Adapting the primary‐school curriculum for multigrade classes in developing countries: a five‐step plan and an agenda for change

This paper draws on the findings from an international programme of research that has demonstrated the need for multigrade teachers in many developing countries to be given more support in adapting monograded curricula to the needs of their multigrade classes. It describes four empirical models of multigrade practice and examines the models of curriculum construction and child learning that inform them. It then presents an original five-step process that can be used by curriculum planners to adapt monograded curricula, taking account of the different empirical models of multigrade practice. Finally, it outlines a strategy for implementing such a process by providing further support to strengthen curriculum units and improve teacher education that may enable the experimental work that has been started to take root and have real impact on the ability of their countries to reach the Millennium Development Goals for Education by 2015.