Inside the Montessori community and beyond, multi-age classrooms are a hot topic for parents, teachers, and school administrators. Multi-age class, combination class, double grade, split-grade class, mixed-age class, ungraded class, vertically-grouped class… Are we all talking about the same thing?
Angeline Stoll Lillard, in her authoritative research review Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius, describes the Montessori multi-age setting this way:
“Montessori encourages learning from peers in part by using three-year age groupings. This ensures that as children move through the classroom they will be exposed to older and younger peers, facilitating both imitative learning and peer tutoring… Dr. Montessori was quite clear about the need for this mix of ages.” Continue reading “Multi-Age Grouping: Observation + Imitation = Learning”