Multi-age classroom

Multi-age classrooms or composite classes are classrooms with students from more than one grade level. They are created because of a pedagogical choice of a school or school district. They are different from split classes which are formed when there are too many students for one class – but not enough to form two classes of the same grade level. Composite classes are more common in smaller schools; an extreme form is the one-room school.

Studies of the performance of students in composite classes shows their academic performance is not substantially different from those in single-grade classrooms; instead, outcomes tend to be a function of the teacher's performance.[1][2]

  1. ^ Wilkinson, Ian A. G.; Hamilton, Richard J. (23 July 2002). "Learning to read in composite (multigrade) classes in New Zealand: teachers make the difference". Teaching and Teacher Education. 19 (2): 221–235. doi:10.1016/S0742-051X(02)00105-1.
  2. ^ Wilson, Valerie (March 2003). All In Together? An overview of the literature on composite classes (SCRE Research Report 113) (PDF). The SCRE Centre, University of Glasgow. p. vii. ISBN 1-86003-073-4. Retrieved 1 April 2012.