Teaching Teamwork in a Special Needs Classroom

Defining Teamwork

The ability to communicate is a key factor. It also happens to be one of the other soft skills mentioned in Gateway School’s article, Soft Skills in the Employment Environment-Special Education Needs. That skill links the ability to work cooperatively, along with the ability to listen. Group members must be willing to do their share of the tasks. They must be able to solve problems and work toward a common goal. Of course, any team needs a leader or leaders with good team-based skills, modelled at first by the teacher.

Strategies to Teach Teamwork

Special needs learners lack, or struggle with, the emotional maturity or higher-order thinking skills of mainstream students of the same age. In order to develop activities that will teach them to plan, problem solve and communicate effectively in a team situation, we must strategize differently.

One approach that already works well is having a teacher or support person role-model leadership skills while the class performs a teamwork task. Organize students into mini-teams of two or three, and give them a small, easily achievable goal to work toward over a short timeframe. Make the task a written or visual one that has set check points, such as built-in mini-goals along the way. The best strategies will come from the classroom teacher, who knows the students best.