Successful co-teaching relies on essential elements, such as collaborative planning, communication skills, partnership relationship, classroom application, knowledge base, and co-teaching approaches. The objective of this study is to examine if teacher candidates and cooperating teachers use different essential co-teaching elements to implement co-teaching at the beginning and end of student teaching. Twenty-six teacher candidates and sixteen cooperating teachers completed the Essential Elements of Co-Teaching (EECT) survey by the end of student teaching. The results show that teacher candidates and cooperating teachers use different co-teaching elements and approaches by the end of student teaching. Implications for student teaching are recommended.