Why Have Multiage Classroom Configurations?

Gail M. Davis, 1997

Multiage classrooms are classrooms that do not have grade designations; rather they group students to include an age span of two to three years. Classrooms may be called by such designations as “primary” or “intermediate,” or by the ages contained in the room such as “a 9, 10, and 11 year old group.” Bingham (1995) defined multiage classrooms as places where developmental ranges are wider than in single-age classrooms. Classrooms combining more than one grade level can also be called ungraded, nongraded, family or mixed age groupings. The distinction Bingham made between grouping more than one grade level, such as in a split level program and a true multiage program is the commitment to each student as a unique learner. Bingham (1995) said that in multiage classrooms a student’s developmental diversity is:

  • Celebrated
  • Valued as part of a community of learners
  • Harnessed in subtle ways to support learning (pp.6-7).

She explained that in multiage classes the individual experiences, development, and learning styles of each student is not ignored or excluded but rather is celebrated. Multiage classrooms support a family atmosphere where differences become a “source of power and joy” (Bingham 1995, p.7).

A natural community of learners is inclusive of experiences outside school boundaries in the larger world. Multiage teacher incorporate such learning into the classroom, validating all of a student’s life experiences. While Bingham acknowledged these experiences can be both positive and negative, they still contribute to effective learning. Finally, by harvesting diversity Bingham meant that students were actively teaching and learning from each other. The teacher serves as a guide or an observer to the process rather than always being responsible for direct instruction.

Multiage classrooms do not separate curriculum by grade levels. Children work on the same topic and are expected to produce work at different levels. Multiage classrooms are not created for convenience to accommodate a population budge. Nor are multiage classrooms places where separate, grade level curricula continue. Bingham stated that multiage classrooms are permanent groupings for planned diversity.

G.N. Kaul (1977) of New Delhi, India, defined multiage classrooms as places where children are not expected to learn a quantum of knowledge equally well within the same time limit. Children were accepted as unique, with differing abilities. More advanced students were appointed to tutor the less advanced. They system, wrote Kaul, “provided for intimate relationship between pupils and their teachers as members of a family” (p.10). The basic philosophy is “to offer every student opportunities to proceed at his own speed and according to his own capacities” (Kaul, 1977, p.11).

Alioto (1994), in Chase and Doan’s book Full Circle, explained that multiage classrooms include two characteristics not duplicated by single-age classrooms. “These characteristics are significant student differences and continuity of learning over several years. In a multiage atmosphere, differences become strengths instead of liabilities, and time is a friend” (Chase and Doan, 1994, p. 107).

Pavan (1992) explained that multiage classrooms do not use grade-level designations for students or classes. Progress is reported not by grades or rating systems but by task completion. Often multiage classes are team taught in order to regroup students frequently according to tasks or student interests. There is an emphasis on continuous progress as reflected through students’ growth, not movement through a predetermined sequence of curriculum levels (Pavan, 1992, p.22).

Marshak (1994) stated that the multiage movement is the beginning of the reinvention of schooling in the elementary grades. He synthesized six elements that define the philosophy of multiage classrooms:

  1. Multiage classrooms include students with at least a two year span in chronological age, who would previously have been placed in two different grades.
  2. Each student remains in the same classroom with the same teachers(s) for at least two school years, and often longer.
  3. The teacher learns to perceive each student not as a member of a grade groping, but as the individual he/she is, with a multiplicity of qualities and capabilities, not all of which are at the same level of development.
  4. The children learn to perceive each other less and less in terms of grade membership and more and more in terms of specific personal qualities and capabilities. Chronological age becomes less important as a determinate of children’s relationships, while developmental age becomes more important.
  5. A multiage classroom generates more profound relationships between teacher and students, among students, and between teacher and parents.
  6. The qualities of the multiage classroom encourage the teacher to begin a transformation of his/her pedagogy. In this work a teacher moves from “teaching to an imaginary middle of the class” to conceiving and structuring learning activities that meet the needs of diverse individuals (Marshak, 1994, pp.4-5).

 

Bibliography:

 

Alioto, K. (1994). Multiage: A parent’s view. In P. Chase & J. Doan (Eds.), Full Circle: A new look at multiage education (pp. 107-113). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Bingham, M.F., Dorta, P., McClasky, M., & O’Keefe, J. (1995).Exploring the multiage classroom. York, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Davis, G.M., (1997) Discovering Nel Noddings’ ethic of care in American multiage and Russian classrooms: An ethnographic study. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI.

            Kaul, G.N. (1977). The nongraded school in India. New Delhi Press: Sterling Publishers PVT. Ltd.

            Marshak, D. (1994, March). From teacher’s perspectives: The social and psychological benefits of multiage elementary classrooms. Paper presented at the Annual Conference and Exhibit Show, Chicago, Illinois.

            Pavan, B. N. (1992, October). The benefits of nongraded schools. Educational Leadership, 22-25.