As a special education teacher at the Malcolm Price Laboratory School at the University of Northern Iowa, Becky Wilson Hawbaker (MA ’94) is a confirmed believer in the power of co-teaching as a strategy to help students with special needs become more successful in their general education classrooms. But even before they step into a classroom to begin co-teaching, the best teachers already have dedicated time and energy to co-planning.

“I’ve always sought out the team approach to teaching,” Hawbaker said. “But in those early years, we didn’t have a real model for how to plan—we just planned on the fly.”

When Hawbaker moved from co-teaching high school classes at Independence (Iowa) High School to Price Lab School in 1998, her workload increased substantially. More students and a wider range of responsibilities suddenly put a premium on efficient, focused, and consistent planning sessions.

“I was motivated to design a model that would streamline collaboration, so we could get planning done within the time constraints of a school day,” Hawbaker said.

The result was BASE—a planning process that can be used across disciplines and age grades. Developed by Hawbaker and three ninth-grade math instructors, BASE stands for Big ideas, Analyzing areas of difficulty, creating Strategies and supports, and Evaluating the process. The education team begins by building consensus about what should be the most important ideas taught during the unit. Then they analyze which ideas will be most difficult for their students to learn. To ensure all students can learn the concepts presented in the unit, the teachers develop learning and assessment strategies. And finally, at the end of the unit and after teachers have assessed students’ learning, the team evaluates both the planning and teaching stages.

“Becky is a very creative, collaborative faculty member,” Price Lab School Director Nadene Davidson said, “and the BASE approach is just one example of how she develops multiple strategies to improve student achievement. Her energy and leadership make her highly respected among her colleagues.”

Hawbaker’s planning approach is not the first of its kind, but after examining other planning processes, she found most too complicated for the needs of the Price Lab School. She notes that her skills in assessing educational research were honed at The University of Iowa, where teachers such as professors Gary Sasso, David Wacker, and Jo Hendrickson emphasize how to read, analyze, critique, and apply research.

In addition to keeping the team on-task and providing accountability, the BASE process also encourages consistency across teams, grades, and subjects. And as an efficient technique for communicating and integrating ideas, it helps productively dovetail the various teaching styles and strengths within each team. Through journal articles and workshops, Hawbaker and her colleagues have presented the concept to enthusiastic response by peers and student teachers.

“The BASE approach has helped us and we’re glad it helps other teachers,” Hawbaker said. “It’s straightforward and it works.” –by Jean Florman