This interview highlights and extends Dr. Barbara Rogoff's keynote address at the 2019 annual convention. Specifically, in the interview, Dr. Rogoff discusses her framework for learning, Learning by Observing and Pitching In, as well as other aspects of learning, including notions of childhood, age-based social ordering, and conflict as an aspect…

In this article, the author profiles Charles Dickens Elementary School in Vancouver, British Columbia, a school that dares to be different from the rest. This elementary school operates on a child-centered, multi-aged framework that is based on belief in an orientation towards continuous progress, appropriate evaluation of progress, schoolwide…

Discusses the problems associated with having people from four generations in the training classroom. Offers tips for training people from age 20 through 70. (JOW)

A proposed intergenerational learning community is a model for a charter school focused on literacy, artistic studies, technology, environment, and personal wellness. Instructional design includes nongraded, multiage, heterogeneous groupings with flexible looping to support individualized learning. Mentoring and apprenticeships will be featured.…

An unnecessary bias toward separate programing for younger and older adults precludes intergenerational learning and reinforces age stereotypes. Recent gerontological research supports common learning themes for young and old: self-sufficiency, adaptation, and class and gender concerns. (SK)

As the proportion of older students grows, it will become crucial to develop methods of instruction acknowledging and creatively unifying the varieties of experience to be found in such diverse groups. (JOW)

Based on interviews with a principal and two teachers at a Virginia elementary school piloting a multiage program for six- to eight-year-olds, this article describes the program's bottom-up development, holistic orientation, and stress on team teaching and continuous progress. Next year's program will offer more options, including a fourth- and…

Considers the relationship between elementary and secondary education. Asserts that mixed-aged groups with a difference of 3 years promote cooperation and mutual support. Discusses scouting and sports as a means of fulfilling the void of purely academic schooling, asserting that organizations of this type provide youth with opportunities to…

This article describes the general principles of the philosophy of Montessori education. The basis of Montessori education is a student-centered learning environment--one that includes provision for an inquisitive, cooperative, safe, and nurturing atmosphere for learning. Students' psychosocial needs must be addressed before their cognitive needs,…

Flexibility is a key term to emphasize when grouping students for instruction, since a student might be in a different group for one academic area as compared to another academic area. This paper describes grouping for different methods of reading instruction and other disciplines. The paper discusses the following: using basal readers, using…

The need for intergenerational programming, involving the purposeful bringing together of different generations in ongoing mutually beneficial planned activities designed to achieve specified program goals, is growing in the United States. This paper discusses issues involved in early educational and intergenerational care, focusing on potential…

States that learning can shut down very quickly when learners are held back or pushed by grade-level constraints. Argues that multiage classrooms support each learner's continuous progress based on each child's experience, background, learning needs or strengths, and interests. (SR)

This history of the one-room school examines reasons for its demise (perceived inferior status, efficiency, modernization) and presents advantages of multiaged grouping in schools. (SK)

The Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) represents one of the most comprehensive pieces of educational reform legislation enacted in the United States. This article describes a series of unintended consequences that are the direct results of inconsistencies both between and within components of the reform. The inconsistencies have made certain…

Presents two American Montessori Society position papers. "Multi-Age Grouping" offers an analysis of eight specific methods and strategies of multiage practice that serve as a useful guide for implementation. "Peace Education" explains the need for, the requirements for, and the benefits of peace education as part of a school's…