Students want to learn at this age as much as at any other, but research and our experience shows us that kids are switching off. The greatest risk we take is leaving schooling for young adolescents the way it is.

(Quotation from participants at State and Territory Middle Schooling Forum, 1997)

Needs Analysis

The main characteristics and needs of early adolescence require adolescents to:

• Adjust to profound physical, intellectual, social and emotional changes;
• Develop a positive self concept;
• Experience and grow towards independence;
• Develop a sense of identity and of personal and social values;
• Experience social acceptance, affiliation, and affection among peers of the same and opposite sex;
• Increase their awareness of, ability to cope with,and capacity to respond constructively to the social and political world around them; and
• Establish relationships with particular adults within which these processes of growth can take place.

Further needs of adolescence:

• To think in ways that become progressively more abstract, critical and reflective;
• To gain experience in decision-making and in accepting responsibility of these decisions; and
• To develop self-confidence through achieving success in significant events.

Implications for Schooling

“…while physical changes associated with puberty are clearly distinctive to young adolescents, other characteristics – such as the need for independence, identity, and peer acceptance – are not unique to students in the middle years…practices that comprise middle schooling pedagogy and curriculum – such as cooperative learning, collaborative teaching, integrated curriculum, authentic assessment, and small learning communities – apply to students of all ages and stages…Rather than negate the case for middle schooling, however, these considerations strengthen it because they indicate that middle schooling applies to a far wider range of students than those between the ages of 10-15. Applying middle schooling across the spectrum would help make P-12 seamless.”

“…’middle schooling’ refers to formal education that is responsive and appropriate to the developmental needs of young adolescents. This education is characterised by a philosophy, curriculum and pedagogy based on constructivism.”

(Rod Chadbourne, Edith Cowan University. Middle schooling for the middle years: what might the jury be considering? Australian Education Union, 2001. (pp. iii, 2)

Constructivist Curriculum & Pedagogy

“ In practice, this [constructivism] involves elements such as:

• Higher order thinking, holistic learning, critical thinking, problem-solving and life-long learning;
• Students taking charge of their own learning and constructing their own meanings;
• Integrated and disciplinary curricula that are negotiated, relevant and challenging;
• Cooperative learning and collaborative teaching; authentic, reflective, and outcomes-based assessment;
• Heterogeneous and flexible students groupings;
• Success for every student; small learning communities that provide students with sustained individual attention in a safe, healthy school environment;
• Emphasis on strong teacher-student and student-student relationships through extended contact with a small number of teachers and a consistent student cohort;
• Democratic governance and shared leadership;
• Parental and community involvement in student learning.”

Middle Schooling Framework

During 1996-7, the National Middle Schooling Project developed a “common Australian view of the needs of young adolescents; the principles that should guide our work with them; and the practices that are regarded as most appropriate for their positive and successful development”:

• Young Australian adolescents have a need for: identity, relationships, purpose, empowerment, success, rigour, and safety.
• Middle schooling practices should be: learner-centred, collaboratively organised, outcome-based, flexibly constructed, ethnically aware, community-oriented, adequately resourced, strategically linked.
• Three important goals of middle schooling are: engaged, focused and achieving adolescents; effective curriculum, teaching and organisational practices; genuine partnerships and long-term support.

School Reform

Goals for middle schooling reform:

• Allow greater opportunity for sustained personal endeavour, in-depth learning and the pursuit of excellence.
• Changes will be made in the internal organisation of schools to ensure larger, uninterrupted blocks of time for learning and close relations between students and teams of teachers.
• Offer students the opportunity to achieve at a high level in a particular area of the curriculum (e.g. music or sport) or to learn in different ways (vocationally-oriented as opposed to academic learning).
• Transforming teaching and learning with the aim of producing autonomous learners who find schooling worthwhile, challenging and enjoyable.
• Increasing the use of off-campus learning and the use of learning resources in the wider community.”

Authentic Tasks & Assessment

There are many schools who notice ‘an observable regression in student output in Grade 7’, which inspires them to try authentic tasks and meaningful evaluation.

Six criteria were refined for constructing assessment which is truly authentic:

• Connecting assessment to the curriculum
• Involving teachers, students, and the community in judging performance
• Looking beyond the school
• Promoting complex thinking and problem solving
• Encouraging student ‘performance’ of their learning
• Dealing with issues of equity.