How do teachers teach the two grades at the same time?

Janet, Bibi and Jatty taught their combined grades separately. Bibi and Jatty started with their Grade fives. The Grade six learners were sitting quietly waiting for the teacher in case of Bibi and Jatty. Jatty’s learners were not attended to for a long period because she spent much time giving information to the Grade five learners. Janet distributed worksheets to all grades at the same time. When she started with the Grade six learners, the Grade five learners were reading

busy all the time. Shiwa taught the combined group as one; hence, she did not have learners waiting to be instructed because they were doing the same thing.

Teachers had different ways of introducing their lessons. Janet and Shiwa used a common activity for all grades during their introductions. Even so, Janet had a formal test with question papers and these were marked immediately to record the marks which she used to compare her learners’ performance and also to motivate them. Shiwa had the multiples on the cards and used these to ask for answers. Her learners did not write anything during this activity and marks were recorded for this activity. Moreover, Janet’s way of recording could be most suitable as it gave her the space to assist struggling learners if there should be one in her class. She would also know the competencies and the topics she could help them on, based on the topics which learner(s) failed in the speed tests.

All teachers revised their previous work before they started with new work. Shiwa and Janet started their lesson with learners doing drill exercises, done by all learners regardless of their specific grade. Shiwa gave the multiplication exercise before learners started with the daily lesson. Janet also had a written exercise on the four basic operations. Jatty and Bibi also revised their previous work during their introductions by reviewing previous work. Bibi’s learners very quickly remembered what they had done previously. They could also identify the pages from where the exercise was taken. This was not the case in Jatty’s class because her learners could not remember much from their previous lessons. She spent much time revising the previous work with them and ended up revising the whole lesson from the previous day before she continued with the new lesson.

The visited teachers all combined two grades in one classroom. Shiwa taught the same content to all learners without differentiating their grades. Jatty, Bibi and Janet shifted from grade to grade depending on the group which finished or which needed attention at that time. Hence they kept on reiterating the grade which they are giving instructions to. This was done based on the content the teacher was teaching as well as the group activities done during the lesson. Learners were therefore given time to complete their tasks while the teacher was involved in direct

communication with the other grade or group of learners. Following is an excerpt from how Bibi described his teaching:

I say listen, this time for this group, this time for this group. Depends on what type of task can I also give to the other group. If I know this task that I give to the Grade five group will take about the whole period, then I know I do such planning also, this task will keep them busy for the whole period in individual or in pairs two or two together or in a group I gave more task for the Grade six for instance to do discussion and controlling to find the problem areas and discuss it again and give them a task to do. So, that is my approach towards it depends on what type of work I am busy with, with which group I need more time for discussion than I give the other group. That depends on the task that I give to other group. And as today I take I give them both to balance yes.

All teachers considered the multiplication table as a core of mathematics. Bibi and Shiwa did not give multiplication activities, but they informed the learners to remember the multiplication tables during their study times. They kept on referring to it during their presentations. Jatty considered the multiples as a very sensitive area because to her, learners always struggle to learn and use them during their calculations. Bibi also reminded his learners to know their timetables.

The teachers all ensured that their learners understood the terminology during their presentations. They also paid much attention to procedures and strategies used to find the solutions to problems. Jatty’s and Shiwa’s learners were introduced to terminologies for fractions. A small element of vertical integration of reading (Simmons, 1993 and Namibia, MoE, 2006) was experienced when learners were required to read the definitions of some concepts written on the chalkboard. Janet’s Grade five learners were also told to master the procedures for using the operation on expanded notation and the Grade six learners were taught to use drawing strategies to solve word problems. Bibi taught his Grade sixes the terms in multiplication and division, while his Grade five learners were taught to master division using one and two digit divisors. Learners in Bibi’s and Janet’s classes were quick to grasp the content taught and these teachers did not experience many problems in presenting their lessons because their learners could follow, and demonstrated progress in their work. The learners took part in the lessons and finished sentences with their teachers during the presentation. They also assisted and corrected their

Shiwa and Jatty taught the same content during their lessons. By looking at learners’ participation in these two classes, learners in Jatty’s class took a long time to grasp the concept of equivalent fractions. The teacher was explaining again and again, but they could still not understand or follow and answer the questions. Shiwa’s learners participated more than in Jatty’s class. This related to Shiwa’s slowness in completing her work. She may have been slow, but she made sure that the learners understood the pre-requisite lesson before she continued with another lesson; while Jatty was rushing to complete the syllabus but actually sense her learners did not understand the content well. During the observation, Jatty was forced to re-teach the content she had presented on the previous day because learners could not answer the questions which she posed during the revision of the work, even though the summary from the previous day’s work was still on the chalkboard. As a result, she revised the content of the work which was already on the chalkboard and adapted her plan of how to continue with the work after this hiccup. This also shows the continuous planning on the teacher’s side because Jatty was forced by the situation to deviate from the activities she had planned to do during that period.

Janet and Jatty had enough copies of their activities for all learners in each grade. These activities varied from grade to grade. The Grade five worksheets containing the fractional wall were distributed to Jatty’s learners. She kept on explaining the diagram over and over, and also told them what they were required to do. Learners were listening to her, but it took them time to grasp the meaning of the diagram so that they could answer the verbal questions, despite the repetitions and reformulations of these questions. Her Grade six learners were given copies with instructions per question for them to answer in their books. The copies were returned to the teacher for future use. Jatty gave verbal instructions throughout her lesson. But Janet’s activities for all grades had clear instructions and learners were told to read and respond to the questions. Janet walked around assisting learners who experienced problems in completing their work. Bibi and Shiwa had no worksheets. Their learners were referred to a page in their books from where the activity was taken. Shiwa also gave the instructions for her first activity verbally, but in various steps.

Janet, Bibi and Shiwa had very clear instructions for learners and the activities were done without hesitation. Obviously, the activities with written instructions were easy to supervise and

the teacher had time to assist the individual learners or groups. But the activities without written or clear instructions took time to be completed. The teachers also spent much time explaining over and over and less time assisting the rest of the groups. The unavailability of printed activities as well as the lack of written instructions can affect the visual learners who need to see in order to understand the instruction. In addition to this, the teacher-learner relationship can also play a big role in learning. It could have been the case that learners in Jatty’s class were afraid of asking the teacher to repeat the questions. As a result, they kept quiet, waiting for her to repeat herself in order to respond to the questions. All of the above shows how equity and quality have been neglected as educational goals (Namibia. MEC, 1993). In all observed lessons, teachers tend to disagree with Berry (2006) because they had time to assist their struggling learners.