Advantages and Challenges of Multigrade Teaching

Advantages of Multigrade Classroom

• Students develop healthier social relationships, positive attitudes, and leadership, organization, listening, and sharing skills.
• Teachers can create effective syllabi and curriculum plans for students.
• Students can improve their learning and develop problem-solving skills, higher-level thinking, and more.
• A single teacher or group of teachers responsible for the multigrade classroom typically stays with the same students until they graduate to the next level.

Disadvantages of Multigrade Classroom

• Multigrade system is difficult to implement in large schools with a heavy population.
• Textbooks in use for teaching only meet the needs of monograde.
• Schools practicing multigrade teaching often suffer from inadequate material resources.
• In remote areas, teachers' passivity, irregularity, ill planning, non-accountability, and engagement in non-academic pursuits create and maintain a low school profile.

Drawbacks/Challenges

• If multigrade programs are not supported, there is a possibility of low student achievement in multigrade schools.
• Multigrade teaching requires more time and organizational skills from teachers.
• Teachers require intensive training with special emphasis on teaching materials.
• Students often have to work independently.

Matrot, GB (2001) - Advantages and Challenges of Multigrade Teaching

• Advantages:
  • Students in multigrade classes can be among the high performers.
  • Teachers can address various social issues; health, agriculture, and microfinance.
  • Low ratio of students to teachers.
  • Chance to have highly individualized teaching.
  • Opportunity for the students themselves to develop management, leadership, and cooperative skills.
• Challenges:
  • The skills needed to handle students and teach in a multigrade setting are typically not taught.
  • Teachers are required to know and effectively teach different subject areas.
  • Teachers are expected to have a variety of abilities and talents.

Implications for Teaching in Multigrade Classroom

• Several grades or divisions are taught simultaneously in the same classroom by a single teacher.
• Challenges hinder full compliance with existing policies:
  • Combining kindergarten class with upper grade.
  • Lack of training in contextualizing teaching and learning materials.
  • Lack of multigrade teacher preparation.
  • Fast multigrade teacher turnover.
• Positive outcomes:
  • 78.71% of multigrade schools are found in rural areas.
  • 4.06% situated in coastal areas, riversides, and small islands.

Aryal, P.et al (2003) - Positive Outcomes/Advantages and Drawbacks/Challenges of Multigrade Classes

• Positive outcomes:
  • It can develop independent learning.
  • It makes use of pupil-centered teaching approaches.
  • Material revision is easier.
  • It increases pupil interaction.

Multigrade, Multiage, and Multilevel Classroom

• A multigrade class is made up of students in several (two or three) grade levels.
• Multigrade should remain as a class for a minimum of two years but often for three years.
• Difference between Multigrade, Multiage, and Multilevel/Composite groups:
  • Multigrade: a class of more than one grade level taught by the same teacher in the same room.
  • Multi-age: a wide range of ages in anyone class, varying by quite number of years sometimes.
  • Multilevel: two or more classes working in the same room with one teacher, but usually with separate programs.

Practices and Strategies in Implementing Multigrade Instruction

• Quality indicators of multigrade instruction in Southeast Asia varied in the following areas:
  • Organization
  • Teaching-learning process
  • Learning environments and facilities
  • Curricular development and implementation
  • Teaching-learning materials
  • Assessment

Status of Multigrade Teaching in the Philippines

• A three-party partnership with the Department of Education, SEAMEO-Innotech, and UNICEF in 2017 reviewed the effectiveness of the Multigrade Program for Education in the Philippines.