Teaching Effectiveness in Multigrade Classrooms: The Role of Teaching Challenges, Instructional Strategies, And Institutional Support Among Female Primary School Teachers in Pakistan

Abstract

Multigrade teaching is still a common practice in rural and resource-poor educational contexts, especially in developing nations in which teachers are in short supply and school resources are limited. Although multigrade teaching has been adopted widely, there are a number of pedagogical and organizational difficulties which can impact the effectiveness of multigrade teaching. This study has analyzed the effect of teaching challenges, instructional strategies, institutional support and teaching effectiveness of female teachers working in multigrade class in District Kohat of Pakistan. A quantitative cross sectional survey design was used. The sample consisted of 447 teachers in the female teachers from the 12th grade primary schools in Nakuru Division of Murang'a district in Kerricho district, out of which 211 teachers were randomly selected using simple random sampling. The teaching challenges, teaching approaches, institutional support, and teaching effectiveness were measured by using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, multiple regression analysis, independent samples t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze data. The findings showed that teachers faced many problems in multigrade classes, especially workload, classroom management and shortage of resources. The results of the correlation analysis showed that teaching challenges had a negative correlation with teaching effectiveness, while instructional strategies and institutional support were significantly and positively correlated with effectiveness. Multiple regression analysis indicated that the predictors accounted for 50% of the variance in teaching effectiveness. The institutional support was found to be the most predictive factor, followed by instructional strategies and having a significant negative effect was teaching challenges. In addition, considerable variation in effectiveness of teaching was found between teachers in terms of experience and qualification. The study finds that in addition to teachers’ teaching skills, supportive institutional conditions are crucial to effective multigrade teaching. The results highlight that professional development, administrative support and instructional resources need to be improved to boost educational quality in multigrade schools in rural areas.

Keywords; Multigrade teaching, teaching effectiveness, teaching strategies, institutional support, teaching problems, female primary school teachers, rural education and Pakistan.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20809587