The Teaching of Science in Multigrade Primary Schools in Two Rural Districts of Lesotho
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23918/ijsses.v11i3p109Keywords:
Multigrade Science Classrooms, Multilevel Teaching, Quasi-Monograde Model, Rigorous Teacher Training, Science TeachingAbstract
Multigrade teaching is common in 46.8% (685 of the 1463) of the primary schools in Lesotho. However, there is a lack of curriculum policies and adequate training to support these teachers even though multigrade teaching prevalence in many educational settings is reported in the literature. A purposively selected sample of 107 teachers from two rural districts of Lesotho filled in the questionnaire, eight classroom observations were conducted and 10 teachers and three district resource teachers participated in the interviews to investigate pedagogical practices employed by multigrade teachers while teaching Science. The outcomes demonstrated a predominance of teacher-centred methods involving chalk and talk, coupled with a quasi-monograde approach where the teacher concentrated on teaching one grade while assigning tasks to other grades, thus considerably reducing teacher contact time. Despite this, certain aspects of successful multigrade teaching such as tiered activities, staggered concept introduction, and peer teaching by senior students were evident. However, these were not fully utilized despite teachers having received orientation Workload, inadequate training, resource shortages, and low motivation were a few identified factors influencing their teaching approaches. Curriculum policy should emphasise multigrade intensive training for teachers in effective activity staggering techniques while this study recommends the creation of self-correcting answer cards for independent activity materials.
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