Amit Agrawal IAS
CEO, Zila Panchayat, Dhar (MP)

When one teacher has to teach only one grade I class at a time the mode of teaching is known as single-grade or monograde teaching. When one teacher teaches more than one grade at the smae time the modeof teaching is known as multigrade teaching. 84% of primary schools in India in 1986 had 3 or fewer teachers for 5 grades. Thus, the multigrade situation is pervasive in India.

Besides single-grade and multigrade teaching we have non-grade or multi-age teaching. Multi-age teaching does away with division of students into grades and mixes students of different ages and levels of learning in one classroom believing this to be educationally superior to grade-based teaching. In contrast to multigrade teaching, multi-age teaching is a matter of choice rather than compulsion. In multigrade teaching, grades retain their separate existence. Each student is expected to transact only the curriculum fixed for his / her grade even while sharing teaching time and classroom with students of other grades.

Multigrades requires more preparation on the part of the teacher. It is difficult to maintain track of the needs of students of more than one grade. Students feel neglected and bored. Thus, multigrade teaching is generally seen as a major problem. However, empirical studies consistently reveal that students in multigrade situations perform at par with those in single-grade teaching.

Miller (1990) reviewed 13 experimental studies assessing single-grade and multigrade classrooms and found no significant difference in academic achievement. Veenman (1995) reviewed 45 studies assessing multigrade and 11 studies assessing multi-age teaching and concluded.

"…multigrade or multi-age classes …are simply no worse and simply no better than single-grade classes. …Successful learning is less dependent on organisational strategies than on the quality of the instructional practises. At present, the instructional practises found in multigrade or multi-age classes are poorly understood. In fact, most studies provided no information whatsoever on the instructional processes employed in the classroom. …Those studies that do provide information on the instructional processes in multigrade classes suggest that the most popular method is to teach a lesson to one grade while the other grade works on follow-up activities to previous instruction. The teacher's time is usually divided between two or more groups. Single-grade level instruction is emphasised. The students in multigrade classes are not necessarily engaged in learning from each other. …The possibilities for the effective grouping of students in order to reduce student heterogeneity and to foster the appropriate pace and level of instruction for each individual are simply not explored. …relying on single-grade instruction make the multigrade class no different from the single-grade class and thus minimise the potential positive effects of multigrade grouping."

It, thus, appears that although the multigrade situation exists, multigrade teaching does not take place. Teachers experienced or trained only in single-grade teaching continue to follow single-grade teaching even in a multigrade situation by keeping other grades occupied with revision etc.

A MODEL FOR ANALYSING METHODOLOGY

Traditionally, the teacher serves as the only source of learning with one way instruction methodology (Figure I). Thus, a multigrade situation translates into paucity of sources of learning. And yet, schools having less than one teacher per grade and teaching in single-grade fashion have the same levels of learning as schools having one teacher per grade.

Reasons could be based on the very shortage of teachers in a multigrade situation. A student continues with the same teacher for 2-3 years and, therefore, gets better individual attention. Stronger bonds develop between teacher and student. There is less peer friction among teachers. Confusion in students due to contradictions and contrasts among various teachers is avoided. The teacher is forced to give more self-study time which gives the student greater opportunity for learning in a self-directed mode. Students have an opportunity of learning from students in higher grades. In subjects having sequential curricula like language and mathematics, exposure to higher grades leads to faster learning.

Traditional strategies for improving learning like teaching aids, interactive teaching, student feedback, etc. strengthen teacher-directed instruction. Co-operative learning among students compensates paucity of teacher-directed instruction. Self-directed learning compensates as well as potentially improves upon teacher-directed instruction. Learning aids, self-learning material, student portfolios and learning stations in the school environment promote self-directed learning and give the teacher useful feedback. Beyond the school, there is the larger social and natural environment. The student can be taught to learn directly from this environment. The student can be taught learn directly from this environment. The teacher too can draw useful feedback and ideas from the parents and the community or by observing the reactions of students to this larger environment. Finally, the teacher may learn from teachers in other schools.

The above teaching learning transactions are shown in Fig. I. If learning and interaction paths shown in the figure could be established, the burden on the teacher would reduce and the self-directed learning ability of the student would develop. The role of the teacher would change from that instructor to facilitator in promoting group learning and self-directed learning. To the extent a classroom shifts to the synergistic model in Fig. I, the learning process would improve and the demands on the teacher would reduce. This is true of the single-grade situation too but in view of teacher paucity in multigrade situations it is imperative. It is absolutely imperative in such a situation that any effective multigrade teaching methodology builds upon the synergies possible within the teaching learning system. Thus, the synergies between the teacher and the self-learning process within the child, between the teacher and the child's natural curiosity, between the teacher's class management and academic duties and the between the teacher's class managing affairs, between child and child, between textbook and teaching learning material and teaching learning activities, between the school and the community, and between teacher and teacher must form the essential elements for any effective multigrade teaching methodology.

TRANING CONSIDERATIONS

Training would have to deal, inter alia, with following issues:

1. efficient use of teaching time
2. classroom management
3. organization of self-directed learning
4. teacher preparation for seeking community support
5. system for continuous evaluation and assessment
6. organization of group activities
7. continuously unfolding teaching plan development
8. set of guiding principles regarding the pedagogy
9. developing a shelf of graded teaching learning material
10. imparting rapid student assessment skills to teachers
11. training package should be designed so that it is viewed by teachers as a strategy for reducing teacher's burden

Training involves theory, demonstration, practice and feedback. Developing theory should ultimately result in comprehensive handbook on multigrade teaching. Demonstration should involve case studies, audio-visuals and field visits. Practice could be simulated through role-play among trainees and trainers. It could be real too if training is in two phases. Besides pre- and post- training feedback, feedback on retention of skills imparted over time must be there. Recent analyses add a fifth component of on-the-job coaching.

Transfer of training is defined as the degree to which the skills and knowledge acquired during training are effectively applied in the workplace. Veenman & Raemaekers (1995) measured the long-term transfer of training for two trainings for multigrade teaching in the Netherlands. Since very high levels of transfer occurred transfer levels were expected to rise with practice. However, no change was observed in the initial levels of transfer with the passage of time over a period of five years. Another outcome was that there were no differences in the levels of transfer for coached and non-coached teachers. The most interesting outcome was that although process indicators like time on-task levels of students improved, there was no corresponding improvement in impact indicators (i.e. student attainment levels). The authors' analysis of this outcome is enlightening:

"There are two potential explanations for why time on-task was not associated with higher pupil achievement. First, the teachers may have treated time as a homogeneous entity. More time may simple have been taken to mean more of the same. We do not know… if more time was spent on the right tasks. Time was measured quantitatively and not quantitatively. …teachers should be trained to …question: time on what task? … Second. … A stringer coupling between teacher and pupil behaviours may be need. To improve pupil learning, learning, teachers may need to be stimulated to evoke such pupil behaviours… In such a way, the time-on-task level of the pupils may become more directly related to their achievement."

The lessons from this training study must inform any training for multigrade teaching. In training teachers we seek to modify teacher behaviour with a view to modifying student behaviour. It has to be ensured that the right mix of techniques are identified and applied by the trainee teacher intelligently.

Qualitatively, teaching time may be classified as instructional, interactive and facilitative. Instructional teaching relates to conventional one-way teacher-directed instruction. Interactive teaching relates to interactive teaching. Facilitative teaching time is time during which students undertake self-directed learning under direct / indirect supportive supervision of the teacher. Non-teaching activities take up some time too. Correspondingly, there are instructional, interactive and self-directed learning modes. There is also non-learning time due to student inattention etc. Based on the model for effective multigrade teaching (fig. I), instructional teaching / learning times should decline whereas interactive teaching / learning times should inrease. Facilitative teaching time and self-directed learning time should increase. Self-directed learning should continue during non-teaching time. Non-teaching time itself should reduce if the teacher takes the assistance of students for non-teaching tasks. Non-learning times corresponding to various teaching times should decline, as learning becomes more interesting. Traditional and expected teaching and learning time distributions are depicted in Fig. II.

Qualitatively, teaching learning modes may also be categorised as verbal, observational and manual. Traditionally, verbal mode dominates. In effective multigrade teaching, observational and manual modes would also be significant because self-directed learning is most effective in these modes (see Fig. II).

ASSESSMENT

Single-grade teaching presumes homogeneity of students across a grade. A grade is a group is a group of students of more or less the same age. Only upon completing one year in a grade a student proceeds to the succeeding grade. However, students of same age differ in their paces of learning which need to be incorporated in the pedagogy. They also differ in gaps in learning. For each student there are elements in the curriculum of the lower grade which he / she could not master. Yet, the curriculum of the higher grade takes no account of these gaps. Thus, a single-grade grouping is heterogeneous due to variations in pace and gaps of learning. If student variations are taken into account, both curriculum and pedagogy will have to be modified. In other words, student variations introduce complexities for both curricular and pedagogic planning. Multigrade situation entails considerably greater student variations and corresponding curricular and pedagogic complexity. The teacher cannot teach several grades simultaneously through single-grade teaching methods that presume grade homogeneity. However, in teaching several grades simultaneously while taking student variations into account, the teacher faces bewildering complexity in assessing the learning situation.

Effective and meaningful assessment of the learning situation of the class can be done only on the basis of competencies (the constitutive elements of the curriculum). Competencies could be assigned unique numbers and numbers of competencies attained could be entered in a register against the mane of each student in the column for the month of attainment. Similarly, individual report cards could be maintained for every student detailing their learning history grade after grade. Armed with this register and report card a teacher could keep accurate track of the learning situation. Based on these daily, weekly or monthly academic schedules for the grade and remedial teaching for individual students can be planned. The advantages of competency-based assessment would also accrue in case of single-grade teaching. However, although some academic assessment, maintaining track of learning situation in multigrade situations is virtually impossible without competency-based assessment.

MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS

Measuring effectiveness of a multigrade teaching methodologies would require new indices and methods for measuring process and impact parameters. Quantitative process indicators already in use are time on-task for students and time spent on learning activities. Time spent by students waiting for the teacher partly indicates time spent by teacher in non-teaching activities and, thus, indirectly indicates teaching time. Defining following qualitative process indicators could be useful for qualitative measurement of time:

Impact indices like Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), retention rate (RR) and Gross Achievement ratio (GAmR) are well defined and useful. However, two necessary comparisons must be made for impact analyses. First, The change in GER, RR or GamR in a multigrade school should be compared with those in a single-grade school, which is an important benchmark for any impact assessment of a multigrade teaching package. Secondly, before analysing changes due to a multigrade teaching package, we must separate effects attributable to other simultaneous interventions. A simplified way of separating the effect is the effect is as follows:

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