Teaching Multi-Grade Classes

Module No. 3

Name: Julie Ann A. Monton Course, Year and Section: BEED-Irregular Student
Date Completed: February 23, 2021

V. Activity
Activity 2.1 This activity will help you to recognize the advantages of having small schools in
providing education. It will also give you the opportunity to describe the difficulties and
constraints faced by teachers in single-teacher schools and multi-grade classes, and find how
they can be resolved.
Questions:
1. What are the advantages of small schools?
A well-organized school:
-Enables the learning activities in the school to be relevant to the pupils’ lives within the
community.
- Students at small schools develop strong relationships with their peers and their
teachers in an environment where they are known and appreciated as a whole person.
- Teachers at small schools report higher levels of job satisfaction, leading to increased
teacher retention and, consequently, increased consistency for their students.
- Small schools foster citizenship, leadership, and social emotional skills through
increased student engagement.
- Small schools enable parents close engagement and that engagement is channelled
into great learning for their children.

2. What are our difficulties concerning (remote areas/ multi-grade school?)

● Physical Environment?
-Teachers often resent being placed in distant schools, because they fear it will affect
their career by being far away from centers of decision making;
- Most teachers are assigned from other areas, and are, therefore, unfamiliar with the
community and its practices;
- Teachers have difficulty in terms of transportation due to the lack of transportation
equipments like jeeps, vehicles and etc;
- There are absence of establishments like malls, supermarket and etc. to buy their
personal needs;
- Some areas are overpopulated due to the lack of essential services and programs like
sex education, family planning and etc.

● Social Environment?
-Lack of a government policy on multi-grade classes leading to lack of appropriate
pre-and in-service teacher education;
- Teachers are faced with the task of teaching multi-grade classes without adequate
training;
- Teachers' discussion is irrelevant to students' situations or lives;
- The teachers had to acquire multi-teaching skills on-the-job and were included in the
Ministry of Education multi-grade project, through which they acquired additional skills;
 - Lack of motivation and government support for teachers which may become the
reason for teachers' loneliness and emotional stress.

● Learning Environment?
- Lack of learning materials;
- Lack of learning facilities;
- Lack of school staff like janitors, registrars and etc;
- Lack of enhancement programs and activities for teachers and students;
- There is an absence for safe and engaging classrooms.

3. Refer to Case 2.1 and discuss how your school can forge a partnership with the
community to improve the functioning of the school.

Answer:
To improve the functioning of our school, the faculty members, especially our school principal
established partnerships with the private sector and community organizations, to improve the
learning environment. One of these partnerships is our partnership with The Port Royal
Environment Management Trust, because of this collaboration, our school has developed a
project funded by a local agency which is to establish a computer laboratory for the use of
students and community members. Our school encourages all community members to take part
in improving the children's learning and skills by giving their full support for the extension of
opportunities. By creating projects with the collaboration of different local agencies, our school
was able to give a conducive and engaging learning environment. When schools and
community organizations work together to support learning, everyone benefits. Partnerships can
serve to strengthen, support, and even transform individual partners, resulting in improved
program quality, more efficient use of resources, and better alignment of goals and curricula. By
partnering with a community organization we had combined our resources to have a greater
impact at a lower cost. Partnerships have broadened our reach beyond our students to other
children in the community. Pooling resources, such as staff, volunteers, time, supplies, and
space, helped reduce the costs of our programs.

Activity 2.2
Discussion Points (20 pts.)
Purpose: This activity promotes reflection and discussion on important points related to teaching
in single-teacher schools and multi-grade classes.
Questions:
1. Which difficulties can be reduced by the teachers’ action and which cannot be resolved
by the teachers?
For example, teachers can only make a petition for an appropriate government policy,
but the lack of learning materials could be resolved by making teaching aids, or by
seeking help from parents.
Answer:
Teachers can be familiar to the community and its practices in an area where she's assigned,
by learning their culture, traditions and other aspects of their life. Teachers may enroll
themselves in multi-grade teaching training centers provided by the government. Teachers can
build and create partnerships with the community and local government to provide the needs of
the school like learning facilities, school staffs, enhancement programs and conducive
classrooms. Teachers can modify their teaching strategies and instructions so that it will be
relevant to students' situations or lives. On the other hand, teachers may not find another
comfortable means of transportation considering also the kind of area they are assigned.
Teachers are forced to buy their personal needs to the city since there are no establishments
like malls, supermarkets and etc. in the area. Teachers can only educate the people in the area
about essential services and programs but they cannot control the people to have fewer children
because it depends on their personal decision. Teachers can embrace their profession to be
motivated but they cannot guarantee that they can receive the needed government support
since the government has more important things to prioritize.

2. Identify the three most important constraints about which teachers can do something.
With reference to the solution in Case 2.1 propose solutions to these constraints.
Answer:
The three most important constraints which teachers can do something are; most teachers
are assigned from other areas, and are, therefore, unfamiliar with the community and its
practices, teachers are faced with the task of teaching multi-grade classes without adequate
training, and lack of learning materials. Based from case 2.1, these constraints may be solved
by learning the cultures, practices, traditions and etc., also by enrolling the teachers to training
centers, for example the Ministry of Education Multi-grade Project through which they acquired
additional skills, and lastly by establishing partnerships with the private sector and community
organizations, to improve the learning environment, for example the Port Royal Environment
Management Trust, in collaboration with the school, developed a project funded by a local
agency to establish a computer laboratory for the use of students and community members.
Those constraints can be resolved by choosing and applying the right solutions which was
shown in case 2.1.