Brief overview of a developmental definition of multiageing
The developmental approach may be defined as a philosophy of learning and teaching.
It encompasses two principles:
- It teaches to the whole development of the child. All the developmental domains are included: intellectual, emotional, social, creative and physical. This is in contrast with a curriculum which has an excessive focus on abstract, academic and formalised teaching. Thus a developmental curriculum may be defined as more age appropriate, because child developmental theories show how children, need to experience activities in all the developmental areas.
- The developmental approach teaches to the developmental stage of the child, not the chronological age of the child. Thus a developmental approach may be defined as a more appropriate method of catering for individual differences.
Multiageing therefore, is a style of classroom organisation which particularly reflects the second described principle which is underpinned by the developmental method of focusing on the developmental stage of the learner.
In this way multiageing is quite different from a composite structure. A composite structure is where children of differing ages are grouped together in the one classroom, usually for administrative purposes such as uneven enrolments. The children are kept separate for learning activities according to their age, and teacher expectations vary according to age. A multiage classroom, however, embraces the developmental philosophy by catering for individual differences in developmental growth.