Multigrade Classrooms Research Articles

Las escuelas unitarias en México en perspectiva histórica: un reto aún vigente

Las escuelas unitarias y multigrado representan el 44.3 por ciento de las escuelas públicas en México. El caso interesa por dos razones: en primer lugar, su persistencia a lo largo de los siglos responde a condiciones constantes y cambiantes del mundo rural que necesitan examinarse con mayor atención; en segundo lugar, su estudio es de fundamental interés teórico para la historia de la educación, pues su trayectoria histórica y las soluciones pedagógicas asociadas a éstas ponen en jaque la validez universal de los conceptos de "forma" y "gramática" escolar, que se forjaron a partir de la difusión mundial del modelo relativamente reciente de la escuela graduada, en la que la población se agrupa en grados que se pretenden homogéneos por nivel y edad, cada uno con su propio maestro. La existencia de otros arreglos de educación formal obliga a revisar los conceptos de los procesos educativos dentro y fuera de los espacios socialmente llamados escuelas. En este artí­culo, trazamos la historia de las discusiones y acciones en torno a las escuelas unitarias en México hasta 1990. Esta larga historia muestra que se trata de un sector que siempre ha luchado contra el supuesto ideal de la forma escolar graduada, erigida como modelo único desde finales del siglo XIX.

Teacher Characteristics and Peer Victimization in Elementary Schools: A Classroom-Level Perspective

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is an association between teacher characteristics and peer victimization in elementary schools. We used data of 3,385 elementary school students (M age = 9.8) and 139 of their teachers (M age = 43.9) and employed Poisson regression analyses to explain the classroom victimization rate. Results showed a higher victimization rate in the classrooms of teachers who attributed bullying to external factors-factors outside of their control. In addition, the results suggest that both teachers' perceived ability to handle bullying among students and teachers' own bullying history were positively associated with the classroom victimization rate. We also took into account classroom composition characteristics and found lower victimization rates in multi-grade classrooms and in classrooms with older students. The results support the notion of an association between teacher characteristics and peer victimization. Findings are discussed with regards to current literature and suggestions for future research are made.

Instructional leadership in multi-grade classrooms: What can mono-grade teachers learn from their resilience?

AbstractThis paper explores how teachers teaching in multi-grade classrooms experience and adapt their teaching to meet the challenges of curriculum instructions in these classroom types. A case study was used to produce the data for this paper. The findings show that teachers were faced with challenges that include lack of proper training, insufficient support from stakeholders, not any workshops organised for multi-grade teachers and lack of resources at school. These challenges make teaching and learning difficult, and the conditions of the school and the community are not conducive to effective teaching and learning. Teachers rely on their professionalism, their reflexive, adaptive and deep contextual knowledge to enable teaching and learning to take place.

A Collaborative Approach: Assessing the Impact of Multi-Grade Classrooms

Catholic schools in the United States are faced with the looming challenge of declining enrollments. One possible strategy for dealing with this problem is to institute multi-grade classrooms where students from two or more grades are combined in one classroom with one instructor. In this article, the authors examined one urban Catholic school’s successful transition to multi-grade classrooms when student enrollment dropped dramatically. The transition to multi-grade classrooms did not have a significant impact on student outcomes as measured by absences, tardiness, or academic performance though other social-emotional and developmental benefits were perceived. For example, the students were more likely to nurture other students and be nurtured by them; assume shared responsibility and leadership in the classroom and at home; were involved in fewer disciplinary incidents; and were more respectful of their classmates. The researchers offer lessons learned about the transition for other Catholic school leaders who may be considering such a change.

Teacher training and transitions in rural Indonesian schools: a case study of Bogor, West Java

As one of the world's largest and most diverse countries, Indonesia faces an enormous challenge as it seeks to upgrade the skills and knowledge of its widespread primary teacher workforce. This challenge is even more acute in remote rural areas, where practising teachers require specialized training to work in classrooms with children of different ages and grades. Yet, due to their remote locations, these teachers have little access to training opportunities, and teacher educators have few opportunities to assess their needs. To explore training needs and instructional strategies employed by rural teachers, we conducted a case study of nine rural schools in the district of Bogor, West Java. We interviewed headmasters and teachers in these schools, instructors at a major Indonesian university, and a district official. We found that while rural teachers generally consider their training to be helpful, they receive little guidance to help them manage and teach large multigrade classes. As a result, pedagogical practices and perspectives vary across nine schools in the same rural district. At the same time, a growing number of “contract teachers” in these schools has reduced the number of multigrade classrooms while increasing the need for training of novice teachers in rural schools.

Investigation of Views of Multigrade Classroom Teachers on Life Sciences Curriculum (A Qualitative Study)

Investigation of Views of Multigrade Classroom Teachers on Life Sciences Curriculum (A Qualitative Study)

A study on developing an attitude scale towards multi-grade classrooms for elementary school teachers

The aim of this study is to develop an attitude scale towards multi-grade classrooms (AMC) for elementary school teachers who work in the Multi-grade Classrooms. The research was carried out with the total 215 elementary school teachers in Tokat and Samsun provinces in Turkey. The study carried out in five stages that are literature review, creating item pool, expert opinions, administer of scale and computing the reliability and validity. The five point rating scale consisted of 50 items was developed. The draft scale obtained has been applied to the total 205 elementary school teachers and s a result of factor analysis; the number of items in draft scale was reduced to 43. The Cronbach-Alpha internal integrity coefficient of the final version of the scale was found to be 0.81 after factor analysis was carried out. The scale has been ready to be used.

El plurigrado: una práctica pedagógica singular. Argentina

Recibido 20 de octubre de 2006 • Aprobado 15 de noviembre de 2006 Este artículo se inscribe en el marco de un proyecto de investigación referido a las concepciones del proceso de enseñanza y de aprendizaje de los docentes de escuelas rurales y comprende tres apartados que intentan dar cuenta sobre sus aspectos más relevantes. En primer lugar, se presentan algunas notas relativas al diseño del proyecto; también se fundamenta la relevancia que asume la educación rural como temática que se constituye en objeto de nuestra investigación. A continuación, se describen las características que adopta el mencionado diseño en relación con el abordaje metodológico elaborado e implementado en dos escuelas rurales de la provincia de La Rioja. Finalmente, se intenta caracterizar el aula plurigrado como una práctica pedagógica diferenciada del contexto de la escuela urbana.

The preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching

A large proportion of teachers throughout the world teach in multigrade classrooms, or classes with more than one grade level. It is reliably predicted that the number of multigrade classes will increase in the future. This paper addresses the issue of teacher education for multigrade. The main thesis of this paper is that the professional knowledge and skills that are relevant and necessary to teaching effectively in single-grade contexts are also relevant and necessary for effective multigrade teaching. However, many of these skills need to be given a specific multigrade emphasis in the context of the preparation of teachers for multigrade teaching. This does not necessitate separate teacher education programmes for multigrade teachers. The paper makes comparisons between multigrade and single-grade teaching in terms of outcomes and teaching practices and highlights the importance of effective teacher education programmes that cater for the needs of teachers in a broad rather than a narrow sense. The content of programmes aimed at the specific preparation of multigrade teachers are examined, and a categorisation of specific areas of content that need particular emphasis in the context of teacher education for multigrade is provided.

Opportunities to Learn and Achievement in Mathematics in a Sample of Sixth Grade Students in Lima, Peru

In recent years, the mathematics achievement of Peruvian students has been evaluated in three national and two international studies. The results in all cases suggest very poor learning. A similar situation is found in many developing countries. In this study, we analyzed the opportunities to learn (OTL) mathematics of sixth grade students from 22 public schools in Lima, Peru. OTL were defined in this study as curriculum coverage, cognitive demand of the tasks posed to the students, percent of mathematical exercises that were correct and quality of feedback. These variables were coded in the workbooks and notebooks of the students, which were gathered at the end of the school year (at the same time, the mathematics achievement test was administered). The results show that: (a) regarding OTL, less than half of the exercises available in the workbooks were solved, teachers overemphasize some topics of the national curriculum ({i.e.} related to Number and Number Sense), they pose tasks that are at very low levels of cognitive demand, and it is common to find mistakes in the students' answers to problems that have no feedback (or even worse, the feedback is wrong); (b) students in relatively poorer, multigrade classrooms have less OTL; (c) OTL, as defined earlier, is positively associated with achievement.

The Relationship Between Students' Perceptions of the Teaching and Learning Process and Academic Performance in Science of Seventh and Eighth Graders Enrolled in Seventh-day Adventist Schools

This study investigated student perceptions of the 7th and 8th grade Adventist science education program and their relationship to achievement in science as defined by performance on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Findings revealed that students held generally poor perceptions of science education. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed 8 significant predictors of science achievement for multigrade and 2-grade classrooms and 5 significant predictors for single-grade classrooms. The 5 predictors shared across all classroom types included “complete assignments,” “environment conducive to study at home,” “read textbook ahead,” “teacher grades fairly,” and “subject made interesting."

Turning the Looking Glass Inside Out: A Gifted Student in an At-Risk Setting

This qualitative study occurred in a multigrade classroom of 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders in a school labeled at-risk. The focal student in this study was Kirby, identified in this setting as a gifted student. Kirby’s classroom teacher and a university researcher collaborated in data collection that included interviews, classroom observations, a teacher journal, artifacts, and analysis over a 3-year period that was centered on literacy learning and teaching. It was discovered that the open-ended, flexible learning and teaching that occurred in the classroom benefited Kirby’s learning, as well as that of the other children in the classroom. Additionally, Kirby benefited from the rich literacy environment that was established by his mother.

The construction of literate understanding in a literature‐based classroom

This study investigated young children’s developing understanding of three essential features of book language (i.e. autonomy, conventionality, unique grammar) in two curricular genres (i.e. narrative and expository) in a literature‐based, multigrade (1st–3rd) classroom. Each of the 19 participants was asked to compose two written texts (story and report) at beginning, middle and end of the school year. All texts were coded for inclusion of a variety of genre‐specific discursive markers that index the three features of book language. Analyses showed that (a) the children demonstrated emergent understanding of autonomy, limited familiarity with conventionality and an embryonic sense of unique grammar, irrespective of genre; (b) they gained significantly more understanding of the three book‐language features in both curricular genres over the school year; (c) the development of this understanding is genre‐ and feature‐specific, unstable, complex and not consistently associated with children’s grade level. These findings were interpreted from both developmental and pedagogical perspectives. Limitations and directions for future research were also discussed.

Assessment for learning in the multigrade classroom

This paper suggests that multigrade classrooms lend themselves particularly well to promoting assessment that enhances learning, rather than assessment aimed solely at selecting pupils for promotion to the next grade. Some strategies to encourage assessment for learning in the multigrade classroom are explored. These include facilitating individual responsibility for learning, drawing on other children as an assessment resource and using assessment tasks that have learning potential. For such strategies to be used, teachers need training, guidance and exemplification relating to the formative purposes of assessment and criterion- and pupil-referenced assessment.

Multigrade teaching in Peru, Sri Lanka and Vietnam: an overview

This paper comprises reviews of multigrade teaching in three countries: Peru, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. For each country, we describe the context for multigrade teaching, the country's education system, the place of multigrade teaching within the system, problems associated with multigrade teaching and current strategies for multigrade teaching. We conclude by noting some common experiences for multigrade schools across the countries, including those of isolation and dispersion, lack of physical facilities, poor teacher backgrounds and conditions, limited classroom teaching and learning strategies and pupils' deprived backgrounds. Also common across the three countries is a national commitment to improving the situation for multigrade classrooms.

Opening the Door on Best Practice

This paper examines two case studies of multigrade teachers, and focuses on the diverse styles of these different teachers. It questions what, given this diversity, are the critical issues in multigrade teaching, and whether it is possible to identify 'best practice' in the multigrade classroom. In addition this paper attempts to indicate the necessary skills which should be developed in preservice education for teaching in multigrade classrooms.

Cognitive and Noncognitive Effects of Multigrade and Multi-Age Classes: A Best-Evidence Synthesis

Multigrade and multi-age classrooms, in which students from two or more grades are taught by one teacher at the same time, represent a significant phenomenon in our schools. This article reviews the best evidence concerning the cognitive and noncognitive effects of the multigrade classroom, which is an administrative device used to cope with declining student enrollment or uneven class sizes, and the multi-age classroom, in which children of different ages are grouped together for educational and pedagogical benefits, in elementary schools. Studies in which the cognitive or achievement effects of multigrade and single-grade classes were compared revealed no consistent differences between these two types of classroom organization (median ES = .00). Studies of the noncognitive effects of multigrade and single-grade classes also produced no consistent differences (median ES = +.10). Studies in which the cognitive or achievement effects of multi-age and single-age classes were compared indicated no differences between these two types of grouping (median ES = –.03). And, finally, studies of the noncognitive effects of multi-age and single-age classes produced inconsistent effects (median ES = +.15). It is concluded that there is no empirical evidence for the assumption that student learning may suffer in multigrade and multi-age classrooms.

A Comparison of the Academic Achievement in Multigrade and Single-grade Elementary Church-school Classrooms

A quasi-experimental design was used to statistically compare academic achievement among 277 students in single-grade and multigrade classrooms in the Pacific Northwest. Adjustments were made using analysis of covariance to help insure comparable group means. Results indicate that academic achievement with a single exception is not related to enrollment in single grade or multigrade classrooms even after the effects of gender and length of years in classroom were held constant. Less direct instruction and more process time was observed in multigrade rooms.

Achievement Evaluation of Colombia's "Escuela Nueva": Is Multigrade the Answer?

In the mid 1980s, half of Colombia's rural schools did not offer complete primary education and more than half of rural children between the ages of 7 and 9 had never attended school. Unitary schools - multigrade classrooms taught by one teacher - were established in the early 1960s in isolated rural areas with few students. However, when efforts were made to expand the program nationally several problems became apparent - with teacher training, with the automatic promotion system, and with the relevance of course content to rural life. Escuela Nueva was created in 1976 as an official improvement on the unitary school. By 1989 enrollment increased to 17,948 schools, serving 800,000 students. Escuela Nueva is a rural school in which one or two teachers offer all five years of primary education in or two multigrade classrooms. Promotion is flexible, but not automatic. Special instruction materials are used which encourage the practical application of what is learned to life in a rural community. The system supports peer instruction, with older students coaching younger ones. The schools have study corners focused on different subject areas and a small library that also functions as a community information center. Many activities are designed to involve parents in support of their child's learning. The authors found that Escuela Nueva had significantly improved student outcomes, community participation as well as reducing dropout rates.

Ungraded Team Teaching in a Small School

In country areas of Australia it is not a rare concept for multi-grade classrooms to exist under the instruction of one or two teachers. However, even within the structure of single teacher schools, there is usually a grade structure within the classroom, where the teacher divides the children into grades and the blackboard into grade areas. This works efficiently if the children in each grade section are of the same academic level and of similar chronological age. In many cases the teacher can call on the senior students, when they have completed their work, to help the juniors, and in this way the teacher surreptitiously sets recapitulatory and revisionary work for all the students. The big ones helping the little ones is an efficient concept in small school teaching, especially if the children are of European extraction and have had a fairly continuous educational exposure.In an Aboriginal school or a school with an enrolment of predominantly Aboriginal children, the assumption that the children have had a continual exposure to education cannot be made, and if made, can be very detrimental to the educational development of the child. A teacher arriving in an Aboriginal community peruses reports and other information regarding the children and after several weeks of teaching and testing, sets up “grade areas”. Here the dangers creep in.Most Aboriginal children are lacking in the basic European competitive instinct and do not wish to be singled out as superior students. They seem to believe in the words of Eldridge Cleaver that, “Competition is the law of the jungle and co-operation is the law of civilization”. Perhaps the Aboriginal people are more civilized than those of the European west.