不同年齡組成之班級類型對幼兒多面向發展的影響

The Influence of Different Age Compositions in Class on Young Children’s Multidimensional Development

當今幼兒園混齡教學是普遍存在的現象，且中外皆然。在臺灣，混齡教學雖被視為教育現場面對生源不足、單獨成班困難的重要政策因應工具，但除此不得不為之理由外，混齡班級的組成方式對於幼兒學習發展有無可能具有更正向、積極的促進效果，是當為而未必是不得不為的舉措，是值得關心的研究議題。不過，觀諸臺灣學界目前尚未累積足夠的研究成果，且西方社會的研究也有不一致的論點。基於上述，本研究以自編問卷與方便取樣的方式蒐集臺灣664筆包含分齡與混齡班級的幼兒與其家長的調查資料，並採用敘述統計與多元迴歸進行多個統計模式的分析，一探混齡班級組成對於幼兒多面向學習發展成效影響的真實面貌。本研究結果顯示，「大中小」與「大中」等二個類型之混齡班級中，整體幼兒發展較分齡班級更具有優勢，但「中小」混齡班級則相對不利，而較年長之幼兒在混齡班級學習較為不利之說法，在本研究的分析中並沒有明顯的證據支持，不過，相較於分齡班級，較稚齡幼兒在混齡班級中學習，則展現出多面向的發展優勢，彰顯在臺灣幼教現場，混齡班級組成對幼兒發展並不會因為幼兒的年紀較長或較稚幼而有明顯不宜之處。

Recently, mixed-age teaching in preschools has become common at home and abroad. In Taiwan, mixed-age teaching is considered an essential policy response tool for the education field to handle the insufficient student population and the challenge of forming separate classes. However, in addition to this necessary reason, whether the composition of mixed-age classes has a more positive promotion effect on young children’s learning and development and whether it is a suitable choice compared to a last resort must be further examined. Thus, this research topic requires further study. However, research on this issue in Taiwanese academic circles is limited. There are also inconsistent arguments in research in Western societies. Based on the above, the present study collected data from 664 surveys of young children and their parents in same-age and mixed-age classes throughout Taiwan by self-developed questionnaires and convenient sampling. We used narrative statistics and multiple regression to conduct various statistical models to analyze the real effects of mixed-age classes on the effectiveness of young children’s multidimensional learning and development. This study’s findings illustrate that mixed-age classes of “large, medium, and small” and “large and medium” classes of two types were more favorable than same-age classes regarding overall young child development. In contrast, “medium and small” mixed-age classes were relatively unfavorable. The findings of this study do not support the statement that older children do not learn well in mixed-age classes. However, compared to same-age classes, younger children learning in mixed-age classes displayed the advantage of multidimensional development. This suggests that the composition of mixed-age classes is not inappropriate for the development of older or younger children in Taiwan’s preschool field.