The effects of Multi-grade Teaching on Learner Performance

Multi-grade classes were created in Namibia to give §children living in isolated areas access to a school §located in or near a village and to obtain higher §returns from the school system. Although authors §generally agree that greater demands are placed on §teachers in multi-grade classes, as opposed to mono-§grade teaching, there was no agreement about whether §this affected the quality of teaching. §Most researchers and practitioners agree that §successful strategies for multi-grade teaching §depended on adequate provisioning of learning §materials to support individual and group-based §learning. Curriculum, learning materials, teacher §education and assessment are necessary components of §an integrated strategy for teaching and learning in §multi-grade settings. Implementation of a single §strategy is unlikely to lead to significant §improvements in the effectiveness of teaching and §learning in multi-grade settings. Surrounding these §strategies is the need for national policies (for §curriculum, materials, teacher education and §assessment) that recognise, legitimatise and support §learners and teachers in multi-grade settings.