Multigrade schools are schools where students of several grades study in a single class under single teacher concurrently. The project is my small attempt to find design opportunities to improve formal learning in such schools.

The project is an attempt to design means for peer learning that will assist children from two different grades to practice together and learn different things.

In the initial phase of the project user studies were done in total 5 schools to identify various challenges in such schools. Analysis of such studies surfaced circumstances ranging from class combination and special movements of student to unavailability of teachers and less instruction time. To contextualize the problems faced by students, 3 iterative ‘try-out sessions’ were carried out in multigrade class. These gave insights regarding students’ behavior in groups, special arrangements, importance of tangible artifacts and interaction among peers.

As a final concept, I have tried to merge the learnings of a “length”, a specific topic of “units of measurement” across multiple grades (3, 4 and 5). It combines series of worksheet based activities in a meaningful way by providing contextual learning which children can relate to in real life. The activities are merged with a story which encourages children for the long term use. It also focuses on holistic learning by cross-connecting mathematics with other subjects and children’s surroundings.

The solution makes efficient use of time and ability of both teacher and students as it requires little attention of teacher and promotes peer learning. It enables students of different grades to learn different things simultaneously.

The set of activities was then evaluated in multiple schools. The solution showed positive results, it was engaging for children and peer learning was promising. The solution is scalable hence more activity sheets on different topics for various class combinations can be created in the future.

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• Activity Planner and Tool Kit......