CPUT is set to compile a national research database on multigrade education.
The database will play a key role in furthering research, research collaborations as well as training development and capacity building programmes in multigrade education.
The project is being spearheaded by Dr Clive Kronenberg, an education and social sciences researcher at the CPUT Multigrade Centre.
A worldwide phenomenon in rural areas, multigrade classroom settings sees children of different grade levels taught by one teacher in the same classroom at the same time.
Although millions of children are taught in multigrade classrooms across the globe, this area of education has remained largely unaddressed, resulting in the poor academic performance of rural learners.
In South Africa 8 million children are enrolled in rural schools, of which approximately 2 million are in multigrade classrooms.
Kronenberg says although researchers across the country are dabbling in multigrade education, they are working in silos.
Research assistants Nicole Kleyn and Carly Philander are assisting with the development of the database and so far have tracked research conducted at CPUT over the past decade.
“We want to determine who is working on what in multigrade education,” says Kleyn.
“We are first looking at CPUT and will then broaden the scope to the other universities,” she says.
Philander says apart from recording research, they are also looking at photographs, digital and other sources related to multigrade education.
Once completed, the database will be placed online.
