Multi-Age
Multi-Age
Multi-age learning is not just limited to academic skills, but broadly engages each child’s intellect, intelligences, interests, and understandings of morality (DeVries & Zan, 2012; Katz, 2015; Noddings, 2010).
Multi-age offers children the “extraordinary opportunity to cultivate imagination, curiosity, creativity, and innovation” (Stone, 2019).
Student attitudes toward learning, school, self-concept, and personal and social adjustment were higher in the students who had participated in combination and multi-age classes (Veenman, 1996).
Mixed-age play is more creative and more imaginative, as well as more cooperative and less competitive (Gray, 2011).
Younger children or novices benefit from collaborative learning from older children, or experts, who model more sophisticated approaches to learning within authentic contexts such as projects (Kallery & Laupidou, 2016) and older children solidify mastery as they explain their approaches to younger children (Dowling, 2003; Roopnarine & Johnson, 1984).
The broadening of the learning community enriches the learning experiences for all children in mixed-age settings (Doherty, 2012; Gray, 2011, 2013).
Children challenge themselves to continue growing and learning as they have an innate drive to explore and learn (Curtis, 2017) and children see learning as “discovery, exploration, play, excitement, and joy” (Stone, 2004).
Children in multi-age classrooms learn to become autonomous, self-directed learners (Gray, 2014, 2017; Stone, 2004).
Parents of students in multi-age classrooms have noted that it provides a rich resource for children of diverse abilities, cultural backgrounds, and socioeconomic conditions, where they are able to appreciate and learn from one another (Leggett & Newman, 2017; Nieto, 2017).
Everything You Need To Know About A MultiAge School Program by Melissa Fisher Goldman