Aproximación a las aulas de escuela rural: heterogeneidad y aprendizaje en los grupos multigrado

Authors

Antonio Bustos JiménezSalto de línea Universidad de Granada. Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación. Departamento de Didáctica y Organización Escolar. Granada, España.

Abstract

Approach to rural schools’ classrooms: heterogeneity and learning in groups of different degree groupsSalto de línea Salto de línea This study shows the problem of a shortage of researches about education in rural schools and identifies a factor that has passed unnoticed: students of different ages interact in a single classroom. The results obtained in this study are part of an investigation of rural primary schools in Andalucía. The work is centralized into a general research that used quantitative methodology on different schools of the eight provinces in the region, and a specific research where ethnographic methodology has been developed in a rural public school of Granada. The article is based on the concept of having children of different ages on one single room and discusses and analyses the operation of groups of rural pupils, arranging the information obtained as gathering into groups, time and space. It also analyses the data obtained by the educational administration regarding qualifications, establishing the effects that may cause by multiple age-group classes. The analyzed data shows that apart from having this chronological diversity, it is important to add the higher quantity of immigrant students that joint rural schools and the special educational needs required to unite them to the rest of the Primary Education schools of the region. Conclusions stand out the advantages for the heterogeneous composition of students of the multi-age groups, besides representing a description of the different grouping practices carried out in rural schools.

Keywords

Rural schools, multi-age classes, heterogeneous groups, academic performance, individualized education, combined methodology, immigrant students.