A PORTFOLIO IN MULTIGRADE TEACHING

A PORTFOLIO IN MULTIGRADE TEACHING

Presented to the College of Education and Liberal Arts

Davao Central College

In partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in

Ed. Sem. Subject

Submitted to:

Warlita C. Canque, Ed. D.

Submitted by:

CATEGORY B

October 29, 2013

INTRODUCTION

The Ministry of Education in its pursuit to achieve the national education goal “Education for All by 2012", initiated massive expansion of community schools, after the world conference on Education for All (EFA) held in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990. Some of the important ideas of theses major steps of expansion were to take the schools to every community including remote and scattered settlements, so that it contributed towards fulfilling the education policy of reducing the walking distance of young children to schools. 

Multi-grade teaching was then introduced in 1991 as a key strategy of teaching. The Ministry of Education recognizes that multigrade teaching strategy will continue to be one of the important strategies as number of schools in small and scattered communities has been growing progressively and is likely to continue.

Since the introduction of multigrade teaching as a strategy, many teachers were trained through in-country as well as ex-country training programs with the support mainly from the UNICEF. However, due to transfer of teachers on completion of certain number of years in the same school, the multigrade schools have been continuously losing the skilled teachers. As a result, training multigrade teachers either upon their transfer from non-multigrade schools to multigrade schools, or on completion of teacher training has been a cumbersome challenge for the Ministry of Education.

The present trend on the growth of multigrade schools indicates that multigrade schools will keep on expanding. Further, the government’s commitment to establish extended classrooms will contribute towards even greater progression in the expansion of multigrade schools. This means the demand for training of teachers will phenomenally rise. However, with the introduction of multigrade teaching module in the Colleges of Education, Paro and Samtse, since two years ago, the issue of sustainability is likely to be addressed.

SUMMARY

A. Multigrade Program

As affirmed by the DECS Order No. 38. s. 1993, the Constitution states that the state shall protect and provide the rights of all citizens to quality education at all levels and take appropriate steps to make education accessible to all, and so it is hereby declared a policy that all public elementary schools, as much as practicable and considering the existing facilities and teachers, will offer complete six (6) grade levels to children in the remotest barangay.

Thus, the Multigrade Program becomes one of the major thrusts of basic education. This is the education sector’s contribution to people empowerment. DECS Order No. 38, s. 1993 spelled out how the incomplete elementary schools shall be expanded to accommodate all school children in schools with less than six (6) teachers. While the priority is still the organization of single grade classes, multigrade classes will be organized, if the number of children to be enrolled does not meet the required number to organize a single-grade class and if there are not enough teachers in a school. So in a two-teacher school for instance, one will handle Grades I-III and the other will handle Grades IV-VI.

The implementation of this program aims to make education accessible and provide quality education for all even on rural or far flung areas. Prioritizing the fact that many children are still out of school, the program is effective if and only strongly supported by the government.

B. Components of a Multigrade Classroom

The learners are the center of the educative process, the teacher, school and facilities are all wasted if students are not prioritized more. The child grows and develops as a result of interaction between what has been inherited, the environment and time. The child grows through different stages of development. How fast the child goes through the stages depends upon the interaction of factors like maturation and learning. No two children are exactly alike because of the combination and interaction between inherited genetic traits and the differences in their interaction with the people, objects, events and places in their environment. How we view the learners, our assumptions about them and how they learn determine how we treat them as learners whether inside the classroom, at home or in the community.

The teacher is the critical figure in the teaching-learning environment. The role of the teacher has evolved over time. In a child-centered classroom, the teacher must be able to perform and balance several roles all the time.

The learning centers are the “work stations” which the learners use with or without the teacher’s guidance or supervision depending upon the nature of the activity. These are small partitioned spaces for 5 to 10 pupils to work together or even individually. A low blackboard, cloths and curtains and even cabinets may be used to enclose the learning centers. The centers are also the places where the teachers keep the learning materials like books, posters picture and others, for the children to use. Learning centers allow and encourage the learners to be self-directed and to move independently.

The learning materials include books of all kinds (textbooks, trade books reference books and storybooks), other reading materials like periodicals, magazines, and professional books. Commercial and teacher-made board games, puzzles, card games, activity cards and toys, visual aids like posters, picture banks, cut-outs, and calendars are also useful learning materials in a multigrade classroom.

C. Teaching and Learning Processes in the Multigrade Classroom

It is the responsibility of the classroom teacher, to organize the learning experiences of students in such a way that the educational goals will really be achieved. The curriculum has comprehensive instructional objectives and content in terms of statements of concepts to be taught. But if the curriculum is poorly organized, these goals and objectives will not be achieved and the concepts and skills to be taught will not be covered. Curriculum development is far from complete with simply the definition and prescription of goals and objectives. There are many ways of organizing the curriculum that a teacher can use. It is best to combine the approaches to curriculum organization particularly in multigrade teaching because there are many different development levels and needs to address in a multigrade classroom.

However, the curriculum also plays an important part because process of teaching instruction in various subject areas is involved. The multigrade teacher is not alone in this complex process of curriculum development. Being a part of a national educational system under the supervision of the Department of Education, multigrade schools follow the curriculum prescribed by the Department for all elementary schools nationwide.

D. Teaching Strategies for Multigrade Classes

There are many different ways that teachers in multigrade classes deliver instruction to students. Common methods include: lecture-recitation, small group work, independent study, paired and peer tutoring, direct instruction. Each instructional strategy achieves different instructional purposes and affects student achievement and attitude in different ways. So it is important to understand how these methods of delivering instruction work affect student learning and what purposes they best serve. The multigrade teacher can only assume multiple roles with the use of variety of instructional methods. There are certain methods that are especially effective in multigrade classrooms and the multigrade teacher should be prepared to implement them. A multigrade classroom is a more complex environment so that instructional delivery and classroom management strategies must be compatible and complementary.

If the teacher relies primarily on whole-class / whole-group instruction and lecture / recitation methods, the children in each of the grade levels within the class will not learn to work independently and in small groups.

In any classroom, whether single-grade or multigrade, the teacher is

responsible for trying to meet the various needs of 30, 40, or 50 students. However in the multigrade classroom, these needs are more varied because of the combination of grade levels. So grouping children for different activities must be efficient and effective in order to manage both the number of students and range in ability.

Students can be grouped in many different ways: by interest and student choice, random assignment to combine ability levels and interests and according to ability.

REFERENCES

Anonymous.http://www.curriculum.bt/index.php/programs/multigrade

   teaching.html. Retrieved on October 23, 2013.

De leon, Luz, S. et.al. Module 2.1 multigrade teaching. Teacher education

   Council, Department of Education.