Instructional Organization

Every school has a limited number of teachers, a limited number of rooms and a limited number of hours in the day. With only these, it has to teach every child in every class. So someone must decide in advance which teacher takes which class, when each subject is taught, and how many learners sit together in one room. The way a school settles these questions and arranges its classes into a working pattern is called its instructional organization.

Put simply, it is the arrangement of class teaching that lets the work of teaching run smoothly. That arrangement is never picked at random. It depends on the learners' standard, level, age and ability, on the physical condition of the school, and on how many teachers there are and how well qualified they are.

When a school chooses its form of instructional organization, it looks at these points:

• the number of classes the school runs
• the number of teachers available
• the physical facilities of the school
• the nature of each subject
• the interests of the learners
• how skilled each teacher is in a subject

Compare two schools. A large town school teaches grades 1 to 10 and has twenty-five teachers, so it can give every subject its own teacher. A small school in a remote hill village teaches grades 1 to 5 with only two teachers, and the town school's pattern simply cannot run there. Different conditions need different patterns. There are four main forms of instructional organization to fit them: subject instruction, class instruction, multigrade instruction and multi grade multi level instruction.

Here each teacher teaches only the subject they are skilled in. One teacher carries one subject to several classes, and the school day is divided into periods. A science teacher, for example, may teach science to grade 8 in the first period, grade 9 in the second and grade 10 in the third. This form is now widely used across Nepal. Because the teacher is qualified and skilled in the subject, learning becomes meaningful, effective, purposeful and practical. It has drawbacks as well.

Strengths of subject instruction:

• The teacher is more skilled and better qualified in the subject.
• The teacher is more confident in the subject they teach.
• Teaching one subject again and again makes the teacher an expert in it.
• Teaching matches the level of the learners.
• The teacher has time to prepare teaching materials.
• If the teacher of one subject is weak, the other subjects are not affected.
• Skill in each subject grows, and learning is made certain.
• Being an expert, the teacher can use many different teaching methods.
• The teacher gets the chance to keep up with new methods, materials and information in the subject.

Weaknesses of subject instruction:

• Work such as overall evaluation, guidance and reporting becomes difficult.
• Making the timetable is difficult.
• A strong bond between learners and teachers does not form.
• It is hard to study each learner closely and test their ability.
• It is hard to recognise many learners, understand what each can do and build a good relationship with them.
• There is little chance of linking the subjects together.
• Keeping records of each learner's achievement, giving guidance or counselling and teaching learners individually become difficult.
• There is less coordination with the teaching of other teachers.

These weaknesses share one root. A subject teacher moves through many classes a day and spends only one period with each. Meeting two hundred learners for one period a day, nobody can get to know each of them well. And when the mathematics teacher has no idea what the Nepali class is doing, the chance to link the two subjects is lost.

This form is used in pre-primary and primary classes. For the whole academic session one teacher teaches every subject to the same class and takes full responsibility for it. A grade 2 class teacher, for instance, teaches Nepali, mathematics and English herself. Spending the whole day together makes the bond between teacher and learners close and deep. The teacher comes to know each child's talents, interests, wishes, needs and learning weaknesses. Teaching with all of that in mind has a positive effect on learning.

Strengths of class instruction:

• It is easy to make learners disciplined.
• It is easy to find out each learner's working ability and academic ability and teach accordingly.
• It is easy to discover the learners' interests.
• It is easy to form groups, arrange seating and plan teaching according to the learners' physical, mental and academic development.
• Learners feel close to the teacher and find it easy to say what is on their minds.
• Time is saved because the teacher does not keep moving to other classes.
• Learning becomes effective.
• The teacher feels a real sense of responsibility for the work.
• The teacher knows each learner's individual differences and every side of the learner.
• It is easy to evaluate learners realistically and give them feedback.
• The daily timetable can be made flexible as needed.

Weaknesses of class instruction:

• When a school has too few teacher posts, class instruction is hard to run.
• The class may be left empty when the class teacher is on leave.
• An untrained teacher cannot make class instruction effective.
• Teaching the same class all day for a whole year can bore the teacher.
• The teacher may feel tied down.
• The teacher's own intellectual growth may stall.
• One teacher cannot teach every subject equally well.
• With many learners and a small room, teaching is not effective.
• Preparing daily lesson plans and teaching materials is hard.
• If the teacher is not accountable, the whole class's achievement suffers.
• The teacher's unexpected behaviour can affect the learners.

Set side by side, the two forms mirror each other. The weakness of subject instruction is the strength of class instruction, and the other way round. A subject teacher struggles to know the learners, while a class teacher knows them well. A class teacher cannot teach every subject equally well, while a subject teacher is an expert in one. Young children need close care, which is why class instruction is used in pre-primary and primary classes.

Teaching learners of two or more classes together in one room is also multigrade instruction. Picture a room where grade 1 sits on one side and grade 2 on the other. While the teacher helps grade 1 recognise letters, grade 2 is busy writing sentences. A little later the teacher goes to check grade 2's sentences, and grade 1 is given a picture to draw. One teacher keeps both classes working at the same time.

This arrangement is most useful when:

• a school has few teachers
• a school has few learners
• a teacher is on long leave, falls ill or goes for training, so that another teacher can run the class using this method
• difficult geography and money problems leave the school without enough teacher posts
• there are not enough classrooms

Nepal's geography is rugged, and in many places settlements are scattered. Schools there often have only a few learners in each grade and only a few teachers. Giving every grade its own teacher and its own room is not possible, so multigrade instruction proves its worth.

Strengths of multigrade instruction:

• Teaching stays effective in schools with too few teacher posts.
• Schools with few learners use their resources properly and to the fullest.
• Teaching can go on even with few classrooms.
• Teaching is centred on activities, so learning becomes lively and fun.
• Learners teach and help one another, which builds deep bonds among them.
• Learners themselves are more active, so learner-centred methods are easy to use.
• Learners can learn at their own pace.
• Learners learn a great deal from classmates who are both different from them and like them.
• It costs less than subject instruction.
• Classes can run even with few physical facilities or when a teacher is absent.

Weaknesses of multigrade instruction:

• It is hard to set a level among learners of different classes, standards and abilities.
• Only skilled, trained teachers can teach such mixed classes.
• The teacher's workload is heavy, so individual attention is hard to give.
• A large room is needed, and managing it is difficult.
• It is hard to provide suitable materials and surroundings for both slow and fast learners.
• It is hard to apply in every kind of school.
• Making a timetable for multigrade teaching is difficult.
• Keeping many groups in one room makes it noisy.
• If the teacher is not trained, skilled and experienced, the teaching does not succeed.

Even inside one class, learners never all learn at the same speed or stand at the same level. MGML starts from that fact. Learning in MGML happens not only between teacher and learner, but also between learner and learner, and between learner and parent. It keeps every learner continuously active. The method rests on the belief that learners of all kinds, sitting together, can learn at their own pace by working with one another.

MGML uses many kinds of learning activity:

• learning inside the classroom and outside it
• field trips and community surveys
• acting things out
• project work, practical work and observation
• surveys of the environment and small daily investigations
• finding things out and displaying them
• sharing experiences and describing events

This method works quite differently from traditional teaching. The textbook is used only as a reference, and learning cards take its place. Learners are seated in four groups. Once a learner achieves one learning outcome, they move on to another group. Because the groups keep changing, this is called dynamic group learning. Running a class this way needs a well-managed room, a different kind of learning material and a different set of activities.

MGML develops child-friendly, child-usable materials to help learners reach their learning outcomes. The main ones are:

• a checklist
• a learning ladder
• learning cards
• group cards
• a workbook

Think of the learning ladder as a real ladder. Each rung holds one learning activity. Every learner completes the activities on each rung by themselves, at their own pace or level, and only then moves to the rung above. A quick learner climbs faster and a slower learner climbs at a comfortable pace.

Suppose Sita is ill and misses a week of school. She was on the fifth rung of her learning ladder. When she returns, she does not start again from the bottom, and she does not skip the missed work to catch up with her friends. She simply carries on from the fifth rung. So in MGML an absent learner never loses a learning activity. Each learner moves forward individually at their own pace, and every learner's learning is completed.

For MGML to work well, three things are needed:

• a properly managed classroom
• a trained teacher
• an active, energetic teacher