Multi-Grade Teaching: A Review of Research and Practice. Education Research.

Little, Angela

Multi-grade teaching refers to the teaching of students of different ages, grades and abilities in the same
group. It is referred to variously in the literature as 'multilevel', 'multiple class', 'composite class',
'vertical group', 'family class', and, in the case of one-teacher schools, 'unitary schools'. It is to be
distinguished from 'mono-grade' teaching in which students within the same grade are assumed to be
more similar in terms of age and ability. Substantial variation in ability within a monograde class often
leads to "mixed-ability" teaching. Multi-grade teaching should also be distinguished from "multi-age-
within-grade" teaching which occurs when there are wide variations in age within the same grade. This
is common in developing countries, where the age of entry to school varies and where grade repetition
is common. However, in North America, where age and grade are more congruent, the terms "multi-
age" and "multi-grade" are often used synonomously.

Several writers have pointed out that the first state-supported elementary schools in North America and
Europe were un-graded. The school often consisted of a single room in which one teacher taught basic
literacy and numeracy to children from six to fifteen years of age. In the US the "death knell of the one
room school was sounded" after a visit to Prussia by Horace Mann, the Secretary of the Massachusetts
Board of Education, in 1843.

Urban education administrators in the US were soon to recommend that schools be divided on the lines
of age and grade, a development which was consistent with the division of labour in industry. The
"principle of the division of labour holds good in schools, as in mechanical industry" ( Bruck quoted in
Pratt 1986). The mono-grade model was to become a universal ideal in the late nineteenth and
twentieth centuries and came to dominate the basis of school, class and curriculum organisation used
by central authorities.

Researchers on multi-grade teaching are unanimous on at least one point. For children to learn
effectively in multi-grade environments teachers need to be well organised, well resourced and well
trained, as well as to hold positive attitudes to multi-grade teaching. Yet, as we have seen in previous
chapters, many teachers who fmd themselves teaching in a multi-grade environment are frequently
under-resourced, and are often the most under-educated and under-trained members of a national
teaching force. In this chapter various pointers to action to improve the effectiveness of multi-grade
teaching are drawn together. Four documents are part icularly useful in this respect. Collingwood's
(1991) Multiclass Teaching in Primary Schools is a handbook prepared with and for teachers in the
Pacific region, with support from the UNESCO Office for the Pacific States. It is extremely well presented
and could be adapted for use with teachers in many countries. Abhayadeva's (1989) account of a pilot
project in Sri Lanka, carried out with assistance from UNICEF, sets out a number of pointers to action
which have emerged at the classroom and teacher level. The UNESCO/APEID (1989) synthesis of country
reports also offers advice at this level, but goes further and sets out implications for curriculum planning
at the district and national levels. This multi-levelled approach is also adopted in Thomas and Shaw's
(1992) Issues in the Development of Multi-grade Schools. Since there is a degree of overlap in the
lengthy recommendations which are made in the four documents they will be summarised and
synthesised here in the form of questions, 3 8 a format which may be useful both in work with
policymakers and practitioners, and in defining developmental research work in this area. To these will
be added additional points which arise from the case-studies and research studies presented in chapters
2 and 3. Although we could start with a series of questions for the teacher in the classroom and work
out from there, those initiatives which have had far reaching and lasting effects on the multi-grade
classroom appear to have received support from district and national level authorities. Experience
suggests that the multi-grade teacher cannot, and indeed should not, be expected to solve the problems
of the multi-grade classroom alone. Hence, the list begins with questions for the nationallevel
policymaker

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED459042.pdf