Pleasant and warm: How class group affects students’ learning experiences and helps form a community of practice

To improve the learning experiences of students, schools in China have attempted to change their pedagogical practices to respond to the educational policies and curricular changes. Chinese Primary School1 (CPS), one of the most innovative and exemplary primary schools in Beijing, China, brought up the practice of class group, a mixed-age community comprised of students from three different grades. Each class group consists of three connected unfixed classrooms divided by movable partitions, and a larger public space in front of the classrooms. This study invited four groups of students from four different class groups to take photos of their class groups and elaborate on what they took. The result of data analysis reflects students’ pleasant learning experience and reveals that students’ enjoyable learning in CPS is closely related to the Three CPS Elements-class group space, project-based learning, and student clubs. These elements turn learning into a doing- experiencing-becoming-belonging process and help students form a community of practice. Copyright © 2022 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.