Planes de viabilidad y de resolución (recovery & resolution plans)

Multi-grade teaching constitutes a work environment that can be full of challenges and difficulties (McEwan, 2008:465-483). These challenges are discussed next.

51 Berry (2001:7) argues that professional and social isolation is one of the challenges facing teachers of multi-grade classes worldwide. He indicates that multi-grade teaching often takes place in remote schools in difficult to reach areas. Teachers not only face the difficulties of dealing with a multi-grade class, but also other constraints such as lack of resources, infrequent supervision, and poor living conditions (Berry, 2001).

Research on the Escuela Nueva programme in Colombia suggests that multi-grade teaching may be preferable to mono-grade teaching because it requires greater flexibility and thus allows for more opportunities for both cooperative and more individualised learning (Luschei and Zubaidah, 2012). However, it is still more commonplace to consider multi-grade teaching to be a major challenge to positive learning outcomes, particularly in contexts where multi-grade classes have arisen out of necessity rather than by design, such that millions of learners around the world are taught by teachers attempting to teach a curriculum designed for mono-grade classrooms (Little, 2005). In resource-poor contexts, where teachers are prone to inadequate professional development opportunities enabling them to respond to a diverse range of learning needs in a multi-grade classroom setting, limited understanding of school entry age exacerbates the challenge of educational planning to improve learning outcomes for all.

Keeping the accomplishment of a positive whole-school climate in mind based on a graded system of education, multi-grade teaching is more demanding than mono- grade teaching (Berry, 2001). Planning from the curriculum is more difficult because of the way in which it is structured. Classroom management is more complicated because of the necessity of having more than one group on task at the same time. Teachers may be required to write multiple lesson plans, and end of term tests have to be set for each grade level group. School principals of schools involved in multi- grade teaching are usually also class teachers, which places greater demands on these school principals’ time. Other staff members may have to fulfil a wider variety of duties than their counterparts in larger schools, such as, for example, pastoral care.

For these reasons, graded systems need to move in directions that support the multi- grade teacher, but also encourage more innovative teaching methods in the mono-

52 grade classroom. One way in which this may be achieved is through curriculum reform. The graded curriculum model encourages teachers to view their class homogenously, which warrants the need for considering differing curriculum models (Little, 2005). One example is the modular approach adopted in Colombia, which involves dividing the curriculum into specific objectives and producing associated learning materials. Another approach is to develop curriculum frameworks that are based on themes rather than subjects. These curriculum reforms prompt changes in the types of instructional materials available to teachers.

Most countries have national curricula and this prescribed curriculum is almost the same for both urban and rural schools. The curricula consist of a list of minimum learning competencies stated in terms of behavioural objectives. These minimum competencies are specifically designed for regular school situations which teachers teaching multi-grade classrooms find difficult to apply meaningfully in order to ensure constructive learning in a multi-grade classroom setting.

With regard to the South African context, and according to Taole and Mncube (2012:157), the challenges associated with multi-grade teaching relate to a lack of support for educators involved in multi-grade teaching, educators who are not conversant with the lesson planning required for multi-grade teaching and a general lack of educator commitment. Brown (2008:38) emphasises that many teachers are negative towards teaching in multi-grade classrooms. Teachers prefer mono-grade teaching because multi-grade classes imply more planning, more preparation, complex organisation and more work in general. This more work relates to catering for a wider range of abilities and levels of maturity, less time for meeting individual learner needs and for remediation, less time for reflection on teaching, lack of relevant professional training, and limited work satisfaction (Brown, 2008). Little (2005) states that in addition to a need for proper training regarding teaching multi-grade classes, teachers also identify high rates of learner absenteeism in multi-grade classrooms, frequent changes in grade combinations and a lack of textbooks as challenges at schools involved in multi-grade teaching.

Wallace, Mcnish and Allen (2001:21-26) confirm that the main challenge with multi- grade teaching is the fact that managing teaching and learners in a multi-grade

53 classroom environment is not taught at universities. This lack of proper training for the task of teaching a multi-grade classroom is exacerbated by lack of encouragement for teachers to be creative and innovative in using existing resources while teaching a multi-grade class. This lack of encouragement to teach properly in a multi-grade classroom environment is accompanied by teachers not knowing how to teach different subject areas at different grade levels effectively, and how to fulfil the number of roles that teachers must accomplish while realising teaching and learning goals in a limited time frame (Joubert, 2007).