Abstract/Notes: Executive functions (EFs) in childhood predict important life outcomes. Thus, there is great interest in attempts to improve EFs early in life. Many interventions are led by trained adults, including structured training activities in the lab, and less-structured activities implemented in schools. Such programs have yielded gains in children's externally-driven executive functioning, where they are instructed on what goal-directed actions to carry out and when. However, it is less clear how children's experiences relate to their development of self-directed executive functioning, where they must determine on their own what goal-directed actions to carry out and when. We hypothesized that time spent in less-structured activities would give children opportunities to practice self-directed executive functioning, and lead to benefits. To investigate this possibility, we collected information from parents about their 6-7 year-old children's daily, annual, and typical schedules. We categorized children's activities as "structured" or "less-structured" based on categorization schemes from prior studies on child leisure time use. We assessed children's self-directed executive functioning using a well-established verbal fluency task, in which children generate members of a category and can decide on their own when to switch from one subcategory to another. The more time that children spent in less-structured activities, the better their self-directed executive functioning. The opposite was true of structured activities, which predicted poorer self-directed executive functioning. These relationships were robust (holding across increasingly strict classifications of structured and less-structured time) and specific (time use did not predict externally-driven executive functioning). We discuss implications, caveats, and ways in which potential interpretations can be distinguished in future work, to advance an understanding of this fundamental aspect of growing up.

Language: English

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00593

ISSN: 1664-1078

Language: English

ISSN: 0010-700X

Language: Japanese

ISSN: 0913-4220

Abstract/Notes: This study examined the influence of enrollment on the development of self-determination in a Montessori middle school. Bounded by self-determination and student voice theory, this research was designed to give voice to students, add to the discourse on middle school reform, and provide the perspective of the student to the critique of middle level education.Based on the analysis of narrative major themes indicated the importance of autonomy and relatedness. Students valued the ability to choose the order of their tasks and the tasks they could choose to demonstrate understanding as well as the ability to re-take tests. These changes require a paradigm shift to a student-centered learning environment.

Language: English

DOI: 10.17161/jomr.v2i1.4994

ISSN: 2378-3923

Abstract/Notes: The modern world requires a new mindset for people to enable them to become self-evaluating human beings. Kegan (1994) termed this complex system of mind the self-authorship. This is the ability to generate belief systems and intrapersonal states internally. The self-authorship analyses are culturally diverse. This paper presents two theories, namely the concept of self-authorship by Baxter Magolda (1998, 2001) and Obuchowski’s (2000, 2006) theory of self-authoring personality. The latter remains a framework of the description of central psychosocial attributes for the self-authoring personality of Montessori School graduates. The self-authoring studies of diagnostic character aimed at qualification of the authoring personality standard as well as subjective denotations of authoring attributes of the Montessori School graduates. The study covered 69 former students (56.5% women, 43.5% men) of the state Primary Montessori School in Lublin. The self-authoring personality standard was qualified using The Self-Authoring Personality Questionnaire elaborated by Obuchowski and colleagues (Blachnio & Obuchowski, 2011). The personal denotations conferred on authoring attributes were examined by means of the questionnaire My Experiences based on the adaptation of Self-Confrontation Method by Hermans (1991). The level of self-authoring personality in female and male groups was high and characterised by similar values. In the personal statements the persons being examined described themselves as those who perceive themselves as a source of behaviour and the own aims were object of their projects designed for accomplishment in relation with the other people. As follows from the data, the participants of the study acquired skills indispensable for making individual decisions about themselves and the outer world.

Language: Polish

DOI: 10.31338/2657-6007.KP.2022-2.5

ISSN: 0023-5938, 2657-6007

Abstract/Notes: Este estudo apresenta a construção e validação de um instrumento de avaliação qualiquantitativo capaz de aferir, concretamente, se os comportamentos dos escolares estao consistentes com os principios filosoficos indicados pelo Sistema Montessori de Educação. O instrumento foi elaborado a partir das dificuldades dos professores em deixar claro como trabalham para desenvolver em suas classes a autonomia da aprendizagem, destacando-se nesse contexto: confianca e competencia; independencia; autonomia; motivação intrinseca; capacidade para lidar com a autoridade externa; responsabilidade com o grupo; preparação academica; cidadãos do mundo. Esses itens nortearam a definicao das categorias do instrumento. A primeira versao foi aplicada em duas classes do Ensino Fundamental no agrupamento de 6 e 7 anos e no de 8 e 9 anos. Os resultados da aplicação e as sugestoes dos professores levaram à construção da versao final. Recomenda-se que a utilização do questionario "Progresso da classe em Processo de Autoeducação" seja registrada por classe de alunos e, depois, em relatorio para toda a instituicao montessoriana, de modo a retratar as conquistas e/ou dificuldades dos alunos.

Language: Portuguese

ISSN: 2175-2753

Abstract/Notes: The development of self-care skills in children is a part of the Core curriculum for preschool education. The contents regarding formation of such skills include shaping hygiene practices, goodhabits and developing motor skills. Maria Montessori drew attention to the development of selfcare skills and functional independence. In her concept of preschool child education, Maria Montessori developed practical life activities which were intended to serve the development of specificskills and their application to everyday life. Therefore, the aim of the research was to identify thelevel of self-care skills in 4-year-old children attending selected kindergartens located in MińskMazowiecki and Siedlce. The research was conducted on 200 children from Non-public CreativeActivity Montessori Kindergarten ‘Zameczek’ in Siedlce, Non-public Montessori Kindergarten‘Delfinek’ in Mińsk Mazowiecki and 6 traditional kindergartens — 2 of which were located inMińsk Mazowiecki and 4 located in Siedlce. The obtained research results indicated a varied levelof self-care skills depending on kindergarten the children attended.

Language: Polish

ISSN: 2353-7140, 2353-7159

Abstract/Notes: A widely advocated idea in education is that people learn better when the flow of experience is under their control (i.e., learning is self-directed). However, the reasons why volitional control might result in superior acquisition and the limits to such advantages remain poorly understood. In this article, we review the issue from both a cognitive and computational perspective. On the cognitive side, self-directed learning allows individuals to focus effort on useful information they do not yet possess, can expose information that is inaccessible via passive observation, and may enhance the encoding and retention of materials. On the computational side, the development of efficient “active learning” algorithms that can select their own training data is an emerging research topic in machine learning. This review argues that recent advances in these related fields may offer a fresh theoretical perspective on how people gather information to support their own learning.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1177/1745691612454304

ISSN: 1745-6916, 1745-6924

Abstract/Notes: In research focused on self-efficacy it is usually teacher-related phenomena that are studied, while the main aspects related to pupils are rather neglected, although self-efficacy itself is perceived as a belief in one’s own abilities. Evidently, this strongly influences the behavior of individuals in terms of the goal and success in mathematical problem-solving. Considering that alternative teaching methods are based on the principle of belief in one’s own ability (mainly in the case of group work), higher self-efficacy can be expected in the pupils of teachers who use predominantly the well-working pupil-centered pedagogies. A total of 1133 pupils in grade 5 from 36 schools in the Czech Republic were involved in the testing of their ability to solve mathematical problems and their mathematical self-efficacy as well. Participants were divided according to the above criteria as follows: (i) 73 from Montessori primary schools, (ii) 332 pupils educated in mathematics according to the Hejný method, (iii) 510 pupils from an ordinary primary school, and (iv) 218 pupils completing the Dalton teaching plan. In the field of mathematical problem-solving the pupils from the Montessori primary schools clearly outperformed pupils from the Dalton Plan schools (p = 0.027) as well as pupils attending ordinary primary schools (p = 0.009), whereas the difference between the Montessori schools and Hejný classes was not significant (p = 0.764). There is no statistically significant difference in the level of self-efficacy of pupils with respect to the preferred strategies for managing learning activities (p = 0.781). On the other hand, correlation between mathematical problem-solving and self-efficacy was confirmed in all the examined types of schools. However, the correlation coefficient was lower in the case of the pupils from the classes applying the Hejný method in comparison with the pupils attending the Montessori schools (p = 0.073), Dalton Plan schools (p = 0.043), and ordinary primary schools (p = 0.002). Even though the results in mathematical problem-solving are not consistent across the studies, the presented results confirm better performance of pupils in some constructivist settings, particularly in the case of individual constructivism in the Montessori primary schools. The factors influencing lower correlation of self-efficacy and performance in mathematical problem-solving ought to be subject to further investigation.

Language: English

DOI: 10.3390/su122310215

ISSN: 2071-1050

Abstract/Notes: Book Review of Mario M. Montessori's 'Education for Human Development'

Language: English

DOI: 10.1080/0098559780040209

ISSN: 0098-5597