Revista Brasileira de Educação do Campo
The Brazilian Scientific Journal of Rural Education
ARTIGO/ARTICLE/ARTÍCULO
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.v4e5242
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 4
e5242
10.20873/uft.rbec.v4e5242
2019
ISSN: 2525-4863
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Este conteúdo utiliza a Licença Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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An overview of the teaching in multi-year classes
Geralda Maria de Bem
1
,
Cícero Nilton Moreira da Silva
2
1
Universidade do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte - UERN. Campus Avançado Profa. Maria Elisa de Albuquerque Maia -
CAMEAM. BR 405, Km 153, Arizona. Pau dos Ferros - RN. Brasil.
2
Universidade do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte - UERN.
Author for correspondence: geraldabem@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT. When we approach the multi-years classrooms,
we need relate them to the rural location, since this is the place
in which there is the school organization practice under this
structure and functioning, that is, showing in the same
classroom, students of different age groups and cognitive levels.
Although it is presented in others scenes, however, it is in the
field that the identity of the multi-years classrooms is
constituted, being its presence alive in the Brazilian educational
scene. This article, however, aims at reflecting about this issue,
using as methodological procedure the bibliographical research.
Therefore, in order to allow a theoretical review about the
theme, we will seek contributions in authors, such as Arroyo and
Fernandes (1999), Tardif (2002), Santos and Moura (2010),
Azevedo and Queiroz (2010), among others, who discuss the
thematic at issue. In short, this work has showed us the need to
deepen the reflection about the teaching at schools with multi-
years classrooms and teaching knowledge that permeates
pedagogical practice of teachers who teach this modality of
teaching.
Keywords: Multi-years Classrooms, Education, Teaching
Knowledge.
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Um olhar sobre o ensino nas classes multianos
RESUMO. Ao abordarmos as classes multianos, precisamos
relacioná-las ao espaço rural, uma vez que esse é o território no
qual existe a prática da organização escolar sob esta estrutura e
funcionamento, ou seja, apresentando em uma mesma sala de
aula, discentes de diferentes faixas etárias e níveis cognitivos
igualmente diversos. Embora se apresentem em outros cenários,
no entanto, é no campo que se constitui a identidade das classes
multianos, sendo sua presença viva no cenário educacional
brasileiro. Este artigo, portanto, objetiva refletir acerca desta
problemática, utilizando como procedimento metodológico a
pesquisa bibliográfica. Para tanto, a fim de possibilitar uma
revisão teórica sobre o tema, buscaremos aporte em autores,
como Arroyo e Fernandes (1999), Tardif (2002), Santos e
Moura (2010), Azevedo e Queiroz (2010), dentre outros, que
tratam da temática em estudo. Em síntese este trabalho nos
evidenciou a necessidade de aprofundarmos a reflexão acerca do
ensino nas escolas com classes multianos e os saberes docentes
que permeiam a prática pedagógica dos professores que
lecionam nessa modalidade de ensino.
Palavras-chave: Classes Multianos, Ensino, Saberes Docentes.
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Una mirada sobre la enseñanza en clase multianos
RESUMEN. Al abordar las clases multianos, necesitamos
relacionarlas al espacio rural, ya que ese es el territorio en el que
existe la práctica de la organización escolar bajo esta estructura
y funcionamiento, o sea, presentando en una misma aula,
discentes de diferentes grupos de edad y niveles cognitivos
igualmente diversos. Aunque se presentan en otros escenarios,
sin embargo, es en el campo que se constituye la identidad de las
clases multianos, siendo su presencia viva en el escenario
educativo brasileño. Este artículo, por lo tanto, objetiva
reflexionar acerca de esta problemática, utilizando como
procedimiento metodológico la investigación bibliográfica. Para
ello, a fin de posibilitar una revisión teórica sobre el tema,
buscaremos aporte en autores, como Arroyo y Fernandes (1999),
Tardif (2002), Santos y Moura (2010), Azevedo y Queiroz
(2010), entre otros, que tratan de la temática en estudio. En
síntesis este trabajo nos evidenció la necesidad de profundizar la
reflexión acerca de la enseñanza en las escuelas con clases
multianos y los saberes docentes que permean la práctica
pedagógica de los profesores que enseñan en esa modalidad de
enseñanza.
Palabras clave: Clases Multianos, Enseñanza, Conocimientos
Docentes.
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Introduction
When we discuss the multi-year
classes, we must identify them as classes
where there is a single teacher, often
assuming multiple functions. Therefore,
the multi-level, or one-single teacher
classes, allow us to reflect upon the
contradictions that permeate the field,
nowadays, since they work in schools
composed of a reduced number of students,
in each school year, so that the teaching, in
these classes, requires teacher a great
effort, as well as pedagogical skills to deal
with the specificities of these classes.
This article is part of the master's
dissertation which name is: The teaching
practice in the countryside education: a
study in multi-year classes of Pau dos
Ferros/RN, of the Graduate Program in
Teaching – (PPGE), State University of
Rio Grande do Norte - UERN, in whose
master’s dissertation, we aim to reflect on
the issue of the multi-year classes in school
education. We adopted a methodological
approach to bibliographical research,
studying the authors: Arroyo and
Fernandes (1999), Tardif (2002), Santos
and Moura (2010), Rocha and Hage
(2010), Azevedo and Queiroz (2010),
among others. The teaching in the multi-
level classes requires a greater effort from
the teachers, who are often pressed to
make the children become literate
throughout the year, in a school reality, in
which a single teacher is responsible for all
learning.
This theoretical review article is
anchored in the bibliographical research
that, according to Severino (2007), is one
that is made from the available register,
derived from previous research, in printed
documents, such as: books, articles, theses,
among others. It uses data or theoretical
categories already discussed by other
researchers and properly registered. In the
first section, we discuss teaching in the
multi-year classes, approaching the
historical process of its constitution as a
teaching perspective; in the second section,
we read about the multi-level classes as a
challenge for teacher training; in the third
part, we deal with the knowledge that
permeates the teaching practice in multi-
year classes, since the teaching knowledge
is of great relevance in pedagogical
practice; and finalize our work with the
final considerations.
An overview of the teaching in the multi-
year classes
When we discuss the multi-level
(also multi-year) classes, we need to relate
them to the rural space, since this is the
territory in which there are such groups.
Although they present themselves in other
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scenarios, however, it is in the field that
the identity of the multi-year classes is
constituted, being their presence alive in
Brazilian educational scenario.
According to Dilza Atta (2003, apud
Rocha & Hage, 2010, p. 41), "the
multilevels classes rose in Brazil after the
expulsion of the Jesuits, linked to the State,
or without this link, but living in time with
itinerant teachers who taught the first
letters to children going from farm to
farm." Thus, these schools gradually
emerged in small towns and villages,
where teachers taught children to read,
write, and count; such procedures being
understood as sufficient for the children's
learning, in that historical moment.
According to Santos and Moura
(2010), the multi-series or classes taught
by a single teacher are characterized by the
combination of students from different
levels of learning, usually submitted to the
responsibility of a single teacher. In 1827,
with the enactment of the General Act of
Teaching, by the Imperial Government, the
mutual teaching (or monitored one) was
adopted. The Lancasterian Method was
brought to Brazil as a great novelty,
considered as an advance in Brazilian
education in the nineteenth century. With
the Republic and, more strongly from the
decade of 1920, the so called small public
school. As Santos and Moura (2010, p. 41)
affirm, "... in isolated villages and towns
and in rural areas, isolated schools are still
functioning" to address demographic and
population density issues, a fact that still
remains today in part of the Brazilian
countryside. This process occurred
throughout 1900, through an expansion
and internalization of the small public
schools. Still according to Santos and
Moura (2010), from the 1970s onwards the
perspective of school organization
emerged in the form of multilevel, that is,
the combination of several series
simultaneously, in a single classroom.
As a consequence, it was created the
multilevel classes in Brazil, currently
denominated multiyear’s, according to Act
11.274, of February 6, 2006 and The
judgment of the National Council of
Education and Board of Education -
CNE/CEB number 11/2010, it was noticed
the its popularization, with the emergence
of small public schools, organized in a
serial way, by age, grade and level of
learning. However, in the villages,
settlements and, mainly, in the rural area,
the existence of isolated schools, multi-
years, was maintained, meeting the
demographic demands, in places of low
population density. This situation, in part,
still has been taking place up to the present
days, in Brazilian rural scene.
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According to Santos and Moura
(2010, p. 42),
The School buildings are created
within a policy of educational
modernization and are organized
primarily in the cities and then in
towns of the countryside by gathering
multiyear’s schools - small schools
operating in improvised spaces - in
larger school buildings, built
especially for this end.
According to Santos and Moura
(2010), in some towns in the countryside
of Bahia, there are now buildings built in
the 1950s, with the denomination
"Reunited Schools “, thus demonstrating
the policy of extinction of "isolated schools
", which operated in a multi-serialized
system. Therefore, at the threshold of the
twentieth century in Brazil, with
educational modernization, the small
public schools were responsible for the
diffusion of a serial curriculum model,
becoming popular in the countryside of the
whole Country, through the actions of state
governments, since, even before the 1970s,
the responsibility for public instruction was
attributed to state governments.
What is more, adds Santos and
Moura (2010), from that decade, the
municipalities started gradually tooking
responsibility for the education, at that
level of education. At the same time some
federal programs were created to structure
the municipal education; municipal
education boards were also created.
However, these actions have been
increasing since the advent of the Federal
Constitution of 1988, because this law
offers greater autonomy to municipalities,
giving them opportunities to create their
own education system.
In relation to teaching practice,
Azevedo and Queiroz (2010, p. 70) states
that "one of the aspects that draws
attention is the fact that teachers consider,
during the teaching-learning process,
socioeconomic and cultural diversity,
which, as integral development of the
child, constitutes a fundamental
pedagogical requirement ". In this way, the
multi-year classes constitute a specificity
of the educational reality of the field, and it
is essential to consider the teaching
knowledge produced in the school context
and in the interaction with the students,
through the dialogue that essentially
contributes to their learning.
According to Tardif (2002, p. 51),
Teaching knowledge therefore
follows a hierarchy: its value depends
on the difficulties they present in
relation to practice. Now, in the
teacher’s discourse, relations with
students constitute the space where
their competence and their
knowledge are ultimately validated.
The classroom and the daily
interaction with the classes of
students constitute, in a way, a test
referring both to the 'professional
self' and to the knowledge
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disseminated and transmitted by the
teacher
This knowledge is essential to the
socialization of educators and students, as
well as other institutional professionals,
with an exchange of knowledge, which
may contribute to the learning process
collectively. This shows us that, before a
class of students, the teacher needs to
know the subjects that will be taught,
having a dialogue with these students,
since knowing how to conduct a classroom
and establish a relationship with the
students is fundamentally important for the
teaching practice. In the same way, to
paraphrase Tardif (2002), we ratify the
understanding that, daily, teachers in the
school environment share their knowledge
with each other, through exchanges of
experiences shared in the school context.
Teaching in the multi-level classes
requires a greater effort on the part of
teachers, who are often pressed for
children to be literate throughout the year,
in a situation in which a single teacher is
responsible for learning. In this sense,
Barros et al. (2010) point out that these
teachers find it difficult to care for the
children, especially those who can not read
and write, thus causing the children to
repeat themselves; an aspect that
contributes as one of the factors
responsible for the differing age group in
the classrooms of these schools.
For Barros et al. (2010, p. 27),
Teachers feel overwhelmed when
they perform other roles in multilevel
schools, such as: janitor, community
leader, principal, secretary, farmer,
etc. This multiplicity of functions
that it acquires is seen as negative for
its professional performance, needing
a team to add and divide efforts in
the school work.
It should be emphasized that
teaching in the multi-year classes, before
this problem faced by teachers in schools,
needs a readjustment to characterize the
teaching practice, due to the difficulties
encountered in the pedagogical process,
because it is a combination of years at the
same time.
According to Barros et al. (2010),
the multi-year classes, or mixed classes
with one single teacher, allow us to think
about the contradictions that permeate the
field, nowadays. These schools are
composed of a small number of pupils in
each school series, who, after the
completion of the initial elementary
schools in the city. This reality, added to
the precarious agricultural policy,
contributes to the young people
demonstrating interest in migrating to
urban space, leaving their place of origin.
For the reason, it is necessary to
understand the teaching practice within a
plural universe, focusing on the social,
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economic and cultural relations of society,
without losing sight of the possibilities and
limits of the realization of an educational
proposal for these schools that does not
aim at the subject to the world, but that
make them capable of transforming their
reality.
According to Azevedo and Queiroz
(2010, p. 70),
It is also unanimous to consider that
working with multi-level classes
requires a great effort from teachers
and pedagogical skills to deal with
this particularity. This perspective
translates, on the part of the teachers,
the effort to assure the quality of the
teaching-learning process.
It should be noted that teachers of the
multi-level classes, when planning their
activities, participate in planning with
groups of teachers of a certain level;
resulting in a heap of plans copied from
others; such plans end up being the same
for the entire system, and produced without
reflection. This demonstrates, explicitly, a
policy of regulation and rationalization of
pedagogical work, in which these practices
show the devaluation of the pedagogical
practice of the teachers of the multi-year
classes. Thus, as explained by Santos and
Moura (2010, p. 44), it is evident that: "the
urban-centric serial paradigm influences,
predominantly, the organization of space,
time and knowledge of the multisite school
in the field, precariously increasing school
failure and exclusion of the rural
population.”
In this way, it is possible to observe
that, since these schools are strongly
influenced by the serial curriculum
paradigm, oriented to urban education, we
can not ignore a pedagogy that is linked to
the multi-year classes, derived from the
pedagogical practices constructed in the
course of the experiences and the
knowledge of the teachers who teach daily
in these classes.
In fact, the rural school is not
directed to a single subject; it integrates
education for all: men, women, children
and young people. That is why the teacher
needs to have a broad view of the
educational aspects that guide this
modality of teaching, respecting learners in
all its aspects: historical, social and
cultural. As Arroyo and Fernandes (1999),
man, woman, child have, in the
countryside, Their identity; and like the
teacher, who has her/his identity, her/his
background, history and diversity, based
on conceptions of gender, ethnicity,
religion, sexuality, these subjects are also
those ones in construction.
It is up to the school to include, in
the pedagogical proposal, those factors that
contribute to the training of the subjects
from rural areas, so that teachers can
reflect on their practice, with regard to
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teaching in these schools, seeking to know
the life history of learners; these are,
therefore, essential aspects of the
Education in the rural areas. Thus, it is
necessary, as Arroyo and Fernandes (1999,
p. 25) states; "... Valueing people,
respecting their diversity, their rights. So
the first characteristic: linking education
with rights and linking education with
rights, linking education with subjects.
Concrete, historical subjects, treated like
people in school".
It is necessary to understand,
therefore, that it is in the school that the
students seek knowledge through the
contents, in which, under the mediation of
the teachers, connecting the informal
knowledge and the formal knowledge.
Also understanding that if the school
knowledge acquired in the context of
schools which are rights of the rural
woman and rural man, this knowledge
need to be in harmony with the knowledge,
values, culture, and training that also exist
outside the school routine.
According to Caldart (2011, p. 126),
If it is true that we see the world
according to the ground on which we
step on, then a teacher (man or
woman) who never leaves the
boundaries of his/her school will
have a world view of his / her size
and will not have the necessary
human conditions to do the reading
of the educational actions that happen
outside, and not always so close to
the school.
Therefore, the teacher must leave the
"walls of the school" in search of new
knowledge that is indispensable for his/her
formation, since he/she can not live
isolated in the school, being necessary to
dialogue with the other teachers in search
of innovative methods that contribute to
the teaching in the multi-level classes,
since these classes require greater attention
on the part of the teacher. According to
Castro and Carvalho (2013, p. 147), "... the
teacher understands more and more that, in
the moment of teaching, there is the
organization of knowledge that should
foster the apprehension of knowledge that
will make the subjects more apt to live
socially". According to the authors, the aim
of the teacher as mediator of the learning
teaching process is to coordinate and
reflect upon this one.
During the classes the students
discuss, dialogue and justify their ideas.
Thus, the teacher should motivate the
students to think for themselves, because,
acting in this way, the teacher will be
supporting the students so that they
acquires their intellectual autonomy and
contributes to their own individual
training, so that they can value their history
and culture.
According to Brazil (2009, p. 30),
For the generations, and in particular
for rural education, the school is the
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main place to gain access to
systematized knowledge, cultural
wealth and scientific achievements. It
is through the appropriation of
general culture, the mastery of
theories and their social function that
the mind and the higher intellectual
functions are developed.
With this understanding, the school
should establish partnership with the
community in which it is a part of, through
its curricular activities related to the daily
life of learners, as well as to consider the
historical, social, and cultural aspects of
the students and the community in which
they are inserted.
Of course, the schools that provide
the multi-level classes require a teacher-
centered training focused on the reality of
this teaching, given that there can be no
distance between the student's empirical
knowledge and the knowledge
systematized by the school.
Multi-level classes: challenges for
teacher training
We know that education is one of the
fundamental factors in the education of the
human beings in their social totality.
Starting from this assumption, we must
emphasize that it is necessary an initial and
continuous training for the educators of the
rural schools; therefore, higher education
institutions should offer undergraduate
courses that meet the specific needs of
students in the field. It was in 2004,
according to Rocha and Martins (2011),
that the Faculty of Education, Federal
University of Minas Gerais, received a
demand from the Movements of of the
Landless Rural Workers (MST), when they
built a partnership, which aimed at creating
a Pedagogy course, supported by the
National Education Program for Agrarian
Reform (PRONERA).
Thus, the interest arises to create a
course that could enable former university
students for teaching in the initial and final
grades of Elementary School, whose
course was directed to the subjects of the
countryside, taking into account the needs
present in the scenario of schools in the
Brazilian countryside, which require a
professional that has a broader education,
that is, that has a more totalising view,
since these professionals are responsible
for a series of educational dimensions
present in the school context of these
schools.
Thus, Rocha and Martins
summarizes (2011, p. 41):
... the demand for training of the
Multidisciplinary Teacher requires a
rethinking of the training model
present in Brazilian Universities,
centered in disciplinary degrees. The
degree courses, based on a
specialization model, do not allow
this educators to be able to intervene
globally in the training process of
their students. On the other hand, the
Pedagogy course does not prepare the
educators to coordinate the training
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process in the last years of
elementary and high school.
Therefore, teacher education should
be directed towards meeting the
specificities of different educational
contexts, so that teachers can improve their
knowledge and contribute to the learning
process of learners.
We also emphasize that this training
is a necessary condition for them to act in
their pedagogical practice.
Gonçalves, Rocha and Ribeiro (2010,
p. 53) states that "the teacher who works in
this context is responsible for a space
different from what is usually learned to
deal with during the undergraduate studies
in teaching".
According to Gonçalves, Rocha and
Ribeiro (2010), the School Active Program
(PEA) was implemented in Brazil in 1997,
in accordance with the World Bank (BM)
and, according to Gonçalves, Rocha e
Ribeiro (2010) aimed at improving the
income of the students belonging to the
multi-year classes located in the rural area.
This program focuses on two important
aspects: the training of teachers and the
improvement of the infrastructure of
schools located in the countryside. It was
elaborated through the experience of the
Escuela Nueva Program (PEN) and was
carried out in Colombia in the 1980s,
becaming an international reform model
for rural education.
In Brazil, the Active School Program
(PEA) was implemented with the objective
of improving rural education, initially
expanding in the states of Sergipe and
Alagoas, soon after being supported by
Fundescola, being implemented in other
states of the Northeast and the Center-west
of Brazil.
In order for the rural schools to
follow this program, it is necessary that the
municipalities join it.
As we found in Brazil (2009, p. 27-
28),
The Active School Program, as a
strategy for the organization of the
work of the educator and the school
with multi-level classes, incorporates
the foundations and principles of
rural Education. Its purpose is to
provide conditions for learning aimed
at understanding the social reality in
which the child is inserted. For this,
it is necessary to stimulate
experiences that aim at learning,
participation, collaboration,
companionship and solidarity,
involving, recognizing and valuing
all forms of social organization.
As we know, the Active school
Program is aimed at valuing the
professional of school education in the
countryside, proposing the recognition of
the differences and ethnic, cultural,
political and religious diversity of the
subjects residing in the countryside. We
must emphasize that the principles that
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guide the Active School Program are
related to theories as well as the
conceptions of teaching and learning that
guide the work in multi-year classes.
As Gonçalves, Rocha and Ribeiro
point out (2010, p. 54),
The PEA has as methodological
strategies: active learning, student-
centered and social reality; the
teacher as facilitator and stimulator;
cooperative learning; participatory
management of the school;
continuous and procedural evaluation
and flexible promotion ... also
encourages community participation
and seeks to promote the ongoing
training of teachers.
Thus, it is understood that there are
several strategic actions to be developed in
the context of the school, according to the
proposal of the Active School Program,
whose knowledge is taken to the teachers
through studies, discussions and
workshops. Such actions can generate new
knowledge that is worked in the classroom,
enriching the teaching practice.
In addition to the Active School
Program, one of the continuing education
programs for Brazilian teachers of multi-
year classes in the countryside, the
National Pact for Literacy in the Right
Age/PNAIC, which expresses the
commitment assumed by the federal
government, states and municipalities,
aiming at the full literacy of all children up
to eight years of age and who are in the 1st,
2nd and 3rd years of Elementary School,
covering serial and multi-year schools.
This program is aimed at providing
teacher education and aims at improving
educational outcomes, whose training
consists of study meetings and practical
activities, mediated by the guiding teachers
of the Local Education agencies, intending
an improvement in Primary Education.
Of course, the training of rural
school educators can not lose sight of the
construction of an education that is linked
to the interests of all who are concerned to
fight for an improvement in the field.
According to Caldart (2004, p. 22),
"building the rural education means
training educators and educators in the
field to work in different educational
settings". Thus, the training of these
professionals needs to be rethought
through continuing education courses,
since the accumulated knowledge, in the
course of the experiences, needs to be
systematized and improved, valuing the
cultural diversity of the students.
Thus, to understand the space of the
school in the rural Education, Caldart
(2004) emphasizes that it is necessary to
understand the type of subject that the
school is educating in the rural areas today.
It is necessary that the school can
universally fulfill the process of
humanization of these subjects, being
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attentive to meet the peculiarities of the
social processes of its historical time and to
contribute to the formation of the new
generations of the active and social
workers who take part of rural education.
Regarding the training of rural
teachers, according to Zárate (2011), this
should be understood as a solid scientific
and cultural training capable of providing a
critical training that is relevant to the
improvement of the pedagogical practice
of teachers working in the rural schools.
And, according to this same author, the
teacher who takes part in the countryside
teaching needs specific training, capable of
understanding the need for educational
practices that are in accordance with the
reality of that teaching context.
In order to that, it is necessary a
multidisciplinary teaching training that
guarantees a broad vision of the reality that
permeates the issues of the countryside;
such as the Pedagogy of Earth Courses,
which are intended for the training of
teachers at a higher level, with a full
teaching degree, to work mainly in the
education of the rural areas.
The rural education is therefore
challenging, because it provokes
reflections regarding the historical
processes experienced by the subjects, in
the various social, political, economic and
cultural aspects, leading the subjects of the
rural areas to value themselves as people,
as well as to value the environment in
which they live in. Thus, the teacher’s
training should be considered as one of the
components of changes in the school
context.
According to Nóvoa (1995, p. 28),
"... training is not done before the change,
it is done during, it takes place in this
effort of innovation and search of the best
routes for the transformation of the
school". In this perspective, teacher
training contributes to the educational
practice, in the school context, through the
innovations that occurred during the
classes, as well as to the changes, at the
organizational level, through the
collaboration of teachers and the whole
school community in the construction of
the pedagogical proposal aimed at
improving education.
The knowledge that permeates practice
teacher in multi-years classes
When approaching the teaching
knowledge, we must emphasize the
relevance of continuing education, as one
of the aspects present in the professional
career of the educator. In agreement with
Tardif (2002), we agree that, currently, the
labor market requires citizens qualified to
act in the globalized world, and, therefore,
it is necessary to seek a professional
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qualification, for the improvement of the
quality of teaching work; and, without
doubt, training courses, seminars,
pedagogic seminars, among others, greatly
contribute to the continuing teacher’s
training, so that they can mediate a
learning that is significant in the education
of learners.
Thus, continuing education is a
permanent process of searching for
qualification in which teachers need to be
updated to follow the changes that have
been taking place in the Brazilian
educational system, as well as to increase
their knowledge about teaching practice.
According to Tardif (2002, p. 262),
Professional knowledge is temporary
in a third sense, since it is used and
developed within a career, that is, a
long-term professional life process
which includes identity dimensions
and dimensions of professional
socialization, as well as phases and
changes.
Teaching knowledge is therefore of
great relevance in pedagogical practice,
since, coming from different sources and
different contexts, they come from their
life history and school culture, and
acquired in the training courses, in their
training as university student, as well as in
the school institution, a place to exchange
experiences with co-workers, where the
interaction takes place to discuss the
themes that permeate the daily life of the
school.
Knowing how to live in the school
environment is fundamental for all
professionals, given that the knowledge
produced in this relationship of interaction,
contribute to the pedagogical practice. It is
therefore pertinent to emphasize that
teachers, when working with students in
the classroom, should reflect on their
practice, so that they can attend to the
diversity existing in the school context.
According to Tardif (2002, p. 263),
... the professional practice of
teachers is heterogeneous or
heteronymous regarding the internal
objectives of the action and the
mobilized knowledge. For example,
when we observe teachers working in
the classroom, in the presence of the
students, we realize that they seek to
achieve, often simultaneously,
different types of objectives: they
seek to control the group, motivate
them on tasks, while giving particular
attention to certain students in the
class, seek to organize learning
activities, monitor the evolution of
the activity, give explanations, make
students understand and learn, and so
on. However, this set of tasks evolves
during class time according to a
dynamic network of human
interactions between teachers and
students.
This shows us that the work of
teachers requires a variety of skills and
competences so that the teacher can
interact with the learners, seeking a
relevant work methodology in their
learning, making the students respect the
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cultural differences existing in the school
context. Thus, the teacher should seek to
motivate students in class so that they can
seek knowledge that help them become
citizens able to fight against social
inequalities.
According to Charlot (2013, p. 114),
Teaching is, at the same time, to
instigate the activity of the
students so that they construct
knowledge and transmit them a
patrimony of systematized
knowledge inherited from the
previous generations of human
beings. According to Bachelard's
contributions, the most important
thing is to understand that
learning arises from questioning
and leads to constituted systems.
It is this intellectual journey that
matters. It implies that the teacher
is not only a teacher of content,
that is, of answers, but also, and
first of all, teacher of questioning.
Thus, we emphasize, the teacher
should try to understand the context of the
students and seek to understand how their
story is built, in their daily life, making the
activities carried out in classroom be
relevant in the education of these students.
Considering the importance of
teaching knowledge, as addressed by
Tardif (2002), as temporal and plural, this
knowledge is acquired through experiences
and shared with the groups in which
teachers are inserted. Thus, in terms of
teaching in the multi-level classes, in
which teachers use their knowledge to
teach for a diversity of years,
simultaneously, it is necessary to make a
greater effort on the part of teachers,
having to plan on different levels of
learning. In their teaching activities, this
knowledge is fundamental, since they
allow the teacher who works in this level
of teaching to have a mastery of diverse
contents in order to mediate the learners'
learning, taking into account the diversity
of each group, whether they are: Riverside
people, farmers; quilombolas community,
among others, whose students need to be
respected in their own identity.
We know that it is in the context of
the school that the interaction happens, so
the socialization between teacher and
student is something that is built in the
school daily life, where the teacher tries to
organize the activities that are conducted,
having the students to work in groups so
that they become responsible for their
activities. According to Tardif (2002, p.
118), "... teaching is to initiate a program
of interactions with a group of students, in
order to achieve certain educational
objectives related to learning of knowledge
and socialization".
Thus, teaching is an interactive
activity, that is, a work done among
people, where teachers and students
interact in search of knowledge. We agree
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with Tardif (2002, p. 239), stating:
"teachers' knowledge is largely based on
their experience in the profession and on
their own individual skills and abilities".
These knowledge must be integrated with
other dimensions of teaching, personal
experience and research that the teachers
finds to improve their practice; whose
knowledge is plural and heterogeneous,
being fundamental in the very exercise of
teaching work.
Therefore, it is in the moment of
teaching that the teacher understands how
the organization of the knowledge that will
provide the acquisition of knowledge,
contributing to the development and
learning of the students.
Final remarks
According to what has been said, we
have seen that the multi-level classes
constitute a reality of the country
education, in which there are classes with a
single teacher, often assuming multiple
functions, in the school context. This
combination of years in the same group
contributes to the fragmentation of
pedagogical work, making planning and
evaluation activities carried out in
isolation.
The multi-level classes constitute a
specificity of the educational reality of the
rural areas, and it is essential, therefore, to
consider the teaching knowledge produced
in the school context and in the interaction
with the students, through the dialogue that
essentially contributes to their learning.
We also emphasize the importance of
knowledge, which is essential, as well as
the interaction between educators and
learners, as well as other professionals of
the institution, with an exchange of
knowledge, which may contribute to the
learning process in a collective way.
In general, this has showed us that,
before a class of students, the teacher
needs to be aware of the contents that will
be taught, having a dialogue with these
students, since knowing how to conduct a
classroom and establish a relationship with
the students is fundamentally important for
successful teaching. This knowledge is
essential for the interaction of educators
and students, as well as other professionals
of the institution, with an exchange of
knowledge, which may contribute to the
learning process collectively. This has
showed us that the teacher needs to be
aware of the contents that will be taught,
having a dialogue with these students,
since knowing how to conduct a classroom
and establish a relationship with the
students is fundamentally important for the
teaching practice.
Thus, this study arose from the need
to encourage a reflection about teaching in
Bem, G. M., & Silva, C. N. M. (2019). An overview of the teaching in multi-year classes...
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the multi-year classes, and the teaching
knowledge that permeates the pedagogical
practice of these teachers who teach in this
teaching level. We conducted field
research in the following schools:
Teaching Unit V Francelino Granjeiro;
Unit of Education VIII José Alves Pereira;
Teaching Unit XII Narcísia Amélia do
Nascimento; and Teaching Unit XVIII
Manoel Chagas de Aquino, and we were
able to see the difficulty that the teachers
underg in the teaching practices, due to the
lack of pedagogical accompaniment as
well as other important questions within
the school environment.
Therefore, it is necessary that the
administrative and pedagogical team have
a careful look at these schools, as well as
studies aimed at the continuing training of
teachers, so that they can broaden and
share their knowledge that come from their
professional experiences in the course of
their daily and school education.
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I
Law No. 11.274, dated February 6, 2006,
establishes the duration of 9 years for Elementary
School with compulsory enrollment from the age of
6 (six) years, whose curricular organization was
fixed by the CNE/CEB Opinion No. 11/2010.
Under this law, classes previously organized in
multiseries became multi-ethnic.
Article Information
Received on April 27th, 2018
Accepted on September 06th, 2018
Published on April, 17th, 2019
Author Contributions: The authors were responsible for
the designing, delineating, analyzing and interpreting the
data, production of the manuscript, critical revision of the
content and approval of the final version to be published.
Conflict of Interest: None reported.
Orcid
Geralda Maria de Bem
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8440-9687
Cícero Nilton Moreira da Silva
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6773-7451
How to cite this article
APA
Bem, G. M., & Silva, C. N. M. (2019). An overview of the
teaching in multi-year classes. Rev. Bras. Educ. Camp., 4,
e5242. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e5242
ABNT
BEM, G. M.; SILVA, C. N. M. An overview of the teaching
in multi-year classes. Rev. Bras. Educ. Camp.,
Tocantinópolis, v. 4, e5242, 2019. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e5242