Learning in a Mixed-Age Preschool Classroom
Respecting the Learning Diversity of 3 to 6 Year Olds
Sep 1, 2009
Some preschools deliberately place their students in mixed-age groups, believing strongly in the benefits that such a grouping can have for all its members. Social competencies, for example, are encouraged in these cross-aged groupings that are caring and sharing communities. This article focuses on how the mixed age classroom is an effective learning environment.
Respecting Learning Differences
Children grow and learn at different rates, as they come from environments offering diverse experiences. The complexity of the child’s world makes each child unique, as clarified in Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model of Human Development.
Three year olds do not enter preschool with the same set of experiences, knowledge, skills and competencies. As they go about learning how to make sense of themselves and the world that they live in, they need a learning environment that allows them to learn in their individual way. They need opportunities to sometimes charge along, and sometimes to look again at things learnt earlier on, and sometimes to just stay where they are. The multi-age early years classroom respects these individual differences in what they know and how they learn.
Learning Without Pressure
Unlike the homogeneous-age classroom, there is no pressure on the children to meet the predetermined learning goals set for a particular grade level. What each child learns is guided by his or her individual readiness, ability and interest, and not by his or her age.
There is acceptance of the different levels of competencies. There is no need to hold back any of the children so that the others can catch up. Those who need more assimilation work on certain materials may stay longer on these activities until they master them. They are not made to feel as though they have performed below the grade level when they do so; there is no need to label them as “slow” or “an underachiever” as may be the case in a mono-aged class, where it is more obvious who is ahead or below the norm.
A Rich Learning Environment
The multi-age preschool classroom is characteristic of the Montessori preschool, where children aged 3 to 6 study alongside each other. As the group comprises children of various levels of intellectual maturity, the learning environment is specially designed to meet the diverse intellectual needs of the group. Such a classroom offers a wide and complete range of materials covering introductory activities for the novice learner as well as challenging experiences for the advanced learner.
The younger child who is just starting to build up his or her knowledge of concepts such as colour will pair together the red, blue and yellow tablets from the Montessori Colour Box 1, developing colour discrimination. Working just beside the young child may be an older child who grades the seven blue colour tablets from the darkest shade to the lightest shade. This child is later joined by his or her friends, and together they arrange the remaining 8 sets of colour tablets, each set carefully graded from darkest to lightest, to form an impressive colour wheel of 63 tablets. The younger child is awed by the colour gradation that can be created using the Montessori Colour Box 3 tablets, and knows that in time he or she will also be able to achieve this same feat.
Effective Learning Experiences
Children who join a mixed age classroom generally stay with the same teacher during their three year span of study. There is enough time for the teacher to know each child intimately. The teacher is familiar with the developmental needs and learning styles of each group member. Such a teacher can ensure that appropriate learning activities of the right challenge are offered to support the child’s intellectual development.
In the early years, it is not so much the academics that should be emphasized, but the disposition towards learning that these children need to develop. When children engage themselves in activities of their choice (and there is much to choose from), learning can be based on abilities and interests instead of on a prescribed syllabus. There is enjoyment in learning. And when children are trusted to progress at their own rate, they take pride in what they can achieve without any need for comparison with another. This sense of self-concept is critical for the child’s educational growth.
In short, the mixed age preschool classroom is a rich and sensitive learning environment that fosters a healthy disposition towards learning by respecting the learning needs of all group members.
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