Studies from previous decades have shown that children can develop cognitively and socially

through interacting with older and younger children. One important fact to have emerged is that
children benefit greatly from the opportunity to become an "expert for younger children to learn
from. Younger children look to the older ones to teach them, and older children view the younger
ones as in need of teaching and support. Educationalists have argued that this can nurture thinking
skills, problem solving skills, vocabulary and other social competencies.

In the mixed-age classroom where this level of interaction between children has been effectively
achieved, there is likely to be a greater general sense of cooperation. friendship groupins can cross
traditional age boundaries and younger children can often view older children as part of the
hierarchy of authority in their school when they share the same classroom. This inevitably leads to
a diminished need for teacher intervention in the event of bad behaviour.

Perhaps not insignificant is the fact that mixed-age teaching resembles more closely the family
setting that children with siblings find themselves in at home. Growing up with other children of
various ages means that they are more than capable of adaping to mixed ages in the classroom.
Mixed-age groups are also an environment in which older children who are not yet achieving age-
related goals may not fet the "failures" they would in a mono.aged class.