Familiar to those who ascribe to the Montessori method, multi-age learning is still somewhat a novelty in the United States educational system. With all of the benefits of this style of learning, one might wonder why more schools have not morphed from their grade-level learning system into the multi-age learning system since it was reintroduced to the American public school system in the 1990s. Sometimes viewed as the one-room school house approach to education, homeschool families are in a unique position to capitalize on the power of multi-age learning
Just what is Multi-Age Learning?
Multi-age learning is just what the name implies, an educational approach that groups together children of various ages rather than specific grade-levels with students in a single year. In schools that employ this method, you will typically see classrooms with students over a range of three years. The idea behind this methodology is that children can develop according to their own natural timeline rather than being arbitrarily pushed through material based on an external list. Educators have known and complained for years about standards, written by those who aren't in the classroom and who have little to no interaction with children, which are not developmentally appropriate. Furthermore, even when standards are developmentally appropriate they don't take into account that each student isn't a standard, but exists with a host of strengths and weaknesses that place them into a range rather than a set point. This system helps to correct those problems with the current school structure.
Benefits of Multi-Age Learning
Individualized Education
Because a range of ages exists together in a classroom, students are grouped by their level of understanding rather than assuming that all 12 year olds are ready for pre-Algebra. Since there is a range of abilities you might see kids working on various levels of math for example and progressing on to the next lesson when they have true mastery, not automatically at the end of the week. Additionally, they may cover more or less in a school year than a typical grade of math, depending on their own comprehension. As you might have guessed this approach to learning allows for a truly customizable education that is tailored to each individual. Furthermore, because there are multiple ages and abilities a child who is "ahead" of grade level in math can work "behind" grade level in reading without the stigma that often arises in traditional grade-level classrooms because there are multiple groups in each subject area.
Challenging Students to Explore Deeper
Learning in a traditional classroom hampers both those who are ahead by holding them back and those who are behind by pushing them along. In a multi-age classroom students are challenged but not frustrated by too slow or fast of a pace, because they set their own pace. Furthermore, students who have great interest in a particular subject have the ability to explore and more deeply study that subject while other students gain a cursory knowledge and more deeply study a different interest of their own. Most students don't have the opportunity to choose their own subjects until they are high schoolers and even then in a traditional classroom, they are still restricted by curriculum that lays out what to study and for how long.
Flexible Growth
Anyone who has spent time around children know that their growth is anything but linear. Some children seem to lag behind their peers in maturity only to, seemingly overnight, become wise beyond their years. Others shoot up in height as grade schoolers, only to grow very little in their middle school years, and end up one of the shortest in their class. Likewise, academic growth is equally uneven; however, school curriculum seems to assume not only that all kids who are 10 are ready to learn multiplication, but that each child will completely master each lesson in a week, without exception. Because students really take longer to grasp some lessons while others are understood almost instantaneously, the multi-age approach allows students to continually be re-evaluated and moved among groups so that they are always right where they need to be.
Social Skills
Beyond just seeing academic benefits, students in multi-age learning classrooms also see improved social skills. Many public and private school children exhibit inhibited social skills, only able to interact with other children of their exact age group. They belittle and exclude younger children, while idolizing older children who belittle and exclude them. However, in a multi-age classroom students are forced to work together with children of various ages. Studies have shown that the diversity in their classrooms make them "better in terms of social learning." Older children learn leadership and take pride in teaching and assisting younger children. Younger children are able to learn and engage on a level that they could not on their own. They learn to work together and support one another rather than competing against one another as in a traditional classroom.
Assessments
In a traditional classroom all students are graded against a single standard. They are all either at grade level, above grade level, or behind grade level. When using the typical 100 point scale to evaluate work students continually compare and compete with one another for the best scores. In a multi-age classroom, students aren't compared to a single grade standard, but evaluated against what they had previously mastered. This promotes a mentality of growth and improvement by challenging oneself to be better than they were yesterday rather than comparison to others. Assessments then are tools rather than a be all end all.
Why Don't More Schools Embrace Multi-Age Learning?
So why don't more schools embrace multi-age learning? It isn't because of student performance, but rather due to the drawbacks of the typical classroom setting. To make multi-level classrooms work, you have a larger number of students in a classroom, and you need greater flexibility from educators to structure multiple lessons at multiple levels. The vast majority of curriculum options aren't structured in a way that supports this style of teaching, creating more work for teachers. Additionally, they have to be able to assess the pace of each individual student and a larger classroom makes that a greater challenge. Furthermore, there are of course extra disciplinary challenges for teachers in a larger classroom. The changes that this would require of administrators and superintendents to logistically accommodate these classrooms are also complex including scheduling and classroom changes. Finally, state laws and federal funding currently require testing based on grade levels, limit classroom size, and pose other difficulties to overhauling the entire education system.
Multi-Age Learning and Homeschoolers
However, homeschoolers don't have these challenges. With smaller "classroom" numbers and the authority to parent and correct unruly children they aren't handicapped like classroom teachers are. Additionally, homeschool families are free to shop for curriculum, much of which is structured to accommodate multiple levels at once. Without the overhead and logistical issues of large school systems, homeschoolers can pivot and make changes to the benefit of their students. Finally, less invasive state laws give homeschooling parents in most states more flexibility.
Homeschoolers routinely see the benefits of multi-age learning. Older students have the opportunity to better grasp material by teaching younger siblings. Younger students are able to interact with material on a deeper level due to conversations and exposure to the ideas of older students. Students can dive as deep into a subject as they desire, and subjects can be geared toward their interests. Their educations are completely individualized and they have the flexibility to take as long or as little time as needed to learn a lesson. Additionally, assessments are largely unneeded as parents are in tune with what their students have mastered. Finally, as a whole, the social skills of homeschoolers far outstrip regularly schooled children because they can interact with older and younger children as well as adults out in society.
Rather than reinvent the wheel by creating school at home, homeschoolers have the freedom to approach learning in the way that results in the best outcomes for our students. So, let's embrace the power of multi-age learning, and encourage one another and our students by utilizing every opportunity to promote this approach to learning.
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