educator discuss a child who is meeting all of his age-appropriate developmental milestones.	3:00	View
3.1 CONNECT Video 3.1: The Teacher’s Viewpoint	Shawanda, a teacher in a community-based childcare program shares a dilemma about collaborating with a speech therapist to address the learning goals of David, a 4-year-old boy in her class.	1:50	View
3.1 CONNECT Video 3.2: The Therapist’s Viewpoint	Ashley, a speech therapist shares her view on collaborating with a teacher in a community-based childcare program to address the goals of David, a 4-year-old boy with language delays.	1:09	View
3.1 CONNECT Video 3.3: Conversation with Examples of Attending and Active Listening	Andi, a Head Start teacher, and LeeMarie, a speech therapist, have a conversation about collaborating to address the learning goals of a 4-year-old child in Andi’s classroom. This is part one of a three-part conversation highlighting examples of attending and active listening communication strategies.	2:38	View
3.1 CONNECT Video 3.4: Conversation with Examples of Seeking and Verifying Information	Andi, a Head Start teacher, and LeeMarie, a speech therapist, have a conversation about collaborating to address the learning goals of a 4-year-old child in Andi’s classroom. This is part two of a three-part conversation highlighting examples of seeking and verifying communication strategies.	2:39	View
3.1 CONNECT Video 3.5: Conversation with Examples of Joining and Supporting	Andi, a Head Start teacher, and LeeMarie, a speech therapist, have a conversation about collaborating to address the learning goals of a 4-year-old child in Andi’s classroom. This is part three of a three-part conversation highlighting examples of joining and supporting communication strategies.	3:13	View
3.1 CONNECT Video 2.3: Highlights of a Home Visit	The preschool teacher makes a home visit before the child starts preschool to build rapport with the mom, gather information, and share information about what the first day of school will be like.	3:03	View
3.1 Five Ways to Muck Up a Go-Around (in meetings)	Go-arounds are an excellent strategy to ensure that everyone on the team provides an idea, information, etc. This video provides five things that may occur during a go-around to cause the strategy to be ineffective and then, presents alternative strategies.	8:08	View
3.1 Improve Your Listening Skills with Active Listening	This video discusses five active listening techniques.	2:39	View
3.1 Janella’s Story	The video illustrates how an Early Interventionist worked with members of a transdisciplinary team and the family to help 27-month-old Janella make her choices known and participate in play and family routines.	11:33	View
3.1 Use of Technology with Evidence-Based Early Intervention	This video provides an overview of how video conferencing can be used to conduct team early intervention meetings that include both professionals and families.	6:54	View
3.1 Using Facetime to Enhance Team Collaboration	Kate, a physical therapist, and Lori, a developmental specialist, illustrate how video conferencing is being used to help practitioners who work in different locations better collaborate to support families.	4:50	View
3.1 Using Video and Video Conferencing to Enable Team Meetings over Distances	This video illustrates several ways that video and video conferencing are being used to enhance support for families and team functioning.	6:35	View
3.1 Teamwork: The Path to Success	This video of a female rowing team emphasizes that reaching a common goal requires having that sense of trust and relying on others. There must be constant communication, otherwise, you're set up to fail. It happens through a ridiculous amount of hard work, and the right team. It's essential to share knowledge; it's how people view what their goals are and how they can achieve them.	1:19	View
3.1 Teamwork with a Cause	This excerpt from the movie, Here Comes the Boom, stresses that when one member of a team is not contributing to the team, the entire team begins to stagnate with the potential for the entire team to become dysfunctional. If one team member makes the effort to get back on track, it can energize the entire team.	3:12	View
3.1 Technique (for meetings): 9 Ways to Check for Agreement	This video identifies nine strategies for selecting a solution or option among several that the team generates when a decision is needed.	6:19	View
3.1 Technique (for meetings): The 5 Second Rule	This video stresses the importance of waiting 5 seconds when asking a question or providing a discussion prompt during meetings to facilitate team participation.	3:02	View
3.1 The Power of Collaboration: Dr. Shelle VanEtten de Sanchez at TEDxABQWomen	In this TEDx Talk, Dr. Shelle VanEtten de Sanchez, Director of Education at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, discusses the power of collaboration in situations of limited fiscal resources, staffing, and time. In an engaging manner, she defines collaboration, discusses what can happen through collaboration, and identifies five essential lessons for collaboration.	6:29	View
3.1 TMB Panyee FC Short Film	This video tells the true story of the original Panyee FC soccer team. Living on a floating island with little room to even walk, a group of young boys had the creativity to find a way to play soccer. Now the team is considered one of the best youth leagues in Southern Thailand, winning the Youth Championships 7 times in a row.The video underlines the fact that the seemly impossible is made possible through a common goal, problem-solving, and teamwork.	5:14	View
3.1 Tuckman’s Five Stages of Team Development	This video briefly describes Tuckman’s five stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.	1:27	View
3.1 Why Collaboration Is an Individual Effort: Emily Eldridge at TEDxMU	Understanding personalities, people, and their individual needs are essential to collaboration and good teamwork. Emily Eldridge in this TEDx Talk discusses the power of the individual in a team and the four things each person needs to know about themselves and share with other team members to be an effective team member.	12:38	View

Learning Activities

The projects or assignments require learners to apply knowledge and skills related to the topic. They align with the evidence-based practices for adult learners of authentic learning, reflection, guidance, performance feedback, and follow-up activities.

Analysis of a Collaborative Team: This project requires that you identify and analyze a team with which you are associated. The team should be one that is intended to function as a collaborative team, even if it is not a highly functioning team at the time of your analysis. You will assess the team and provide a description of its current functioning using ECTA checklist #3 Teaming and Collaboration: Collaboration to Learn and Grow.pdf. Your assessment must include supporting evidence for each of the items, as well as a completed summary and analysis section.

Initially, a paragraph identifying the team that you will analyze, as well as a brief statement of your initial impressions of the team’s strengths and challenges must be submitted. The final products are the completed checklist with supporting evidence, a completed analysis and summary of the results, and reflection.

Collaborate to Develop a Plan for Activity-Based Intervention (ABI) and for Monitoring Progress: The TEAM will assist the program staff to develop a realistic and workable plan for implementing ABI and for monitoring progress for one child within the daily activities and routines of a classroom that the student is working with for the practicum. This will involve working with the program staff to identify and prioritize functional learning objectives for the child, observing and discussing with the staff the daily routine and typical activities of the classroom, determining with the staff appropriate routines or activities in which to embed opportunities to practice the targeted skills, and planning realistic procedures for monitoring the child’s progress. The plan developed with the staff may also include curriculum modifications (e.g., modifications of the environment, materials, activity, etc.). The TEAM will provide written plans to the classroom staff that includes an individual activity matrix, strategies for teaching the targeted skills, procedures for collecting data in order to monitor progress, and any other forms or plans that were completed as part of the planning process. The TEAM should prepare a brief (two-page) reflection on this process. A suggested resource for this project is the following book: Sandall, S. R., & Schwartz, I. S. (2019). Building blocks for teaching preschoolers with special needs, (3^rd ed.). Brookes.

Submit the following: (A) written plans (e.g., individual activity matrix, teaching strategies, data collection procedures, and any other forms or plans used in the process), and (B) a two-page reflection paper.

Collaborative Workshop Planning Teams: Many class sessions will include “collaborative workshop planning time”. Each student will be assigned to a team and assigned a workshop topic. Collaborative workshop planning teams will use the time to plan the workshop. Teams are expected to use collaborative strategies, including developing and using group norms, using agendas, keeping meeting minutes, using distributed leadership practices, documenting the results of group processing at the end of each group time, and completing a final assessment of the team’s functioning and stage of development. Weekly teamwork must be documented. The final product must include:

a title page with the team’s name, membership, and workshop title.
a list of group norms used by the team.
team meeting minutes with date, the primary topic of discussion, team member roles, a summary of the discussion, and summary and reflection on group processing.

Teaming Models – Observation and Reflection: For your field placement, observe and reflect on the teaming model employed in this setting for assessment, individualized planning, and intervention/instruction. For each of these program activities (i.e., assessment, individualized planning, intervention/instruction), respond to the following questions:

What program activity is included in this section of your reflection?
What teaming model is used? Keep in mind that a different teaming model may be used for different program activities.
Who are the team members and what is each of their primary roles on the team?
What is your rationale for identifying the team model that you chose for this program activity?
If in the future you are an early intervention or teacher in this program, what would you want to maintain as part of this team and what would you want to see changed? Support your response with information from course discussions, readings, and DEC Recommended Practices.

Websites

American Occupational therapy Association https://www.aota.org

American Physical Therapy Association https://www.apta.org

American Speech and Hearing Association https://www.asha.org

Division for Early Childhood Learning Decks https://www.dec-sped.org/learning-decks

Division for Early Childhood Recommended Practices https://www.dec-sped.org/dec-recommended-practices

Council for Exceptional Children High Leverage Practices https://highleveragepractices.org/about-hlps/

ECTA Practice Improvement Tools: Topic – Teaming and Collaboration https://ectacenter.org/decrp/topic-teaming.asp

ECTA Service Delivery Approaches and Models https://ectacenter.org/topics/eiservices/approaches-models.asp

Head Start Early Learning and Knowledge Center https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/

National Association of Interpreters in Education https://naiedu.org/

National Association of School Psychologists https://www.nasponline.org

National Resource Center for Paraeducators https://nrcpara.org/

Zero to Three https://www.zerotothree.org/

Learning Modules

Modules from other sources that relate to the topic. They can be used in their entirety or by selecting sections or content that support the objectives of an IHE course or PD content. The evidence-based practices for adult learners will vary based on the module selected.

Learning Modules

CONNECT Module 3: Communication for Collaboration https://connectmodules.dec-sped.org/connect-modules/learners/module-3/

Early Childhood Recommended Practices Module 4: Teaming and Collaboration https://rpm.fpg.unc.edu/module-4-teaming

Related Services: Common Supports for Students with Disabilities https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/rs/

Working Together Series https://www.cadreworks.org/resources/cadre-materials/working-together-series

References

Aldridge, J., Kilgo, J. L., & Bruton, A. K. (2015). Transforming transdisciplinary early intervention and early childhood special education through intercultural education. International Journal of Early Childhood Special Education, 7(2), 343-360. https://www.int-jecse.net/data-cms/articles/20200531110233pm7208.pdf.pdf

Biggs, E. E., Gilson, C. B., & Carter, E. W. (2016). Accomplishing more together: Influences to the quality of professional relationships between special educators and paraprofessionals. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 41(4), 256-272.

Biggs, E. E., Gilson, C. B., & Carter, E. W. (2019). “Developing That Balance”: Preparing and Supporting Special Education Teachers to Work With Paraprofessionals. Teacher Education and Special Education, 42(2), 117-131.

Brown, T. L., Gatmaitan, M., & Harjusola-Webb, S. M. (2014). Using performance feedback to support paraprofessionals in inclusive preschool classrooms. Young Exceptional Children, 17(2), 21-31. Uhttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1096250613493189

Division for Early Childhood (2014). DEC recommended practices in early intervention/early childhood special education 2014. Retrieved from http://www.dec-sped.org/recommendedpractices

Friend, M., & Barron, T. (2019). Collaborating with colleagues to increase student success. In J. McLeskey, L. Maheady, B. Billingsley,, M. Brownell, & T.J. Lewis (Eds.), High leverage practices for inclusive classrooms (pp. 3-14). New York, NY: Routledge.

King, G., Strachan, D., Tucker, M., Duwyn, B., Desserud, S., & Shillington, M. (2009). The application of a transdisciplinary model for early intervention services. Infants and Young Children, 22(3), 211-223. https://journals.lww.com/iycjournal/Fulltext/2009/07000/The_Application_of_a_Transdisciplinary_Model_for.6.as

Rausch, A., Bold, E., & Strain, P. (2021). The more the merrier: Using collaborative transdisciplinary services to maximize inclusion and child outcomes. Young Exceptional Children, 24(2), 59-69.

Ronfeldt, M., Farmer. S., McQueen, K., & Grissom, J.A. (2015). Teacher collaboration in instructional teams and student achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 52, 475-514.

Spence, C. M., Miller, D., Corr, C., Santos, R. M., & Bentley, B. (2021). When in doubt, reach out: Teaming strategies for inclusive early childhood settings. Young Children, 76(1), 39-49.

Solis, M., Vaughn, S., Swanson, E., & McCulley, L. (2012). Collaborative models of instruction: The empirical foundations of inclusion and co-teaching. Psychology in the Schools, 49, 498-510.

Tremblay, P. (2013). Comparative outcomes of two instructional models for students with Learning disabilities: Inclusion with co-teaching and solo-taught special education. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 13, 251-258.

Woodruff, G., & McGonigel, M. J. (1988). Early intervention team approaches: The transdisciplinary model. In J. B. Jordan, J. J. Gallagher, P. L. Hutinger, & M. B. Karnes (Eds.), Early childhood special education: Birth to Three (pp. 163-181). Council for Exceptional Children and Division for Early Childhood.

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Teaming

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