Multi-grade Teaching: The Latin American Experience

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Multi-grade Teaching The Latin American
Experience

• South Asia Regional Conference on Education
  Quality
• New Delhi, India
• October 24-26, 2007
• Eduardo Velez
• Sector Manager for Education
• Human Development Sector
• Latin America and the Caribbean

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Rural Educationa global challenge

• In Latin America is a challenge because
• -20 enroll late
• -About 40 repeat 1st grade and about 25 repeat
  2nd grade (repetition in primary education
  represent a waste of about 3.5 billion annually
  and together with late entry create high
  heterogeneity in ages of children in the
  classroom and this limits learning, specially
  when traditional methods are used)
• -Average schooling is about 4.5 years
• -Roughly half of the kids in 4th grade cant read

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However, basic education in rural areas in LAC,
like everywhere else

• - raises incomes and reduces poverty
• -helps to sustain economic growth (a minimum
  level of human capital is required for this)
• -is not sufficient for any modern economy, but a
  necessary first step to get there
• -has important externalities lower fertility,
  better child health, human capabilities (Sen)

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Net Enrollment Rate in Primary Education
Source UNESCO
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Rural Education in LACand quality

• Why we still have the gap in basic education?
• -Not enough resources
• -Inadequate use of resources
• -Bad quality
• Low learning
• Late entry, high repetition and dropout
• -Focus on coverage not enough, quality is key

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Rural Educationand quality

• Why low quality? (1)
• -Traditional expository methodology emphasis on
  memorization and not in comprehension skills
• -Limited amount of time in first grades to learn
  basic skills
• -Cultural barriers in transition from home to
  school mainly in minority areas
• -Lack of text books and learning guides for
  students and teachers that are appropriate with
  active methodologies and that respond to the
  diversity within the classroom (specially
  different learning rhythms)
• -Rigid calendars, promotion and evaluation
  systems
• -Insufficient time for effective learning,
  specially in language and in math

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Rural Educationand quality

• Why low quality? (2)
• -Overloaded curriculum and not related to
  students environment
• -Ineffective and inadequate pre- and in-service
  training for teachers
• -High percentage of incomplete schools where
  teachers have not received training nor material
  to deal with the situation
• -Few teachers have been trained in active
  teaching process
• -Schools located in isolated areas do not attract
  qualified teachers
• -Permanent transfers of rural teachers to urban
  areas

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Rural Educationand quality

• Why low quality? (3)
• Students
• -Under-nourished children
• -Health problems
• -Inadequate psycho-social development (little
  exposure to ECD)
• -Lack of motivation and support for learning
  (from families)

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Thenwhat to do?

• What can be done to correct these problems in
  rural education?
• 1. Schools must be adapted to function more
  effectively
• 2. Student learning skills before entering
  primary education must be improved
• 3. Flexible and open programs for children and
  out-of-school youth
• 4. Organization of planning, management and
  monitoring mechanism at the local level must be
  created
• 5 Advocacy, social mobilization, community
  participation and stimulation of demand for
  quality education must be promoted

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Multi-grade (the New School approach)

• A proposal to improve rural education. An
  agreement among Ministers of Education in LAC
• -Need to view the school as a fundamental unit of
  change. Effectiveness of improving policies is
  largely determined by school factors
• -Need to change teaching and learning practices
  (improving classroom teaching practices demands a
  profound revision of basic education in light of
  the new education paradigm centered on the child
  as an active subject who participates in his own
  learning process). Improvement of student
  learning is central challenge for education
  policy
• -Change the role of the teacher (not simply
  transmitter of information) New type of school
  with renovated teaching methods, different
  learning rhythms and styles.
• --Need for more personalized and group learning
  the lack of flexibility of the traditional
  frontal teaching limits learning process,
  specially in poor schools

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Multi-grade (the New School approach)

• Objectives for the student in a new school
• 1.Develop a child-centered active and
  participative learning process
• 2.Develop higher level thinking skills
• 3.Advance at their own pace in learning
• 4.Develop activities of tolerance, solidarity and
  cooperation
• 5.Improve learning achievement
• 6.Improve self-esteem
• 7.Gender equity in participation in school
  activities

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Multi-grade (the New School approach)

• Objectives for the teachers in a new school
• 1.Improve teaching practices
• 2.Modify their role from expository to
  facilitating roles with permanent interaction
  with their student
• 3.Positive attitudes towards the pedagogical
  strategy
• 4.Satisfaction with their work

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Multi-grade (the New School approach)

• Objectives for the administrators in a new school
• 1.Change the role from traditional supervisory
  functions to a more pedagogical support and
  advisor to teachers
• 2.Positive attitudes towards the pedagogical
  methodology

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Multi-grade (the New School approach)

• Objectives for the community in a new school
• 1.Strengthen the relationship between the school
  and the community
• 2.Promote the participation of parents in the
  different activities of the school
• 3. Articulate curriculum content with the family
  and the community
• 4. Serve as information center for the community

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Multi-grade (the New School approach)

• Objectives for the educational system in a new
  school
• 1.Offer complete quality primary education
• 2.Reduce repetition and drop out rates
• 3.Improve learning achievement
• 4.Improve equity

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Multi-grade (the New School approach)

• Two fundamental assumptions for the
  implementation of the new school reform
• 1.Introducing changes at the level of the student
  implies innovation in the teacher training, the
  administrative structure of the school and its
  relationship with the community. This requires
  specific strategies for children, teachers,
  administrative personnel and the community
• 2.It is indispensable, from the beginning, to
  develop mechanisms that are replicable,
  decentralized and feasible from a technical,
  political and financial standpoint. The design of
  the system has to include strategies to go to
  scale

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Multi-grade (the New School approach)

• Features of the new school (1)
• 1.It offers full primary education at multi-grade
  schools where one, two or three teachers handle
  several grades simultaneously
• 2.It benefits students, teachers, administrators
  and communities through its four interrelated
  components curriculum process, teacher training,
  school administration and school-community
  articulation
• 3.It uses classroom teaching materials proven to
  have a positive impact on learning, such as
  textbooks, classroom libraries and learning
  corners

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Multi-grade (the New School approach)

• Features of the new school (2)
• 4.It moves from traditional lecture-based
  teaching towards a new method based on
  comprehension and non-rote learning, that respect
  different students learning paces, on the
  teachers role as a facilitator and evaluator,
  and on participation and cooperative learning
• 5.It encourages strategies of learning by
  doing, such as student government to teach
  democracy, participation and civil
  responsibilities, social skills to promote habits
  of collaboration, companionship, solidarity, and
  tolerance. Children learn to act responsibly in
  organizing and managing the school through
  committees, and to comply with work plans

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Multi-grade (the New School approach)

• Features of the new school (3)
• 6.Numerous evaluations have shown that the
  quality of education can be improved despite a
  schools limitations in terms of resources
• 7.It gives teachers an opportunity for horizontal
  participation through teaching workshops or study
  circles for training and follow-up
• 8.Teachers receive in-service training at
  sequenced workshops providing firsthand
  experience with methodologies similar to those
  they will apply with their students. Training is
  decentralized, replicable and continuous

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Multi-grade (the New School approach)

• Features of the new school (4)
• 9.Students learn to be active, creative,
  participatory and responsible. Develop capacity
  to communicate, to think creatively, to analyze
  and, above all, to apply what they learn at
  school in the family and community
• 10.Students use an active methodology that allows
  them to learn by doing and through play. This
  helps them to solve problems in daily life
• 11.Children work in small groups facilitating
  cooperative learning and systematic interaction,
  It also favors a collective building of knowledge
  and tutorial support between students

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Multi-grade (the New School approach)

• Features of the new school (5)
• 12.It offers learning guides to help students
  acquire the basic lessons included in the
  curriculum. The guides are designed to promote
  participatory methodology with a learning process
  focused on the student. The teacher acts as a
  facilitator
• 13.The classroom becomes an area for dynamic and
  active work, developed with all available
  resources and through cooperative activities and
  student government
• 14.Study topics proposed in the guides are
  related to students way of life and that of
  their communities

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Multi-grade (the New School approach)

• Features of the new school (6)
• 15.Promotion is flexible and respect each
  students pace of learning.Repetition is
  eliminated. Children are able to study and help
  their parents with domestic chores or productive
  activities like harvesting without jeopardizing
  the quality of their education and without having
  to drop out of school
• 16.The school operates as an in information
  center and a force for community integration.
  Parents take part in school activities and the
  school supports activities of benefit to the
  community. There are specific instruments to help
  the teacher understand the community and to build
  its relationship with the school. COMMUNITY,
  COMMUNITY, COMMUNITY, COMMUNITY

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Multi-grade (What is the New School approach?)
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Multi-grade (What is the New School approach?

• Basic education innovation developed in Colombia
• Set out to address all the nested factors of
  education simultaneously, rather than
  ineffectively tackling each in isolation
• Systemically integrates curricular, in-service
  training and follow up, community and
  administrative strategies
• Guarantees access and quality of basic education
• Evolved from a local and state innovation to a
  national policy - implementation in most rural
  schools of Colombia (20,000 at the end of the
  80s.)

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What does the New School approach promote?

• Child centered, participatory, cooperative and
  self-paced learning
• Relevant curriculum based on children's daily
  life
• Flexible calendar, promotion and grading systems
• Closer, stronger relationship between the school
  and the community
• Emphasis on the formation of democratic and
  participatory values

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What does the New School approach promotes?

• Effective and practical in-service teacher
  training strategies
• New role for the teacher
• New generation of interactive self paced, self
  directed learning textbooks

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Who does the New School approach benefit?

• Children, teachers, administrative staff and
  community through its four interrelated
  components, integrated at the school and
  community level in SYNERGY

Teacher training Component
Curricular Component
SYSTEM
AdministrativeComponent
Community Component
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The New School Reform - Empirical Evidence

• Multi-grade school reform is recommended by
  international organizations based on positive
  research findings (for many cases rural isolated
  areas- is the only option!)
• Improved academic achievement, higher propensity
  to remain in school, and other outcomes such as
  democratic attitudes
• Remaining issues Absence of experimental
  research (selection bias, internal validity)
  definition of multi-grade schools causal
  inference etc.

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The quality of education in Colombia is close to
the average
Score
Per capita income USD
Source UNESCO. First Comparative International
Study on Quality of Education, 1999.
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Rural schools in Colombia have better quality
than urban schools
Rural score
Urban score
Source UNESCO. First Comparative International
Study on Quality of Education, 1999.
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In rural education, in math only Cubas scores
are above Colombias
Mathematics
Language
Source UNESCO. First Comparative International
Study on Quality of Education, 1999.
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• Results from different statistical analysis
  confirm
• Superior achievements of children of Escuela
  Nueva
• Significant reduction in drop out and repetition
  rates
• Improvement in self-esteem and civic behavior
• The National Planning Department of Colombia
  concluded
• Escuela Nueva compensates for socio economic
  limitations when comparing children of Escuela
  Nueva of socio economic level 1 with socio
  economic level 2.

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The New School approach in Guatemala
Comparative Study on Demoracratic Behavior in
Guatemala AED/Juarez and Associates
(R.Chesterfield)
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Adaptation of the New School approach to Urban
Populations

• 1998 ENF implemented the Model in 20 low-income
  schools of Bogotá, identified with the poorest
  academic performance in a local standardized test
• After two years of ENF intervention, an
  evaluation led by National University of Colombia
  confirmed an increment in language skills of
  40.36 and in math of 69
• These schools, with lowest ranking in the city
  among 2,500 centers evaluated, performed better
  than the city's average

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Adaptation of the New School approach to
Displaced Populations

• 5,745 indirectly benefited, including parents and
  community members
• As it began, 55 of the children were excluded
  from the school system after one year of
  intervention there was a 100 enrollment
• After UNESCO evaluations, children of EN learning
  circles obtained the highest level of improvement
  in both language and mathematics
• (36.1 for language and 30.4 for mathematics.)

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Adaptation of the New School approach to
Displaced Populations

• 5th grade children of the learning circles are
  17.3 points above the national average, with a
  score of 69.3 in math and 13.9 in language.
  (83.6 and 69.7 respectively.)
• Childrens self esteem was improved by 18.5 .
• When the intervention began in May 2004, 76 had
  normal self esteem, 22 low and 2 very low.
• By November, 94.5 of the children had normal
  self esteem, 5.52 low and none required
  therapeutic attention.

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Adaptation of the New School approach to
Displaced Populations
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Adaptation of the New School approach to
Displaced Populations
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Key Factors Included in the New Approach (1)

• Democratic values, including student leadership
• Community involvement
• Individualized and small group instruction
• Local content (and cultural sensibility)
• Active learning and teacher as a facilitator
• Learning centers and classroom libraries
• Student guidelines
• Student workbooks and teacher handbooks
• Local control (and national commitment)

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Key Factors Included in the New Approach (2)

• Cooperative learning
• Peer tutoring
• Self-instruction
• Flexible promotion
• Integrated versus additive approach
• Bottom-up Successful experiences maintained by
  teachers or grass-roots NGOs.
• The student as the center of attention!!!!