Montessori Children Research Articles

The Montessori Model and Creativity


 Prior research has demonstrated that the characteristics of school environments can impact the development of creativity in children. Thus, we explored the construct of creativity in the context of a Montessori environment. We used the Evaluation of Potential Creativity to measure creativity in children during one academic year. The study sample comprised 77 third-grade students at a Montessori public school in the southeastern United States and 71 demographically similar students at a traditional public school. Results show that Montessori students performed somewhat better on the Evaluation of Potential Creativity assessment than similar non-Montessori students did. Subgroup analyses indicate that male Montessori students demonstrated higher creativity than did male non- Montessori students. The findings of this study augment the body of research supporting creative development in Montessori children and suggest that researchers should continue to focus on the measurement of creativity in studies related to the efficacy of the Montessori model.

The effects of Montessori training program for mothers on mathematics and daily living skills of 4-5 year-old Montessori children

This study investigated the effects of Montessori Training Program for Mothers (MTPM) on math and daily living skills of Montessori children ages 4 to 5 years old. Sample of the study included 19 Montessori pre-schoolers (8 and 11 children in experimental and control group respectively) who enrolled at an applied kindergarten affiliated to a university at Konya in 2016-2017 school year. Verified to be a reliable and valid measure for Turkish children, two subtests - Mathematics (MATH) and Daily Living Skills (DLS) - of the Basic School Skills Inventory 3 (BSSI) were used to collect data. Tests were administered to the students as pre-test, post-test and follow-up test by their teachers. MTPM was administered to the mothers in the experimental group for 12 weeks-36 hours in total while control and experimental group children continued their Montessori education. Four weeks after the program was completed, BSSI-3-MATH and BSSI-3-DLS tests were re-administered as follow-up test. Mann Whitney U test and Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test were used for the analysis of the study data. A comparison between the post-test mean scores of the experimental and control group showed a significant difference (p <.05) in math skills favoring the experimental group; no difference was found in pre and post-test scores in daily living skills (p>0.5). No significant difference was noted between the post-test and follow-up mean scores that experimental group children obtained on BSSI-3-MATH and BSSI-3-DLS, which showed that program gains were maintained.

SWOT Analysis on the Sinicization of Montessori's Children Education

The ideology teaching of Montessori education is a scientific view for children due to the comprehensive education contents and operational teaching methods. There are similarities of educational thoughts between Montessori and ancient Chinese. These are the conducive results of the further spreading of Montessori education in China. However, Montessori education overemphasized in freedom of thoughts and ignored the limitations of the game which neglected the role of educators. There are still many challenges in the process of combining Montessori education with China's national conditions due to the deviation of understanding and the impact of other educational thoughts. In the grasping needs of time for development, through the SWOT analysis on the sinicization of Montessori education combining with the national conditions in China, it is necessary to play the role of game actively by selecting appropriate educational content and strengthening the cultivation of Montessori educator in teaching Montessori education to further develop the children education industry in China.

Children’s preference for real activities: Even stronger in the Montessori Children’s House

In the United States, children are often given the opportunity to engage in pretend activities; many believe this kind of play benefits children’s development. Recent research has shown, though, that when children ages 4 to 6 are given a choice to do the pretend or the real version of 9 different activities, they would prefer the real one. The reasons children gave for preferring real activities often concerned their appreciation of the functionality; when children did prefer pretend activities, their reasons often cited being afraid of, not allowed to, or unable to do the real activity. Given that children in Montessori classrooms have more experience performing real, functional activities, in this study we asked if this preference for real activities is even stronger among children in Montessori schools. We also asked children to explain their preferences. The data are from 116 3- to 6-year-old children (M = 59.63 months, SD = 12.08 months; 68 female): 62 not in Montessori schools and 54 in Montessori schools. Children explained their preferences for pretendand real versions of 9 different activities. Children in Montessori schools preferred real activities even more than did children in other preschools, but all children explained their choices in similar ways. The implications of these results are discussed with regard to play in preschool classrooms.

Montessori Preschool Elevates and Equalizes Child Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study.

Quality preschool programs that develop the whole child through age-appropriate socioemotional and cognitive skill-building hold promise for significantly improving child outcomes. However, preschool programs tend to either be teacher-led and didactic, or else to lack academic content. One preschool model that involves both child-directed, freely chosen activity and academic content is Montessori. Here we report a longitudinal study that took advantage of randomized lottery-based admission to two public Montessori magnet schools in a high-poverty American city. The final sample included 141 children, 70 in Montessori and 71 in other schools, most of whom were tested 4 times over 3 years, from the first semester to the end of preschool (ages 3–6), on a variety of cognitive and socio-emotional measures. Montessori preschool elevated children’s outcomes in several ways. Although not different at the first test point, over time the Montessori children fared better on measures of academic achievement, social understanding, and mastery orientation, and they also reported relatively more liking of scholastic tasks. They also scored higher on executive function when they were 4. In addition to elevating overall performance on these measures, Montessori preschool also equalized outcomes among subgroups that typically have unequal outcomes. First, the difference in academic achievement between lower income Montessori and higher income conventionally schooled children was smaller at each time point, and was not (statistically speaking) significantly different at the end of the study. Second, defying the typical finding that executive function predicts academic achievement, in Montessori classrooms children with lower executive function scored as well on academic achievement as those with higher executive function. This suggests that Montessori preschool has potential to elevate and equalize important outcomes, and a larger study of public Montessori preschools is warranted.

Does learning the alphabet in kindergarten give children a head start in the first year of school? A comparison of children’s reading progress in two first grade classes in state and Montessori schools in Switzerland

The main purpose of this study was to examine whether the age at which children start to learn to read affects their later progress. The study was conducted in Zürich, Switzerland, and compared a first grade class in a local school with two first grade classes in a Montessori school. It was found that although the Montessori children had an advantage over the local children in alphabet knowledge at entry to Grade 1, this was not translated into a significant advantage at the end of Grade 1 in either phonemic awareness or reading ability. Further analysis revealed that pretest alphabet knowledge for the whole group was significantly related to progress. In addition, scatterplots showed that some children started school with high levels of alphabet knowledge but did not make progress, indicating that alphabet knowledge is necessary for literacy progress but not sufficient.

Longitudinal Comparison of Montessori versus Non-Montessori Students’ Place-Value and Arithmetic Knowledge

Base-10 and place value understanding are important foundational math concepts that are associated with higher use of decomposition strategies and higher accuracy on addition problems (Laski, Ermakova, & Vasilyeva, 2014; Fuson, 1990; Fuson & Briars, 1990; National Research Council, 2001). The current study examined base-10 knowledge, place value, and arithmetic accuracy and strategy use for children in early elementary school from Montessori and non-Montessori schools. Children (N = 150) were initially tested in either kindergarten or first grade. We followed up with a subgroup of the sample (N = 53) two years later when the children were in 2nd and 3rd grade. Although Montessori curriculum puts a large emphasis on the base-10 structure of number, we found that children from Montessori schools only showed an advantage on correct use of base-10 canonical representation in kindergarten but not in first grade. Moreover, there were no program differences in place value understanding in 2nd and 3rd grade. Although Montessori children used different strategies to obtain answers to addition problems in 2nd and 3rd grade as compared with non-Montessori children, there were no program differences in addition accuracy at any grade level. Educational implications are discussed.

An investigation of the expressive and representational drawing development in National Curriculum, Steiner, and Montessori schools.

Little is known about how children's drawing ability may vary between different educational approaches. This study investigated the expressive and representational drawing ability of British National Curriculum, Steiner, and Montessori pupils aged 5 to 9 years old. Ability was measured from performance on specified drawing tasks. One hundred and 35 children participated, 45 from each educational establishment consisting of 15 from each of the three age groups, 5-, 7- and 9-year-olds. Participants completed three expressive drawings (depicting a happy, sad, and angry mood) and three representational drawings (observational drawing of a wooden mannequin, a house from memory and a free drawing). Results indicated that for expressive drawings Steiner pupils generally depicted more content themes, used formal properties more expressively, and produced higher quality expressive drawings than Montessori and National Curriculum pupils. Where there were differences between National Curriculum and Montessori pupils the Montessori children tended to do better than the National Curriculum pupils on these measures. Although representational drawing development varied in younger Steiner pupils compared to their National Curriculum and Montessori peers, no differences were observed among the oldest children attending the three schools. The positive relationship between expressive and representational drawing performance was the strongest in Steiner pupils. The results suggest the art program in Steiner education is more conducive to nurturing expressive drawing ability than those delivered in Montessori and National Curriculum education, with seemingly no disadvantage in representational drawing ability in the primary school years.

Montessori mathematics in early childhood education

Abstract The Montessori movement recently celebrated a century of international education, spanning from early childhood through to tertiary experience. The first Casa dei Bambini, or children's house, was opened in Rome, Italy, on 6 January 1907, and within three years the influence of Montessori education began to reach New Zealand shores. This article outlines the Montessori approach to early childhood curriculum in general, and discusses findings from a small research project examining mathematical concept development in children prior to school entry. Initial findings of the project indicate that the Montessori approach may have a positive impact on children's numeracy knowledge and strategies at age five. This research arose from the involvement of the authors of this paper in the development and delivery of teacher education degrees at early childhood education (ECE) and primary levels that include a Montessori specialty in their final year. Our experience in sharing both the Numeracy Development Project and the Montessori mathematics curriculum has resulted in many discovery moments for our students. This has led us to suggest that wider understanding and dissemination of Montessori curriculum ideas may help to progress discussion on early mathematics development. Introduction This year (2007) marks the centennial of the founding of the Montessori education approach. Montessori is an education and peace movement, which reaches from early childhood to tertiary education in many countries and communities throughout the world. It has, nevertheless, been largely absent from curriculum discussion in New Zealand. In this paper we introduce readers who may have a passing knowledge of the Montessori system to some ideas that may contribute to curriculum debate in New Zealand, and particularly to the topic of early mathematics. Shortly after the opening of the first Casa dei Bambini in Rome, word of Montessori's children reached New Zealand shores. Schools were quick to see the possibilities of the Montessori child-centred approach, but a selective adaptation of the philosophy led to an incomplete replication of the original results, and in less than 10 years most had moved on to other ideas (Miltich-Conway & Openshaw, 1988; Shuker, 2005). Following a revival of Montessori education in both the United States and Europe, a second wave of interest began in New Zealand in the mid-1970s and there are now nearly 100 early childhood centres, a further 30 primary classes (often within state schools), and two secondary schools that draw on the Montessori approach. What is the Montessori approach? The Montessori early childhood centre is sometimes described by its original name, Casa dei Bambini, which means house of children. In this place, which ideally has a home-like atmosphere where all the fittings and fixtures, tools, and activities are adapted to the size and capabilities of the children, the goal of the teachers is simply to assist the child to reach his or her potential. They provide children with the means to help themselves by patiently modelling many self-care activities. In addition, as they work with a multi-age group spanning a three-year age range (ideally from three to six), a social community is created where mutual respect and collaboration are fostered. Older children are able to share new-found skills in helping the younger ones, and the younger children frequently observe and absorb new ideas from the activities of the older ones. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Children in a Montessori early childhood centre have access to many precisely formed materials, enabling visual and hands-on exploration of concepts such as the relationship between size, quantity, and form. The founder of the approach, medical doctor and anthropologist Maria Montessori, believed that the child in the early period of life learns best when all the senses are stimulated. …

Interpersonal Relations in Four‐Year‐Old Dyads from Constructivist and Montessori Programs

40 4‐year‐old children from Constructivist and Montessori preschool programs were compared on social‐cognitive competence. The Experimenter (E) taught children in pairs to play a board game in Session I, and in Session II asked them to play the game by themselves. Analysis of video and transcripts of 2208 behavioral units using Selman's coding of interpersonal negotiation strategies showed that Montessori pairs used a significantly higher proportion of strategies at Level 1, and Constructivist pairs used a significantly higher proportion of strategies at Level 2. Less conflict was found in Constructivist pairs, and they resolved their conflicts significantly more frequently. Within conflict segments, Montessori children had a significantly higher proportion of Level 0 strategies, and Constructivist pairs had a significantly higher proportion of Level 2 strategies. Both groups followed some basic rules equally well, but Constructivist pairs followed other rules more consistently. Although no difference was...

Interpersonal relations in four-year dyads from constructivist and montessori programs

Forty 4-year-old children from Constructivist and Montessori preschool programs were compared on social-cognitive competence. The Experimenter (E) taught children in pairs to play a board game in Session 1, and in Session 2 asked them to play the game by themselves. Analysis of video and transcripts of 2208 behavioral units using Selman's coding of interpersonal negotiation strategies showed that Montessori pairs used a significantly higher proportion of strategies at Level 1, and Constructivist pairs used a significantly higher proportion of strategies at Level 2. Less conflict was found in Constructivist pairs, and they resolved their conflicts significantly more frequently. Within conflict segments, Montessori children had a significantly higher proportion of Level 0 strategies, and Constructivist pairs had a significantly higher proportion of Level 2 strategies. Both groups followed some basic rules equally well, but Constructivist pairs followed other rules more consistently. Although no difference was found in general ability to count dots on the die, Constructivist children on the whole counted spaces on the board more accurately. It was concluded that children from the Constructivist program were more advanced in social-cognitive competence than children from the Montessori program.

Performance of Montessori and traditionally schooled nursery children on social cognitive tasks and memory problems

In two independent experiments, the performance of 4-year-old children drawn from Montessori classrooms was compared with that of children attending traditional preschools. It was speculated that the Montessori children might excel in social cognitive reasoning and in memory—both indirect consequences of the cognitive skills targeted by the curriculum. In Experiment 1, there were three social cognitive tasks—referential communication, speech differentiation, and identifying emotions. In Experiment 2, there were two memory problems—recognition of logically related objects, and free recall. There was no evidence of a difference in the level of performance of children from the two types of schools on social cognitive tasks, and both groups recoded messages more effectively to explicit requests from the listener than to implicit ones. For memory, the Montessori children excelled on the recognition problem, but there was no difference between groups on free recall. It was concluded that the Montessori curriculum does influence cognitive development beyond the narrow bounds of the cognitive skills ostensibly taught in the classroom, but the impact is greatest where there is a close relation between the specific concepts learned in class and the skill in question.

Cognitive Performance in Montessori and Nursery School Children

AbstractCognitive performance was measured in fourteen pairs of children, matched in social class, CA, sex and IQ, selected from a Montessori and from a “traditional” nursery school. No differences were found between the parents in these schools on such measures of social and parental attitudes and behavior as: achievement orientation, traditional family ideology, dogmatism, anomie, parental control behavior, or task oriented vs. person oriented values. The nursery school children were significantly more creative on a measure of non-verbal creativity, were more socially oriented, and less task oriented than the Montessori children.Style of approach to tests was felt to be a critical outcome of the two educational environments. The Montessori children used significantly more physical characteristics to describe commonplace objects, whereas significantly more functional terms were used by the nursery school children in their descriptions. Montessori children’s drawings had people present significantly less ...