The mlutigrade teachers have to deal with a class of students that often has a very wide range of ages and consequently of learning abilities, all together in the same room. Thus, most of the times it is not feasible for the teacher to encounter teaching of the class as a whole. Teachers should not use just the usual style of teaching that they have been trained for, i.e. teaching a single class of students in one subject at the time or mono-grade teaching.
The situation in the multigrade classroom is completely different, not only teachers have to teach more than one grade of students in the same classroom, but also most of the times they have to teach different subject to each grade. In order to be effective multigrade schoolteachers must utilise very good planning and develop teaching and learning strategies specially targeted for their classrooms with vertical grouping and continuous progress system.
Above all, they must be dedicated and willing to work hard to overcome the problems and the peculiarities of multigrade education. They have to be flexible and use various teaching methods (grouping, individualised instruction, independent study, team-teaching, group project work, peer tutoring etc.) according to their specific teaching needs at the time. The use of such strategies not only supports the educational work of the teachers and serves the national curriculum goals, but also represent flexible methods that encourage children to be independent and develop their personalities: they gain the skills and attitudes of "learning to learn".
There are three main methods to use for teaching in multigrade classrooms, namely:
• Whole Class Teaching
• Group Teaching
• Self directed learning
Teaching and learning strategies for multigrade classrooms
· Whole class teaching
· Ability grouping
· Mixed ability grouping
· Peer tutoring
· Self directed learning
In general, one can easily specify some types of activities found in most multigrade classrooms like:
Whole-class teaching
Pair- work
Group- work
Audiovisual and ICT work
Quiet or individual study and testing
Simplest MGT strategy
Activity / teacher-directed learning ]
Reading work
Written work @
These three basic teaching strategies are indicative as well as characteristic for the multigrade setting and can be used in combination among them or separately depending on the situation. Thus, it is equally important for the teacher not only to comprehend and know how to implement a strategy but also to know when to use these teaching methods or what strategy combination to choose.
Theoretical Background
As was mentioned above, it is essential that the multigrade classroom is well organized and structured in such a way as to facilitate different types of teaching and learning. Managing a multigrade classroom, which is usually non-homogeneous with respect to age, ability or other parameter, is a complicated case. One way to overcome several problems is to organise the classroom in terms of the “activity-centres approach”.
An activity centre is best described as an area of the classroom that the teacher has designated for a specific purpose. This is a definition found in the “NWREL, Portland, (1999), The multigrade classroom: A resource handbook for small, rural schools, Book 2: Classroom organisation”.
An alternative definition for activity centres from the above book is as follows: “An activity centre can be defined formally as any discernible pattern of student or teacher behaviour that can be clearly described and labelled”.
One common activity in the classroom is seatwork, where students work independently at a desk. In the case of students working together, their activity is generally characterized as group-work. A classroom may have areas designated for art and craftwork, audio-visual equipment, computers and other instructional resources. Each of the above examples reflects a type of activity where expectations for behaviour may be clearly defined. The above definition of activity-centres approach, as presented in the NWREL book, focuses on “designated patterns with specific expectations of students’ behaviour”. This definition of “activity centres approach” is differentiated slightly and includes similar concepts as “learning centres” or “subject area resource centre”.
A learning centre is a term used to describe a self-instruction learning activity that has been placed in a clearly defined area of the classroom. It can be used in any subject and generally includes objectives, instructions, and evaluation. A subject area resource centre is an area where student resources related to a specific subject are located. For example, specific resources related to the science module may all be located in a well-marked area of the classroom that forms a specific centre. An activity centre, though wider as a concept win comparison to the above two, is related (as already mentioned) with areas or patterns in the class where a certain teaching and learning behaviour is expected according to certain types of teaching or learning activities.
It is essential for the multigrade teacher to understand what kind of organisation reform needs to be done in the classroom in order to have a more effective classroom setting. The starting post for this procedure the teacher is recommended to answer the following questions:
What types of activities normally occur in your classroom?
What types of activities would you like to occur?
How can you facilitate students’ grouping activities?
Are there students who can tutor?
Do you meet separately with individual students or small groups?
Probably the teacher finds necessary to ask other questions too, according to the specific conditions in the classroom. It is worth supplementing the above general questions with some more specific, for this will help identifying the classroom’s management needs.
The classroom organisation, so far as setting is concerned, must be flexible so as to serve different kind of activities. Furniture and equipment should be arranged to create activity centres appropriate for the type of activity that is expected to take place. In the multigrade classroom there may be many different kinds of activity going on at the same time. Thus, some students of the fourth and fifth grade might be working in a group on an art project while two students may be peer tutored in maths. Two first-graders may work with their teacher, and several students might be completing independent assignments requiring the use of a computer. The teacher’s task is to arrange the classroom so that all these activities can take place at the same time with disruption at a minimum and under continuous supervision and guidance by the teacher.
NOTE: It is important to understand that the information presented in this document in order to present the concept of learning centers in the most general way. However this does not mean that every of the above ideas are applicable in every classroom. You should take into account the particularities of your own classroom and reorganise it in the most flexible way. Flexibility is the key concept of this classroom re organisation effort.
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