Abstract/Notes: In the Netherlands the debate on the identity of a school is influenced by the long and dominant history of a close linking between religious traditions (mainly the Christian tradition) and the design of the national school system. For almost 100 years, most schools, formally speaking, are so called Christian schools. This is not an accidental adverb used to indicate some of the Dutch schools, but it has a strong juridical basis. In recent education a certain discrepancy is experienced between the formal corporate identity of a school and the actual identity of the school population. This discrepancy is the central matter of this article. We present two research projects by which this discrepancy is explored. The key issue seems to be that in Dutch education there is a strong need for a paradigm shift from a more deductive to a more inductive reflection on school ethos.

Language: English

ISSN: 0254-1807, 2305-445X

Abstract/Notes: Formerly entitled The Montessori Method: Scientific Pedagogy as Applied to Child Education in the Children's Houses. This book was first published in 1909 under the title 'Il Metodo della Pedagogia Scientifica Applicato all'Educazione Infantile nelle Case dei Bambini' ('The Montessori Method: Scientific Pedagogy as Applied to Child Education in the Children's Houses) and was revised in 1913, 1926, and 1935. Maria Montessori revised and reissued this book in 1948 and renamed it 'La Scoperta del Bambino'. This edition is based on the 6th Italian edition of 'La Scoperta del Bambino' published by the Italian publisher Garzanti, Milan, Italy in 1962. M. J. Costelloe, S. J. translated this Italian version into the English language in 1967 for Fides Publishers, Inc. In 2016 Fred Kelpin edited this version and added many footnotes. He incorporated new illustrations based on AMI-blueprints of the materials currently in use.

Language: English

Published: Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company, 2017

ISBN: 978-90-79506-38-5

Series: The Montessori Series , 2

Abstract/Notes: The debate about whether or not religious education should be included in early childhood education is a longstanding one. Even those who believe that Religious education should be included in early childhood programs cannot agree about the content or method for including it. The phenomenon of religious education in Montessori pre-primary schools in the Western Cape Province of South Africa is explored in this study, using a qualitative research approach. More specifically, the study explored the goals of their religious education; the level of awareness of Montessori's approach to religious education and finally looked at how they were implementing religion in their schools. A sample of 4 pre-schools were selected from the 90 Montessori pre-schools in the Western Cape. These included a Non-Denominational, Muslim, Christian and a Jewish School. The Muslim and Non-Denominational schools are full Montessori schools, while the Christian and Jewish schools have incorporated Montessori alongside other curriculums, namely the Jubilee Excellence School Curriculum and Reggio-Emilia approach, respectively. A collective case study approach was adopted and data was collected through observations and interviews. While the findings cannot easily be generalized, it is significant in providing a starting point to understanding the phenomenon of religious education in Montessori pre-schools in the Western Cape. The study highlighted Dr Montessori's personal and professional struggle with religion and found that the struggles Dr Montessori faced in terms of Religion have still not been resolved today. The schools in the Western Cape still grappled with the essence of Montessori's struggle, i.e. where to place religion and how to integrate it in the Montessori method and philosophy. Dr Montessori's beliefs about the importance of spirituality in the early years were found to be consistent with the contemporary views of scholars around the world. The religious schools followed guidelines of their own religions when deciding on which values to focus on. At the Jewish school, the focus was on the community, while at the Muslim school the focus was on the individual and selfetiquette. The focus of the Christian school was on discipline and obedience. The schools had various commitments to spiritual and ethical development of the children. Finally, the study found that the Montessori method was ideal for teaching the practices of religion, but when schools delved into issues of faith or love of God, they switched to other modes of teaching (e.g. preaching). This disjuncture between teaching faith and practices was ultimately Dr Montessori's reason for abolishing religious education from her method.

Language: English

Published: Cape Town, South Africa, 2017

Abstract/Notes: This study examines the school’s physical environment as a place of learning, and takes its starting point in the phenomenology movement, inspired both by Merleau-Ponty’s thesis of man’s physical relation to the world and by the existential analysis represented by Heidegger which implies a mutual relationship between man and the world. Such a view rejects a standpoint which describes man as being divided between a material body and a thinking soul. Instead, there emerges an embodied self which engages in meaningful interaction with its surroundings. The choice of this standpoint has implications for the design of the school’s physical environment. Montessori pedagogy is one of the activity-based pedagogies which have designed the physical environment in line with this theory. The purpose of the study is to understand, but further to visualise, the way in which the conditions for learning for children and adolescents are created in schools, from pre-school to lower secondary level, which follow the Montessori pedagogy. The material for the empirical study has been gathered from Europe and the US and from differing social contexts. The reason for this is to discover what distinguishes the prepared environment. The study also discusses the way in which the argument for a form of schooling which is based on activity, from the early 20th century to the present day, has been addressed through the architectural design of schools. The thesis shows that the rich array of didactic material in the schools observed offers pupils the opportunity to perform activities which create meaning. The organisation of the environment provides the pupils with the necessary conditions to concentrate fully on their work and to complete their tasks without interruption. I see the didactic continuity which prevails from pre-school to the lower secondary school in the Montessori schools studied as a prerequisite if the pedagogical activity is to offer meaning and create the conditions for learning in the way demonstrated by the empirical studies.

Language: Swedish

Published: Stockholm, Sweden, 2012

Abstract/Notes: Reviewed in Communications 2008/1 // In her dissertation she analyses the efforts of New Education in her home country and compares them to European reform approaches. In this context she analyses and evaluates a large amount of written documents and adds to her literary research especially for the ten alternative schools her own studies at these schools and interviews with the educationalists/teachers responsible. One of the analysed schools was a Montessori school, another one was a Waldorf school. The survey communicates interesting insights and findings about school development in an increasingly democratising Asian country that is scarcely considered in Germany.

Language: English

Published: Münster, Germany, 2005

Abstract/Notes: There are two purposes of the current study. First was to examine whether or not children in the elementary school in Taiwan who had received Montessori early childhood education obtain significantly higher scores on tests of language arts, math, and social studies than children who attended non-Montessori pre-elementary programs. Second one was to examine whether or not the number years of Montessori education has a positive impact on the students' scores when they are in elementary grades. According to Chattin-McNichols (1992b), children from Montessori education program are doing better in some respects than other programs. Some studies have found that in the United States, Montessori students have strong academic outcomes especially in language arts than non-Montessori students (Daux, 1995; Hobbs, 2008; Lillard & Else-Quest, 2006; Manner, 1999). The present study involved 196 participants from a private Catholic elementary school in Taipei City, Taiwan. Ninety-eight first, second, and third grade students had Montessori early childhood experience and 98 first, second, and third grade students did not have Montessori early childhood experience. Using one-way MANOVA as a statistical tool, there were mixed results in the present study. The results showed students who had Montessori early childhood education experience had higher test scores of language arts than the students who did not have Montessori education experience. In conclusion, the present study partially supports the findings of other studies and shows that Montessori education has some long-term impact on the students' language arts learning.

Language: English

Published: Terre Haute, Indiana, 2009

Language: English

Abstract/Notes: Montessori pedagogy is a century-old, whole-school system increasingly used in the public sector. In the United States, public Montessori schools are typically Title I schools that mostly serve children of color. The present secondary, exploratory data analysis examined outcomes of 134 children who entered a lottery for admission to public Montessori schools in the northeastern United States at age 3; half were admitted and enrolled and the rest enrolled at other preschool programs. About half of the children were identified as White, and half were identified as African American, Hispanic, or multiracial. Children were tested in the fall when they enrolled and again in the subsequent three springs (i.e., through the kindergarten year) on a range of measures addressing academic outcomes, executive function, and social cognition. Although the Black, Hispanic, and multiracial group tended to score lower in the beginning of preschool in both conditions, by the end of preschool, the scores of Black, Hispanic, and multiracial students enrolled in Montessori schools were not different from the White children; by contrast, such students in the business-as-usual schools continued to perform less well than White children in academic achievement and social cognition. The study has important limitations that lead us to view these findings as exploratory, but taken together with other findings, the results suggest that Montessori education may create an environment that is more conducive to racial and ethnic parity than other school environments.

Language: English

DOI: 10.17161/jomr.v9i1.19540

ISSN: 2378-3923

Abstract/Notes: In an effort to explore the ways in which Montessori curriculum and public schools are cooperative or mutually exclusive, I will examine the principles of the Montessori philosophy as set forth by Dr. Maria Montessori in the areas of learners and learning, the learning environment, the curriculum and instructional strategies, and student assessment. After examining these sectors of the Montessori method, I will discuss theoretical possibilities in adapting the Montessori method to the American public school system in the early 21st century. For the purpose of this paper, I will refer to the author of the Montessori method, as "Dr. Montessori" and call the general method or portions thereof as "Montessori."

Language: English

Published: Nashville, Tennessee, 2007

Language: English

ISSN: 0519-0959