Journal Article

Challenges and Opportunities of Multi-Grade Teaching: A Systematic Review of Recent International Studies

Bernárdez-Gómez, Abraham, Ares-Ferreirós, Martina, Álvarez Martínez-Iglesias, José María

2025

Overview

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.

• Publisher: MDPI AG
• Subject: Access to education / active methodologies / Classrooms / Community support / Comparative Analysis / Comparative Education / Comparative studies / Cooperative Learning / Cross Age Teaching / Curricula / Database Management Systems / Early Childhood Education / Educational evaluation / Educational Facilities Improvement / educational inclusion / Educational Methods / Educational Quality / Educational Resources / Educational Strategies / Educational technology / Elementary Education / Experiential Learning / Family Involvement / Group work in education / Influence of Technology / Information Seeking / International organizations / Learning / Learning Processes / Literature Reviews / Meta Analysis / multigrade classrooms / Pedagogy / Qualitative research / Quality of education / Rural Schools / Schools / Social sciences / Students / Systematic review / Teacher education / teacher training / Teachers / Teaching / Team learning approach in education / Young Children