At American River Montessori, we practice multi-year teaching. This is done through a process called “looping.” Looping refers to when a group of children stays with the same teacher or teachers for at least two or three years. There are many benefits to looping that affect children, parents, and teachers. In this blog post, we will discuss the origins of looping, where it is currently practiced, and the positive benefits to looping.
Looping started as a practice in Waldorf schools in Europe in the early 20th century and was brought to the United States in 1928. Before this time, looping in the United States was used in one-room school houses as a basis for necessity rather than a pedagogical practice. Although looping is currently uncommon in the United States, it is still a common practice in Europe and China. It is also a common practice in certain educational philosophies such as Waldorf and Montessori schools.
One of the main benefits to looping is the establishment of long-lasting relationships between students, teachers, and families. Benefits of the long-lasting relationships established in looping classrooms include:stability in care practices, teachers are better able to anticipate children’s needs, and increased parent friendships and networking opportunities. Children in looping classrooms develop stronger social bonds with peers, are better able to handle conflicts amongst peers, and are more skillful in problem solving as a team member. Looping also encourages stronger bonds between parents and teachers. This is important because when parents and teachers have a strong bond, they can work collaboratively to support the developing child.
Additional benefits of looping include an allowance for developmental differences such as gender, disability status, and individual variation in the classroom, more time for students to establish positive peer relationships, increased opportunities for shy students to develop self-confidence, and stronger student-teacher relationships. It has also been shown that children in looping classrooms have a significantly better
attendance rate and lower rates of retention. Looping has also been known to be helpful for at-risk children who don’t have a stable home life by providing a stable base for these children.
An example of the effects of looping can be observed by watching the interactions between teacher-to-parent, student-to-student, student-to-teacher, and parent-to-student. One example of this happened when a new parent observed the pick-up and departure process at our school. When the parent picked up the child after their first day of school, the other children supported the new student by helping the child get ready. The parent noticed that the current students were well versed in the pick-up and departure process at the school and were willing to help the new student learn the process. The students did this by acknowledging the parent, informing the new student that it was time to collect their belongings, helping the student collect their belongings, walking the new student to the door, then saying goodbye to the new student and their parent. This example would probably not have happened if all the students started with a new teacher at the same time. Because there were students from the last year with the same teacher, they were able to help walk the new student through the procedures of the school that they have already learned.
One of the many qualities of our school that we pride ourselves on is our commitment to developing long-lasting relationships between students, teachers, and parents. Multi-year teaching/looping is one of the many ways we achieve this goal.
Please look below for additional resources and research on multi-year teaching/looping:
Conway, G. (2020, March 30). Opinion: How ‘looping’ provides kids consistency in school. The Hechinger Report. Retrieved from https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-how-looping-works/
Hegde, A. V., & Cassidy, D. J. (2004). Teacher and parent perspectives on looping. Early Childhood Education Journal, 32(2), 133-138.
Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10643-004-1080-x
Hitz, M. M., Somers, M. C., & Jenlink, C. L. (2007). The looping classroom: Benefits for children, families, and teachers. YC Young Children, 62(2), 80.
Link: https://www.proquest.com/openview/fb23c07e48c45a773831ebdb4c245ba7/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=27755
Nitecki, E. (2017). Looping and Attachment in Early Childhood Education: How the Applications of Epigenetics Demand a Change. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 17(2), 85-100.
Link: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1142356