Lynne Cook: Group Effort

Lynne Cook, dean, College of Education, will be co-teaching “Advanced Consultation, Collaboration and Communication” with Adriean Mancillas, assistant professor of graduate education, and DeAnna Hurley Chamberlain, a graduate student from the University of North Carolina.

“In education right now, the inclusion of kids with disabilities into the general education classroom is a really high priority,” says Cook. “In order to do that well, all educational and healthcare professionals need to collaborate. Historically, teachers haven’t been taught to collaborate, but to go into their classroom, shut the door, and do their own thing.”

The course, listed in the catalog as SPE 528, is taught every semester. However, Cook will only be teaching the upcoming section during the summer session from July 8 to August 18. SPE 528 is a required course for the master’s degree in education.

“This will be really good for our students,” says Cook. “We talk about diversity so much, but it’s usually ethnic, cultural, or linguistic diversity. By combining special education, counseling, and classroom teaching orientations, we will be giving them diversity of thought.”

An internationally recognized expert in the area of teacher collaboration, Cook co-authored Interactions: Collaboration Skills for School Professionals with
Marilyn Friend, chair of specialized programs at the University of North Carolina. This has been the bestselling text on this topic since 1994, and will be published in its 5th edition this summer.

“I look forward to the opportunity to teach Dominguez Hills students,” says Cook, “and to get to know from them, the districts that they work in, and have a better sense of the students we’re serving.”

- Joanie Harmon