What does a Multi-age classroom look like?

The Multi-Age Classroom: What Research Tells the Practitioner

by Sandra J. Stone

Let's create a multi-age classroom. Picture kids of different ages in one classroom with one teacher for several years, and you are visualizing a trend in education reform. That's what a simple definition of a multi-age classroom dictates: A mixed-age group of children who stay with the same teacher for several years. A successful multi-age classroom, however, is more than this simple definition implies. It is a classroom founded on research and learning theory about how children learn and that guides developmentally appropriate practices. These foundations drive, empower, and uphold a model of education that seeks to support the well-being of children (Goodlad and Anderson 1987) by creating a structure that allows educators to fit the schools to children rather than fit the children to the schools (American Association of School Administrators 1992).