What is multigrade teaching?
Multigrade
Researchers define multigrade classes as an administrative tool where students in two or more consecutive grades are taught their grade-level curriculum by one teacher, often for economic reasons.1 Multigrade classes are also called combination classes, composite classes, split classes, double classes, or vertically grouped classes.2 Multigrade classes occur within a graded school system where single-grade or monograde classes are the norm. In monograde classes “students of similar age range [are] assigned to a single grade level, but with a range of abilities”.3
Multiage
Many authors are careful to distinguish multigrade classes from multiage classes, which are an organizational structure where students are not grouped by age, rather for pedagogical reasons.4 Multiage classes are also called nongraded, mixed age, or ungraded classes.5 Nongraded classes are defined as those that “eliminate grade levels, competitive evaluation, and student retention systems [in favor of] flexible groupings of students, integrated or continuous progress curricula, and individualized or personalized instruction”.6
Distinction Between Multiage and Multigrade
“Multigrade classes are formed out of necessity; multi-age classes are formed deliberately for their perceived educational benefits”.7 This distinction is important because research has shown educational and social benefits to multiage grouping which has been mistakenly applied to the multigrade setting.8
Combination Class Effect
The combination class effect refers to the inherent differences between multigrade classes and single-grade classes and the effects of those differences on students.9 These differences include a wider age span, different teaching methods and curricula, and nonrandom assignment of students and teachers to combination classes.10
Please see reference page for complete list of sources
Researchers define multigrade classes as an administrative tool where students in two or more consecutive grades are taught their grade-level curriculum by one teacher, often for economic reasons.1 Multigrade classes are also called combination classes, composite classes, split classes, double classes, or vertically grouped classes.2 Multigrade classes occur within a graded school system where single-grade or monograde classes are the norm. In monograde classes “students of similar age range [are] assigned to a single grade level, but with a range of abilities”.3
Multiage
Many authors are careful to distinguish multigrade classes from multiage classes, which are an organizational structure where students are not grouped by age, rather for pedagogical reasons.4 Multiage classes are also called nongraded, mixed age, or ungraded classes.5 Nongraded classes are defined as those that “eliminate grade levels, competitive evaluation, and student retention systems [in favor of] flexible groupings of students, integrated or continuous progress curricula, and individualized or personalized instruction”.6
Distinction Between Multiage and Multigrade
“Multigrade classes are formed out of necessity; multi-age classes are formed deliberately for their perceived educational benefits”.7 This distinction is important because research has shown educational and social benefits to multiage grouping which has been mistakenly applied to the multigrade setting.8
Combination Class Effect
The combination class effect refers to the inherent differences between multigrade classes and single-grade classes and the effects of those differences on students.9 These differences include a wider age span, different teaching methods and curricula, and nonrandom assignment of students and teachers to combination classes.10
Please see reference page for complete list of sources
- Burns & Mason, 1995; Burns & Mason, 2002, Mason & Burns, 1996; Veenman, 1995
- Veenman, 1995
- Mariano & Kirby, 2009, p. 1
- Mariano & Kirby, 2009; Mason & Burns, 1995; Mason & Burns, 1996; Thomas, 2012
- Mason & Stimson, 1996
- Mason & Stimson 1996, p. 439
- Veenman, 1995, p. 319
- Mason & Burns, 1995; Mason & Burns, 1996
- Thomas, 2012
- Thomas, 2012
