In this section, I present a short summary of the key findings. The study has found that the observed multigrade teachers combined two grades in one class and their teaching is organised according to the planned school timetable for different grades. The multigrade teachers confirmed that they do not get assistance from other educational offices. However, some of them assist each other at school level. Teachers used their monograde pedagogical knowledge to handle multigrade classes and they are not receiving any assistance on using the grade specific syllabus to plan and teach multigrade classes. This was possibly because none of the observed teachers was trained to teach in a multigrade classroom. However, most of teachers were able to identify the common topics in the syllabus and teach them simultaneously.
Teachers adopted the common timetable as an approach of teaching multigrade classes. Jatty, Bibi and Janet presented the different content to the two grades while Shiwa taught the same content to all the grades. Shiwa seemed not to believe in multigrade, but seeing the class as consisted of learners with different abilities despite the grade differences. The syllabus analysis indicated that the same topics are spirally covered in all grades, with the exception of percentages, which is done in Grade seven only. For this reason, using a common timetable to teach multigrade classes was a relevant strategy. However, the syllabus also suggests that teachers use subject integration, or teach across the curriculum (Namibia. MoE, 2005). None of the observed teachers integrated mathematics with other subjects, although some cases of contextualisation were observed in Janet’s class. The fact that they are not using other approaches; which can be used in teaching multigrade teaching, such as the Integrated Day (Namibia. MoE, 2007b), Subject Staggering and Subject Grouping, (Lungwangwa, in Little, 2001) has indicated that they seem not to know how effective cross-curricular teaching is in multigrade situations. Bibi claimed that he kept on reminding the learners about cross-curricular content, but if they had grouped the same content from different subjects and taught it in the same lesson, it could have helped to reduce teaching time.
This study has also revealed the need for CPD on the content of mathematics as a subject, as well as on teaching of this subject in multigrade classes. Teachers used strategies such as peer teaching, group work and individual learning, which seem to assist them in handling multigrade classes. But, the lack of knowledge and expertise in developing enrichment activities can also cause disciplinary problems such as noise, because learners who finish earlier, especially as was the case in Bibi’s and Janet’s classes, start chatting and playing with their toys while the teachers were assisting those who were not finished. Even though learners were not allowed to play with their toys during the lesson, they did this while checking that the teacher continued working with others. During the interview, Janet revealed the need to learn how to plan carefully and include enrichment activities for her learners who sometimes finish early during her lessons.
Although multigrade teaching exists as a result of the national response to the four educational goals of: access, quality, equity and democracy (Namibia. [MEC], 1993), the system seems to
multigrade classrooms which need special attention in terms of the supply of teaching and learning materials for them to excel (Birch & Lally, 1995). The mathematics syllabus is indeed suitable for multigrade teaching. The use of this monograde syllabus in multigrade teaching by the teachers in the study has indicated that learners have access to the same content despite their geographic locations although they do not have access to utilise the allocated teaching time as per curriculum. However, the lack of human resources to assist the multigrade teachers; the difficulty in reaching multigrade schools; as well as the lack of other teaching and learning materials has indicated that the quality of the content in multigrade classes may be inequitable. This quality also appeared to be further reduced due to the lack of multigrade teacher training activities. In many cases, this resulted in poor preparation as well as poor presentation of multigrade lessons.
5.2.1 Good practice in multigrade teaching
Multigrade classroom is labour intensive and required more planning, collaboration, and professional development than the conventional graded classroom. Insufficient planning, staff development, materials, support, and assessment will have an impact on the success of multigrade teaching (Little, 2001, p. 11).
Although the teachers struggled to cope with mathematics multigrade lessons, some good practices were identified. During planning, the teachers started with the lower grade syllabus and used the higher grade in the same combination to see the similarities and differences between the two topics. This indicated to the teacher what is new to the entire grade and allowed the teacher to put more emphasis on it.
The study revealed that teachers have different ways of teaching mathematics in combined grades. Some teachers seem to have used “quasi-monograde”, (Little, 2004) because they alternate in teaching two grades. This strategy may be used very effectively if it is carefully planned with all learners occupied meaningfully all the time, and there are few disturbances. Some teachers used the “whole class approach” (Birch & Lally, 1995) while others used a combination of “quasi-monograde” and whole class approach to handle their multigrade classes.
Introducing lessons with a common activity for all grades seems to be a good practice because all learners are occupied. Learners are motivated to work in pairs, in groups or to teach each other. Through this process, they learn to speak softly without making noise and disturbing others. It also teaches them how to concentrate on a specific activity without being disturbed or distracted by someone in another group talking. This helps learners to have an opportunity to be assisted by those who understand the content as it was noted with some learners in Jatty’s Grade five group. Also, teachers who teach specific grade content spend much of their time teaching the lower grades. This was evident from three of the lessons because most of the time was spent on teaching the lower grades. By doing so, teachers seem to build their relationship with learners in lower grades and prepare them to master the content. As a result, learners in higher grade became independent, because they are mostly left on their own and they can approach the teacher at any time without fearing him/her.
Innovation and improvisation plays a large role in multigrade teaching. With limited resources, teachers are able to find their way around using the little they have to enable teaching and learning to take place. They used the available classrooms to accommodate learners of different grades, which reduced the walking distance between two different classrooms especially in schools with sufficient infrastructure and less teachers.
Keeping the teacher’s table at the back of the classroom provides the teacher with many opportunities to deal with and assist individuals and groups of learners without disturbing the rest of the class. Teachers also have a view of the whole class when they are monitoring learners doing their class work. Because the learners do not see the teacher, they are wary of moving around unnecessarily, because they do not know where the teacher is or where he/she is looking.
In general, recording formal and informal assessment marks gives a good understanding of how learners learn and perform. This indicates to teachers the type of content assistance they need to give to individual learners during the revision exercises. As a result, the revision of the topics in which specific learners performed poorly, need only be attended by those who need it instead of the whole class. In multigrade teaching, this is highly important because the teacher can single
5.2.2 Challenges
The study revealed that teachers have little knowledge of how to handle multigrade classes. This suggests the need for pre-service training on coping with multigrade classes. In-service teachers could also attend professional development courses on multigrade teaching. Teachers tend rush to complete the grade specific syllabus and prepare learners for the common end of term tests or end of year examination. As a result, their presentation of content is shallow, which seems hinder learners in becoming mathematically proficient. Among the observed teachers, Janet tried to link the content to the learners’ real life situations, but others taught without linking the content to learners’ real life experiences. This has an effect on the subject because learners will not know the purpose of doing mathematics as well as its importance in their lives.
The curriculum for Namibian schools is designed for monograde teaching, but used in multigrade teaching. This seems to be a challenge to the teachers and learners because teachers need to know the curriculum thoroughly to be able to use it in multigrade teaching. Lack of curriculum understanding will negatively affect the learners in their classes if the most important information is left out during the curriculum interpretation.
Although the visited classes have enough space for writing summaries for each grade, the time seems to be insufficient to allow the learners to copy down notes. This additional information is important to the learners in the absence of textbooks, because it would help in preparation for tests or examinations.