Challenges and Opportunities of Multi-Grade Teaching: A Systematic Review of Recent International Studies
Year: 2025
Type: review
Study design: Systematic Review
Abstract: Multigrade classrooms represent a widely extended educational modality in rural contexts and territories with low demographic density. This organizational model, in which a single teacher serves students from different levels in the same space, poses particular challenges but also significant pedagogical opportunities. In this systemic literature review, a total of 40 international studies were analyzed according to the PRISMA guidelines, published between 2019 and 2024 in databases such as Scopus and ERIC. The objective of this analysis is to identify the main organizational and methodological approaches, as well as the strengths and weaknesses, associated with teaching in multigrade contexts. This systematic review has been prospectively registered in the Open Science Framework (OSF) under registration number: 64rsu. A qualitative thematic analysis was employed to organize the results into five categories: organizational models, pedagogical practices, teacher training, impact on learning, and school-community links. The findings underscore the efficacy of this model in promoting educational inclusion, cooperative learning, and curricular contextualization. Nevertheless, they also underscore the necessity for specific teacher training and support policies. This review offers a comparative and critical perspective that has the potential to inform the development of more effective pedagogical and training strategies in a range of educational settings.
Source: Education Sciences
Institutions: Universidade de Vigo, Universidad de Murcia
Language: English
Topic: Education in Rural Contexts
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,172
OpenAlex ID: W4413286417