jobis to ensure that we provide students with
appropriate learning experiences which allow them to move
onto the next challenge, and that multiage grouping promotes
cognitive and social growth. [Seven Hills SS: Australia]
Togetherness. At Weber Elementary, the ages and grade levels of
students really do disappear -- not just for academic and
administrative purposes, but as a state of mind as well. Here's
what Tracy Elmer has to say about his Team 3 classroom: "My
students have come together as a classroom of learners. They're
no longer third graders mixed with fourth graders or younger
students mixed with older students (Elliott, Ian, 1997 p 48-51).”
Each child benefits from contact with all of the teachers on the
unit team. They also experience the security of having the same
homeroom teacher for the two or three years spent in each unit.
Buddy classes across the teams, cross-generation experiences
and parent involvement extend the Multi-Age learning
experiences in the school and the community. [Irving B. Weber
Elementary: Iowa City, USA].
Teacher beliefs centered around four themes: differentiated
instruction, social collaboration, flexible grouping, and student
interest. Observational data yielded instructional practices that
supported these beliefs and that demonstrated a commitment to
the tenets of multiage grouping. A review of qualitative studies
on MACs, concluded that teachers with a high degree of
consistency find teaching in a MAC more difficult than teaching
in a single-grade setting (Daniel, L., 2007).
Focusing on stages rather than ages does not mean your child is
progressing more slowly or quickly than the other children. It just
means that they are going through a stage either sooner or later
than others. It would be ludicrous to presume that all toddlers,
once they reach the age of two, are toilet trained and talk in
sentences – some will, some won’t but they all will in the end.
Stages of all sorts continue throughout childhood [Semarang
International School: Java, Indonesia].
