Abstract/Notes: There are 25 million displaced children worldwide, and those receiving schooling are often educated in overcrowded classrooms. Montessori is a child-centred educational method that provides an alternative model to traditional educational approaches. In this model, students are able to direct their own learning and develop at their own pace, working with materials rather than in supervised groups or with direct teacher instruction. Because most children are working alone, teachers have more time to work one-on- one with children even when student-teacher ratios are quite large. This gives teachers increased opportunity to tailor their teaching to the specific needs and strengths of each student. We conducted an evaluation of Montessori classroom conversion for displaced students on the Thai-Myanmar border. We administered the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) to 66 children before and after classroom conversion and across treatment and control classroom conditions. We then conducted difference in difference testing. All domains showed meaningful improvements in ASQ scores, with the Montessori students gaining 18 points relative to the traditional students (p = 0.33). However, only the personal-social domain of the ASQ was statistically significant (8.8 point gain for the Montessori students relative to the control, p < 0.05) in our underpowered sample.

Language: English

ISSN: 1443-1475, 2202-493X

Language: English

ISSN: 0571-1142

Language: English

ISSN: 0010-700X

Language: English

ISSN: 1522-9734

Language: English

ISSN: 1071-6246

Abstract/Notes: In this paper, we present a pilot study aiming to investigate the challenges of teaching AI and Robotics to children in low- and middle-income countries. Challenges such as the little to none experts and the limited resources in a Mexican town to teach AI and Robotics were addressed with the creation of inclusive learning activities with Montessori method and open-source educational robots. For the pilot study, we invited 14 participants of which 10 were able to attend, 6 male and 4 female of (age in years: mean=8 and std=$pm$1.61) and four instructors of different teaching experience levels to young audiences. We reported results of a four-lesson curriculum that is both inclusive and engaging. We showed the impact on the increase of general agreement of participants on the understanding of what engineers and scientists do in their jobs, with engineering attitudes surveys and Likert scale charts from the first and the last lesson. We concluded that this pilot study helped children coming from low- to mid-income families to learn fundamental concepts of AI and Robotics and aware them of the potential of AI and Robotics applications which might rule their adult lives. Future work might lead (a) to have better understanding on the financial and logistical challenges to organise a workshop with a major number of participants for reliable and representative data and (b) to improve pretest-posttest survey design and its statistical analysis. The resources to reproduce this work are available at: https://github.com/air4children/dei-hri2023.

Language: English

Published: Mar 5, 2023

Language: English

Abstract/Notes: Reggio Emilia

Language: English

ISSN: 1470-8647

Language: English

Published: Houston, Texas, 1978

Abstract/Notes: For Montessori schools, the percentage of children with learning needs that require specific attention may be even greater due to Montessori's individualized programs, nurturing teachers, and emphasis on emotional intelligence as well as academic progress.[...]many teacher education programs do not include instruction on working with children who have learning and/ or behavioral differences.In Montessori's era, the children with special needs with whom she worked were called "defective" Today, with the individualized Montessori approach and a master teacher, these children should be perceived as talented and creative in their own right.[...]many teacher education programs do not include instruction on working with children who have learning and/or behavioral differences.

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040