Multigrade Teaching in Special Education
Fely J. Mustard, MAED-SPED Master Teacher I- City Central School Cagayan de Oro City
Multigrade instruction is not new to the Philippine Educational System. It was adopted particularly in rural and remote locations as part of a broader effort to widen and improve access to quality education for all. The use of multigrade teaching methods provides flexible ways to meet the needs, interest, levels of the development of each child. At present, multigrade teaching is being practiced in many schools here in the Philippines. The lack of teacher should not diminish the pupils learning achievements, the teacher has to adapt many techniques and strategies to help the learners of different grade levels in the same classroom.This is the great challenge of a multigrade teacher. In the Philippine setting of multi-class teaching, the teacher teaches two or more grade levels in one classroom. It may also connote teaching a class of pupils with differing levels of ability and pupils of different ethnic groups who are to be taught in their native languages. Multigrade teaching is not as easy as we think. There are certain factors needed to be considered to make this kind of method effective and efficient. Components like human resources and physical environment should be given importance. Effective strategies include: independent study, grouping, paired peer teaching, lecture-discussion, recitation and individualized instruction. In City Central School Special Education, we the teachers are adapting the multigrade teaching. For the Children with hearing impairment, each teacher teaches two grade levels namely one teacher for grades one and two, one teacher for grades three and four and one teacher for grades five and six. We are using the differentiated instruction due to the different levels of learning of the children with special needs. It is not easy for us to manage the multigrade classes but it is our great responsibility to mold these children to become independent and self sufficient.