Learning and Teaching in Multigrade Settings

Abstract

• Most systems of education worldwide are predicated on the notion that learners enter, progress through and exit from ‘grades’ alongside a group of peers. Learners who fail to be promoted from grade to grade become grade repeaters and join a group of learners in the previous grade. Grades correspond closely with the age of the student and usually comprise students who share birthdays within one calendar year. In systems where, for various reasons, the age of entry of learners varies by more than one year, learners move through the system with peers who entered the first grade within the same calendar year. Each grade group comprises one or more classes of learners, depending on the number of learners. Each class is usually taught by a single teacher at any one time. These classes may be referred to as monograde classes.