Interactions: Collaboration Skills for School Professionals (5th Edition)

The most widely-used text on the topic of collaboration, Interactions is a guide for preprofessionals and professionals to help them understand and participate effectively in their interactions with other school professionals and parents.  It addresses collaboration as a style, with accompanying knowledge and skills, that guides practices in many education efforts.

Interactions provides a cutting-edge look at how teams of school professionals– special educators, general educators and related services professionals–can effectively work together to provide a necessary range of services to students with special needs. As a result, future teachers learn how to collaborate with school professionals and families to help special education students who are more often being placed in general education settings.

The new edition features: discussion of collaboration in the context of IDEA 2004; Chapter Opening Vignettes; a new boxed feature entitled “A Basis in Research” that demonstrates the rigorous research underpinning the practical collaborative techniques; an expanded section on Ethics that includes a broader selection of ethical inquiries; Issues of diversity are now discussed in relevant passages throughout the text; the Foundations chapter has been expanded to include material on the evolution of inclusion strategies; the Teams chapter has been revised to demonstrate a more practical and less theoretical approach to teaming.

The most widely-used text on the topic of collaboration, Interactions is a guide for preprofessionals and professionals to help them understand and participate effectively in their interactions with other school professionals and parents.  It addresses collaboration as a style, with accompanying knowledge and skills, that guides practices in many education efforts.

Highlights of the Fifth Edition

·         Discussion of collaboration in the context of IDEA 2004 (Ch. 1).

·         Chapter Opening Vignettes invite the reader into the chapter topic by illustrating real-world context. 

·         “A Basis in Research” features demonstrate the rigorous research underpinning the practical collaborative techniques.

·         The text’s section on Ethics has been expanded to include a broader selection of ethical inquiries.

·         Issues of diversity are now discussed in relevant passages throughout the text rather than in a separate boxed feature (as in last edition).

·         "Foundations" has been expanded to include material on the evolution of inclusion strategies (Ch. 1).

·         "Teams" has been revised to demonstrate a more practical and less theoretical approach to teaming (Ch. 3).