Teaching and Learning in Middle Schooling: A Review of the Literature

Background and Context for the ‘Middle Schooling’ Movement

The rationale for reform initiatives focused on middle schooling since the 1980s has arisen in response to concerns about less than optimal learning progress among emerging adolescents, and more particularly, their attitudes, behaviours and engagement in schooling.

A major aspect and concern of middle schooling approaches and philosophies is that of ‘engagement’. Disengagement from learning and school by some students in the early secondary years is a well recognised phenomenon in New Zealand and like countries. Often, ‘switching off’ is accompanied by behavioural problems which can further undermine educational attainment and later educational participation and achievement.

Key Questions Regarding Middle Schooling

In Dinham and Rowe’s view ‘A key question, then, is that of how schools and systems are responding to the perceived development needs of students in Years 7 to 10, and whether middle schooling approaches advantage or disadvantage students moving on to senior secondary education, over and above what they might have achieved in ‘regular’ primary and secondary schooling. In other words, a central concern is the question of what difference middle schooling makes to student achievement and engagement, and whether differences can be explained, measured and evaluated with validity and reliability.

Other important questions are ‘what do students and their parents want from schooling in the middle years?’, and ‘are these perceived needs best catered for using middle schooling approaches?’

Defining the ‘Middle Years of School/ing’

The middle years have been variously defined, sometimes using age ranges, sometimes school ‘years’ or grades. Broadly speaking, the ‘middle years’ refers to young people aged from 10 to 15 years. More importantly, the middle years ‘bridge’ encompasses the period from pre-pubescence to adolescence and sexual maturity, and from upper-primary  (Years 7–8) to junior-secondary education  (Years 9–10) — traditionally two quite distinct forms of schooling in terms of curriculum delivery, structure and approach. In the New Zealand context, middle schooling also incorporates separate intermediate schools (Years 7–8).

The middle years are also taken to be the period when young people begin to think more deeply about the world around them and to take a more independent approach to learning and thinking.¹

Despite the range of definitions, there does seem to be broad agreement² that:

‘Middle school’ refers to a separate organisational unit (a school or sub-school) for young adolescents’; and that
‘middle schooling’ refers to a particular philosophy or set of principles about teaching, learning and curriculum for young adolescents.’

What are Middle Schools?

Middle schools can be a structural arrangement and/or a pedagogic approach/philosophy to accommodate students in the middle schooling years. A middle school can be both a building and a philosophy.

There are a wide range of middle school models and structures, including separate middle schools (Years 7 to 10), New Zealand intermediate schools (Years 7 and 8), separate middle school units within existing primary or secondary schools, and traditional primary and secondary schools which adopt middle school philosophies and practices.

Within the range of types of middle schools and middle schooling, there are many further variations: for example, single sex, coeducational, academically streamed vs. unstreamed or somewhere in between, and schools that organise learning around traditional subject areas, while others follow thematic or integrated approaches in some or all areas of the curriculum. Also, there are some middle schooling schools or approaches that use specialist teachers, whereas others use generalist teachers, and still others that use both.

Development of the Middle School/ing Concept

The literature indicates that:

‘the middle school is generally taken to have developed in the USA in the early part of the 20th century. To some degree, their development paralleled, reflected and reinforced the social construction of adolescence in the western world: whereas previously puberty had marked the change from childhood to adulthood, and from schooling (preparation for adulthood) to work and adult responsibility, the 20th century saw the extension of adolescence and schooling and the delay of work and life responsibilities, at a time when sexual maturity was occurring at younger ages. Adolescence became more of a ‘stage’ than an event.’³

‘Prior to the first middle schools, junior high schools, comprising grades 7–9, had been established in response to continuing concerns over primary to secondary transition and post-compulsory retention/high school completion.’

‘However, by the late 1960s the prevailing view was that the junior secondary school was in urgent need of reform.⁴ The response was a middle school model and movement, which grew rapidly. Rather than re-configured junior high schools, the increasingly common American Grade 6–8 middle schools were characterised by ‘new’ specialised approaches to teacher training and pedagogy, including integrated curriculum.’

But concerns over adequately meeting the developmental needs of students continued. An influential project in the late 1980s, Turning Points⁵, referred to ‘a mismatch between student needs and school structures/curriculum, high levels of student alienation, significant absenteeism and poor quality teaching.

Turning Points identified a number of ‘key qualities for middle schooling’, which have subsequently been widely adopted. These were:

• a focus on student developmental needs;
• high academic expectation;
• life connection;
• interdisciplinary teaching;
• flexible scheduling; and
• student advisory periods.
  

The Philosophy of ‘Middle Schooling’

Fundamental principles underpinning middle schooling philosophies are said to be that students in the middle years require:

• a different kind of school environment and curriculum;
• teaching which better accommodates their educational, personal and social needs and development; and
• assistance in the transition between traditional primary school and secondary education, and from childhood to adulthood.
  

Chadbourne (2003)⁶, for example, in seeking to clarify the philosophy of middle schooling, and to distinguish it from other forms of schooling, proposed that:

“While the philosophy of middle schooling in itself is not distinctive, its application to young adolescents is. That is, although middle schooling principles and practices may be common and central to all progressive education programs, their application can and should be context-specific. …”; and

“… middle school teacher education programs are developing characteristics that distinguish them from the other programs. In broad terms these characteristics include: more focus on early adolescence, more focus on crossing the primary/secondary school divide, more focus on working within a small middle school learning community structure, and more focus on making generic principles middle-years-specific.”

Dinham and Rowe also identify the importance of a curriculum that is responsive to the needs of the students, stating that:

‘Implicit in most conceptions of middle schooling is the belief that a different form of school organisation and pedagogic approach will facilitate enhanced student achievement over and above that which could be achieved in traditional upper primary/lower secondary education.’

They refer too to ‘key elements’ of effective middle schools associated with curricula responsive to the developmental needs of early adolescents, identified by Dowson et al (2005)⁷:

• Relevance – personal meaning derived from middle-school curricula which engages students with the ‘real world’;
• Responsibility – appropriate self-control over learning, accountability and responsibility;
• Belonging – a sense of acceptance and affirmation within a supportive and safe learning environment;
• Awareness – both self and social awareness, through appropriate curricula and learning;
• Engagement – defined here as meeting students’ developmental needs through tasks which are motivating, challenging and invite affiliation;
• Competence – developing personal expertise and competencies, knowledge and skills;
• Ethics – facilitating ethical awareness and developing personal values; and
• Pedagogy – active rather than passive learning.
  

Why Interest in the Middle Years? Are the Middle Years Special?

Since the mid-1960s, there has been a much greater focus on effective schools, both primary and secondary, and on school change and improvement. However, while the primary and upper secondary years have received the bulk of attention from researchers and policy makers, the middle years have until recently been described as ‘forgotten’, and a ‘black hole’. The middle years have been problematised as a critical period when young people experience substantial physical and emotional change which prepares them for adulthood. During this time, some students disengage or are alienated from learning, and growth in academic attainment can plateau or even fall. There are concerns over literacy and numeracy achievement as well as concerns over failure to engage with, and continue studies in, subjects such as mathematics and science in the senior secondary years and beyond.

These are also the years where attitudinal, behavioural and social problems can escalate, and absenteeism, suspension and expulsion from school are most common, especially for boys. As well, it is a period when matters such as body image and sexual orientation can become critical issues for some.

There is an important principle underpinning middle schooling that these phenomena are attributable to, at least in part, and can be ameliorated by, different organisational, curriculum, assessment and pedagogical approaches.

Footnotes

1. Northern Territory Council of Government School Organisations (2005). A Review of Middle Schooling Concepts and Approaches. Darwin: NT COGSO.
2. According to: Chadbourne (2003, 3). Middle schooling and academic rigour. International Journal of Learning, 10.
3. See: Jung, H.J. (2007). Learning to be an individual – Emotion and person in an American Junior High School. New York: Peter Lang.
4. Prosser, B. (2006). Reinvigorating the Middle Years: A review of middle schooling. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education annual conference, Adelaide, November 27-30 2006.
5. Dinham and Rowe state: ‘In 1989, The Carnegie Corporation of New York issued “Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21st Century,” a landmark report which recognized the need to strengthen the academic core of middle schools and establish caring, supportive environments which value adolescents. The findings of the Turning Points report, along with ten years of research and practice data from middle schools around the country, led to the creation of the National Turning Points Network.” Available at: http://www.turningpts.org/history.htm.’   
   
6. Chadbourne (2003). Ibid – refer endnote 4 above.
7. Dowson, M., Ross, M., Donovan, C., Richards, G., & Johnson, K. (2005). The current state of middle schooling: A review of the literature. Paper presented to Australian Association for Research in Education annual conference, Parramatta, NSW, 27 November – 1 December, 2005.