For children is natural to change classes, when it is according to established system. If they know, that they go to kindergarten for three years and then everybody leaves - it is normal. 

Students are emotionally different in schooling, in college, and in Universities. These are developmental phases and learners' personality develop and take shape. These are maturing stages also.

That is  true, dear Volker. The only problems I find in this class changing issue is when we are dealing with adolescents. The problem becomes a focus of various manifestations of emotion: anger, rage, uprooting from "the gang",... and this disruption usually carries with it silence in the new class and going back to the "pack" group during breaks, if they are still in the same school, or even in schools not very far apart. I experienced that with one of my own boys, where schools were 200 meters apart. And if the separation entails breaking up a dating relationship, things can really get out of control. On the other hand, in Portugal it is very usual to find parents pulling strings with connections in highly powered positions to keep their kids in the same groups from kindergarten till it is time for them to go to University. I find this really impoverishing, since kids get used to behaving and accepting behaviour in a very biased and tribe-like view of the world.

Thank you for all the contributions. Yes, Andrey, I was a learner, student, teacher, lecturer, post grad and currently I am a post doctoral fellow. We changed classes since grade 4 if I remember correctly, and we could not wait for being able to do what the older kids do. Therefore, it was confusing to hear that kids are only ready by Grade 8, or the start of secondary school. I loved having more than one teacher, going to other classes and experiencing different teaching styles. But I did not check if my peers hated it. My own kids also loved it, but I am a teacher, so I could have influenced or motivated them?

After entering school in 1958, at the age of 6 years old, I stayed for 6 years in the same class at the same school. When grade 7 started, there was an additional subject called "professional education" involving some carpentry & blacksmith workshops which would have went on for 3 years. I did not like the subject so I asked my father to move me to another school which teaches the above subject as agriculture (theoretical & practical). A new set of teachers & classmates came to my life at the age of 13 years old. It took me one "difficult" year to adapt (here came the emotional factor!) but, afterwards, many things went smoothly. Later on, many changes occurred but they were not hard to pass through.   

Irrespective of age-group, change of class always needs little adjustment; change of school even more. I wish I had empirical evidence to prove that. However, with a little less than 2 decades of experience in K-12 education, I can safely say that children of all ages change classes without much trouble barring an adjustment period of a week or two. Students who change classes as well as school take a bit longer to adjust, perhaps because they are unable to see their teachers and friends anymore and miss their familiar surroundings.I haven't read anything so far on the concept of readiness to change class at a particular change.

My daughter attended a 6th through 8th grade middle school and the students there did just fine changing classes. In fact they even had two floors to change to and some students like my daughter had up to three lockers to keep track of. She had a book locker, a P.E. locker and an orchestra locker for her violin. The teachers at her school prided themselves on how well the students were trained and kept track of everything.

Children are able to  change classes from age 3 & @ pre-school & of course accompanied by a teacher. However few students may have difficulty with this transition.  Most students are ok & feel very comfortable as the year progresses. @ least in the United States due to different certification of teachers, students  learn this transition very early.

This is a good subject Christa  - thank you

Reality sometimes is harder than we want it to be and it can cause things that are not easy for anyone - especially children - even if they are mostly the most adaptable.

Sometime a family has to move and children will change classes at whatever age., and sometime they will have to change class every year - whether they are ready emotionally or not.

Whatever the change - it usually leaves deeper scars that we as adult realize. And the scares inside us – when we moved - we mostly managed to suppress so we may not even remember them.

There are many problems that can arise because of a change - it could be a change of language, home, school, class, parents’ separation etc...

The big question is how the change is being managed? And here one of the most important thing is preparation for; “good preparation ahead of time might solve 50% of the otherwise bad consequences.”

My daughter was in a Spanish immersion program in kindergarten.  It did not bother her because it was an established system.  It may also depend on the extent of the change. How many and frequency? 

It seems to me that some conceptual work might help here as this is a fairly intercultural debate.

Class might refer to both social group and a room. I believe some people in this discussion refer to "transfer" (one kid permanently tranfers from one social group to another, e.g. when the whole family moves to different city), some people discuss streaming/tracking (one kid spends a part of her school day in another group), and some people discuss the whole social group moving among classrooms (and teachers) during the day, e.g. from homeroom to laboratory.   Each case is worth discusing.

Thank you, Dominik, sometimes we just assume people know exactly what we meant. What I would like to know is based on the following. In South Africa, up to Grade 3, learners stay in one class for the whole day, taught by one teacher. From Grade 4 onwards, they have more than one teacher and have to walk to other classrooms to be taught by other teachers. So I have heard they are not ready by that age. In the process I have learned a lot, about other interpretations of my question as well. Thank you very much for the insights, I appreciate it a lot.

It depends on many factors: parents, teachers, the other children-friends. Usually it is not so difficult if some friend comes in the same school as well. In Greece we have to years of kindergarten and  then comes the first year in the elementary school. As the children must go the school in their neighborhood and in the same building complex is their kindergarten also, there are not many problems.

 You used two phrases which need clarification. Move classes could mean several things and each has a complex answer: transfer of school at the statutory age or informally part way through a year, move up a year keeping the same class friends, and being withdrawn from the usual class setting to be taught by another teacher. Please clarify.

Emotional readiness is an extremely complex concept dependent on such factors as within an expectation, support at home, and support at the  leaving and receiving schools. From my experience of supporting schools with forces children who move  across the world and sometimes with a frequency of every two years even in the  primary phase, the children expect this to happen and have coping strategies to deal with the expected trauma. In the leaving and receiving classes the children also devise coping strategies. This does not mean that some children do not develop emotional problems and this is very apparent in secondary aged boys and girls.

Thanks , Christa. I am quite interested in the different approach to this aspect of school organization, too. It seems to me that most European countries assign one "generalist" teacher to the class at the primary level, while the specialized teachers are common in the lower secondary school. Thus kids stay in one room with one teacher for whole day in the primary school. The age of the transition from the primary to (lower secondary) is different, however. There are some interesting exceptions as Norway, where one teacher taught all subjects in the junior secondary classes as well. Now the pattern is probably changing.

Besides,  in some countries looping is widely used (one homeroom teacher teaching all subjects to the same social group for several consecutive years). E. g. in some Czech primary schools, one teacher stays with one group of children for up to five years, i.e. teaching them from grade one to grade five (almost) all subjects.  Obviously, other approaches to class formation and teacher assignment are used in other school systems,

I would be interested in comparing the system of looping in Czech Republic (one teachers stays with the social groups, teaching different grades in consecutive years)  with the school system where the teacher teaches the same grade for several consecutive years.

But that age, I think it is important to consider the child's maturity to face the learning experience. Not all children are prepared to take the challenge and learning School efficiently and effectively, so it is necessary to consider its maturity and willingness to learn before considering the inclusion or continue advancing grade.

Tiffany Field;s research has shown that when you move young children to the next classroom with their peers and friends then there is far less child  upset. Other programs have found that allowing children to visit back and forth prior to a move and to feel comfortable  and familiar with the new classroom they will be going to is very helpful. to reduce worry or stress. Some  programs combine kindergarten  and first grade thus allowing for gradual transitions, especially for youngsters who might need an extra boost for their early learning.

Kindergarten to primary school, to middle level school, to high level school, to intermediate level, to college level, to University level education/classes are phases in education of students in India.

Probably according to these levels, students are emotionally ready to change classes/level.

In Brazil, the experience with cycles can be thought with a two-year interval, but it is also important to check the teacher's experience

i see in my country in 8 years old

Christa,

This is an interesting question and many thoughts now emerge.  Child development and attachment theory speak to stability & predictability that enhance children's abilities to feel secure, interdependent, confident and competent. This in turn drives social-emotional growth.  Children today are subjected to constant change for a variety of reasons but I'm not certain that signifies "readiness."  And, often times, unintended consequences arise, e.g. anxiety, negative behaviors, stress, physical symptoms, academic challenges, social difficulties, etc.  Schools have changed as well.  Years ago, children attended the same school from Kindergarten through 8th grade.  So although they changed to a new classroom for the next grade level, they were still in a familiar environment, i.e. people and place. This was not frightening at all. To meet enrollment, however, schools had to change.  Now there are so many configurations, I can't keep up. Not only do children change schools 2 or 3 times (for grade groupings) before high school, they have begun changing classrooms for different subjects within each day - as young as Kindergarten in some schools.  Although the predictability of these changes may diffuse anxiety for some, it may also increase it for others.   I personally feel that children staying with the same cohort, in the same classroom throughout the year, in the same school K-8 offers stability.  But nowadays, the only stability is instability for many.  Children are resilient and I guess adapt fairly well overall - eventually. To get a true pulse, I'd defer to the children - millions of them. What do their verbal and nonverbal expressions tell us?

I'd be interested to learn more about the rationale of the speaker you mentioned and the criteria for "ready",  too. 

Thank you,

Victoria

Children adapt to anything.  The sooner you change their schedules and habits the faster they become flexible and self sufficient.  Sounds like those bad old behaviorists, Skinner and Pavlov??