Blazing New Trails - Connexions

192 CRITICAL ISSUES IN PROMOTING ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
Table 16. Success of Multiage Programs.
Factor Teacher (20) Principal (10)
Differentiating instruction 20 05
Curriculum understanding 19 02
Collaboration with team 18 01
Professional development 15 10
Balanced (social and academic) classroom 12 00
Understanding multiage instruction (buy-in) 05 08
had not taught in multiage classrooms. Areas they discussed were the need for classroom
management, how to handle more than one grade in a classroom, and how to differentiate
learning.
Teachers also believed that professional development was needed in order to learn
how to develop good instructional practices in a multiage classroom. The teachers and the
principals believed that a multiage program was successful because they could more easily
address individual student’s needs through differentiated instruction. The teachers believed
that in order to be successful in understanding and implementing differentiated instruction,
they needed to have a good understanding of the curriculum and state standards. They thought
that without this understanding, they would not know what the child needed to learn and
would not be able to develop goals to meet their students’ needs.
Eighty percent of the teachers recognized the need to collaborate with their peers.
They believed that in order to be successful, it was crucial to plan with each other, meet in
data teams, or have professional learning communities. The teachers discussed the need for
networking and developing plans for students. The teachers expressed strong agreement that a
multiage classroom is a community where relationships are almost as important as academics.
Balanced classrooms were also discussed by the teachers. They stated that classrooms need to
be balanced both socially and academically in order to provide the best instruction in a
multiage classroom.
The major themes that emerged from this question for the teachers were differentiated
instruction, the need to understand curriculum, the need to collaborate and plan with
colleagues and the need to have a classroom that was balanced socially and academically. The
themes that the principals supported were professional development, the teachers’
understanding of the concept of multiage instruction, and the teacher’s ability to differentiate
instruction.
In conclusion, the teachers and principals were in agreement about many areas that
make a successful program. Those included professional development to educate teachers
about multiage instruction and the expectations of a multiage program, an understanding of
the curriculum, and the ability to differentiate that curriculum in order to meet the needs of
diverse learners.
Research Question 5: What factors do teachers and principals believe have limited the
implementation of multiage programs in their schools?
The principals and teachers were interviewed with an open ended question which
asked them to describe any difficulties they had encountered in implementing multiage
programs. Table 17 lists those barriers as stated by the teachers and principals. The data were
collected from ten principals and twenty teachers. In order to avoid skewing the responses of