Abstract:

The issue of multigrade classes is increasingly important, given the new social, cultural and economic contexts that mark the European space, in general, and that of Romania, in particular. The tendency of young families to migrate to urban areas in recent decades leaves behind a declining number of students in rural education, which means that a number of schools will have to switch to multigrade schooling. At the same time, the expectations of the society regarding the school results of the current generations of students, both in urban and rural education, are growing and the reasons include respect for the right to education of every child and equal opportunities in training.

This paper presents a contextual analysis of the implications that the schooling of students in a multigrade class has on their formation and development from a cognitive and non-cognitive point of view (affective, socio-emotional). The research was carried out starting from the specialized literature in the field of education sciences in Romania, but also from many other countries. The research findings show the impact of the socio-demographic context and geographical factors in the organization and functioning of multigrade classes. Also, in Romania, the challenges that teachers face are specific and quite numerous: efficient organization of time, use of existing material resources, adaptation of the national curriculum to multigrade teaching, lack of initial and continuous training relevant to this type of teaching, lack of specialized works, especially didactic ones.

Since at the end of the school year and the end of the education cycle the aims are the same, both for the non-multigrade graduate and for the multigrade graduate, the data presented by us show both the way in which the development of students in the multigrade class is pursued in different educational systems. A number of arguments for maintaining and abolishing this type of teaching are also presented.

The literature indicates a number of positive effects on students, at least from a socio-emotional point of view. Thus, many research data suggest that the student in the multigrade class is more sociable, has much better developed educational communication skills, has a closer relationship with teachers and a much more positive attitude towards school and work, in general.

Finally, this paper highlights how multigrade teaching can support and generate new models of good practice in forming and strengthening independent and individual learning skills, moreover, the common “techniques” of multigrade teaching already are adopted in the non-multigrade teaching.

Keywords:

Multigrade teaching, small schools, curriculum, competences, management.