Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography

Bennett, N.; O'Hare, E. & Lee, J (1983) Mixed-age Classes in Primary Schools: A

Survey of Practice, British Educational Research Journal, 9(1): 41-56

This is a report on the first stage of a Schools Council sponsored inquiry into vertical grouping in English schools. The report shows that there is an increasing tendency for mixed-age teaching to be adopted through force of circumstance of falling enrollments, rather than by choice. As a consequence, head teachers are often negative about it and feel their teachers do not like it. Parents too have been unhappy about the idea of mixed-age classes. As a prerequisite for making suggestions for improving the practice of mixed-aged program, the report shows there is a need to clarify the wide range of responses before the program can be adopted. This report can be helpful for my own project because it presents the negative feelings of both the teachers and the parents, which I can clearly identify two different views on multiaged classrooms.

Colbert, Vicky; Chiappe, Clemencia & Arboleda, Jairo (1993) The New School

Program: More and Better Primary Education for Children in Rural Areas in

Colombia, in Levin, Henry, M. & Lockheed, Marlainee. Effective Schools in

Developing Countries, Washington, DC, The World Bank

This article is about the Escuela Nueva Programme in Colombia's rural primary schools. The program is an attempt to improve quality while increasing access and retention rates in schools. And, multigrade teaching is an integral part of the program, together with individualized learning, a rural orientation to the curriculum and the integration of school and community. Inputs include the training of teachers for the new system, the provision of instructional materials, demonstration schools in each district, and frequent supervisory visits. The authors give a very positive review of evaluations of the multigrade program which reveal both cognitive and non-cognitive benefits to the children. This article will be helpful for my project because it has given many useful suggestion, and strategies that can be used in the multi-aged classroom which I can include those in my own handbook.

Draisey, A.G. (1985) Vertical Grouping in the primary school