Students are expected to work quietly and independently to complete the task for the teacher to check. This method has become increasingly ineffective with today's children, particularly for low achieving at-risk students. Today's elementary students have been reared in a fast-paced visually stimulating environment of television, Nintendo, computers, and other technologies. Increasing class size makes help from the teacher more difficult to obtain, so low-achieving students are left to flounder when working isolated at their desks. Students work at multidimensional learning stations which provide opportunities for multisensory learning.
Computer software provides immediate feedback and even tutorial assistance.
Time is not wasted sitting with a raised hand waiting in vain to attract the teacher's attention. Help is as close as a partner or other classmates. Students take pride in being self-directed. Students see a reason for finishing the station tasks because they can move along to a new station rather than sitting passively waiting for the period to end. And it is intuitively obvious that students who are actively involved in learning tasks have less time to get into trouble.