A Comparison of Montessori and Traditional School Children on Cognitive Development

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out to compare 4-6 year old Montessori and traditional school children on Cognitive Development with respect to logically related objects. The sample consisted of 4-6 year old boys and girls(sample size-72) drawn from four different schools. The tests were administered on a one-to-one basis. The task the children performed involved the recognition and recall of logically related objects i.e a seriation task. The test materials were drawn from the original work of Piaget with subsequent contribution from Yussen, Mathews and White(1980) who used these materials to determine the child’s intellectual development in the acquisition of concrete operational thought. It was an ex post facto study. The statistics employed was the ‘t’ test. The results showed no significant differences between Montessori and traditional school children on Cognitive Development.