Language: English

Abstract/Notes: This article investigates Rabindranath Tagore’s educational vision, which underpinned the three institutions he set up in India – Santiniketan (1901), Visva-Bharati (1921) and Sriniketan (1922). It argues that this vision is still relevant for the world of today and tomorrow, and that it should be taken into account in designing any educational model for the future. Tagore rejected the modern mechanical learning that focuses merely on cultivation of the individual’s mind, in favour of learning that encourages the creativity, imagination and moral awareness of students. He believed that education should be not for mere “success” or “progress” but for “illumination of heart” and for inculcation of a spirit of sympathy, service and self-sacrifice in the individual, so that s/he could rise above egocentrism and ethnocentrism to a state of global consciousness or worldcentrism. In pursuing this argument, I refer to Tagore’s letters, lectures, interviews and essays, both in Bengali and in English, a body of his short stories, his novel The Home and the World and his allegorical poem “Two Birds”. I also explain his awareness of the educational movements of his time in the West, and draw brief parallels with selected Western luminaries in the field, such as Plato, Montaigne, Rousseau and John Dewey. My contention is that although some may dismiss Tagore’s educational principles as “rickety sentimentalism” in a world that is palpable and real, his ideas of human fellowship, unity and creativity, and kinship for nature seem irrefutable with the rise of multiculturalism and the looming ecological crisis threatening world peace.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2015.1125441

ISSN: 1035-7823

Language: English

DOI: 10.1177/183693910503000205

ISSN: 1836-9391, 1839-5961

Language: English

ISSN: 0004-7635

Abstract/Notes: This article explains the importance of using the methodology of Maria Montessori, an Italian researcher who has been successfully practicing in preschool education. The author also focuses on the role of modern pedagogical technology in personal education and comments on the practical possibilities of Montessori's research in preschool education.

Language: English

DOI: 10.5958/2278-4853.2020.00117.2

ISSN: 2278-4853

Language: English

DOI: 10.5951/AT.35.6.0008

ISSN: 0004-136X

Language: English

DOI: 10.5951/AT.7.4.0165

ISSN: 0004-136X

Abstract/Notes: This study used covariate adjusted regression techniques to compare the third-grade outcomes of low-income Latinx children who attended Montessori pre-K programs (n = 161) with those who graduated from more conventional programs (n = 4975) in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Children who experienced one year of Montessori education demonstrated stronger pre-academic skills at the end of pre-K and, in turn, performed better on standardized assessments of math and reading in third grade than those who did not. No differences emerged in students’ identification as gifted and talented nor in third-grade GPA. Taken together, these findings suggest that the benefits of one year of Montessori at age 4 may carry forward over time and to the extent that they do, these benefits are attributed to the fact that Montessori graduates entered kindergarten more ready academically. At the same time, however, the persisting benefits of Montessori were 60–70% smaller four years after program exit and were less robust than the end of pre-K outcomes.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1080/10888691.2020.1781632

ISSN: 1088-8691, 1532-480X

Abstract/Notes: People can make pointing gestures and tracing actions with the index finger with little or no conscious effort. From the perspective of cognitive load theory, such “biologically primary” gestures and actions might help people learn “biologically secondary” concepts and skills requiring extended cognitive effort, such as reading, science, or mathematics. Studies on tracing or tracing and pointing have yielded mixed findings regarding hypothesized effects on intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load. The present study investigated whether computer-based instructions to trace elements of worked examples on angle relationships would affect school students' (N = 106) self-reports of intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load, as well as problem-solving transfer test performance. The tracing effect on transfer posttests seen in prior studies was replicated, but cognitive load hypotheses were not supported. Implications for educational practice and future research are discussed.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1002/acp.3732

ISSN: 1099-0720

Abstract/Notes: Cognitive load theorists have only recently begun to test the role of the body in learning. Tracing the index finger over the surface of instructions while reading, an embodied pedagogy based on Montessori's sandpaper letters, may hold substantial promise for learning by reducing cognitive load. Two experiments tested whether students who traced their index fingers against paper-based worked example instructions in triangle geometry (Experiment 1; N = 52) and order of operations (Experiment 2; N = 54) would perform better on a subsequent test than students who only studied the materials visually. Students in the tracing condition outperformed the non-tracing condition on transfer problems in both Experiment 1 (d = .78) and Experiment 1 (d = .50), but hypotheses regarding self-reports of cognitive load during testing were not supported. Implications for research and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1002/acp.3171

ISSN: 1099-0720