The Australian Association of Multiage Education

President

An image of the president: Associate Professor Brendan Bartlett

Associate Professor Brendan Bartlett

Annual meeting 27 May 2008

4pm Griffith University, Mt Gravatt Campus Brisbane.

If you plan to attend, please contact our Secretary: M.Fletcher@griffith.edu.au for details. Everyone welcome.

If you prefer a telephone link, discuss this with Margaret.

The Australian Association of Multiage Education (AAME) has evolved from a growing interest in multiage throughout Australia. Its beginning is rooted in the MultiAge Association of Queensland (MAAQ) and continues to be supported by numerous members throughout Queensland. All current members of MAAQ automatically become members of AAME and all benefits continue.

We urge you to visit all the pages of this web site to develop an understanding of this new organisation.

Planning mini-conferences to suit your needs – please open Conferences page for details

Brief overview of a developmental definition of multiageing

An image of some children and a teacher

The developmental approach may be defined as a philosophy of learning and teaching. It encompasses two principles.

First, 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. Second, 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.