Abstract/Notes: The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the Montessori Method of education on 4-5 years old preschool children's creativity in Tabriz. The data were gathered through a quasi – experimental research with pre-test, post-test, and control group, administering Torrance pictorial from B test. The statistical population of the study included all educational centers of 4-5 year old children, which comprised 500 preschools in the academic year 92-93. The research sample of the present study included 50 preschoolers (25 in the experimental group and 25 in the control group) who were selected randomly through cluster sampling. The Montessori Method of education was employed for three months. After that, the data was gathered and analyzed through Covariance method. The results indicated that the Montessori Method of education was effective on the 4-5 year old children's creativity. Regarding four dimensions of creativity, Montessori Method was effective in enhancing the dimensions of fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration in children.

Language: Persian

ISSN: 2345-6299, 2476-5627

Abstract/Notes: Although children’s books often include fantasy, research suggests that children do not learn as well from fantastical stories as from realistic ones. The current studies investigated whether the type of fantasy matters, in effect testing two possible mechanisms for fantasy’s interference. Across two studies, 110 5-year-olds were read different types of fantastical stories containing a problem and then were asked to solve an analogous problem in a real lab setting. Children who were read a minimally fantastical version of the story, in which the story occurred on another planet “that looked just like Earth,” were no more likely to transfer the solution than children who heard a story that was slightly more fantastical in that the story occurred on another planet and that planet looked different from Earth (e.g., orange grass, a green sky). In contrast, significantly higher rates of learning were observed when the story contained those elements and two physically impossible events (e.g., walking through walls). Furthermore, this improvement was obtained only when the impossible events preceded, and not when they followed, the educational content. Although fantasy may sometimes detract from learning (as other research has shown), these new studies suggest that minimal fantasy does not and that particular types of fantasy may even increase learning. We propose that the mechanism for this may be that a small dose of impossible events induces deeper processing of the subsequent events in the story.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105212

ISSN: 0022-0965

Language: English

ISSN: 0022-0574, 2515-5741

Abstract/Notes: The present study examined currently popular children’s television shows to determine the prevalence of violent, prosocial, educational, and fantastical content (including fantastical events and anthropomorphism). Network, style, and content ratings were collected for 88 shows using a combination of Common Sense Media and laboratory ratings applied to two randomly-selected episodes of each show. Overall, currently popular children’s television shows were most often animated and contained little violent, prosocial, or educational content, but a great deal of fantastical content. Interrelations among variables were also examined. Shows with fantastical events were both more violent and more prosocial than shows without, and shows with anthropomorphism were more prosocial than shows without. The network on which a show aired predicted violent, prosocial, and educational content, but not fantastical content. Children’s television today is not as violent as might be believed, but nor is it particularly prosocial or educational. It is highly fantastical. The implications of the landscape for children’s behavior, learning, and cognition are discussed.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1080/17482798.2019.1605916

ISSN: 1748-2798

Abstract/Notes: Performance monitoring (PM) is central to learning and decision making. It allows individuals to swiftly detect deviations between actions and intentions, such as response errors, and adapt behavior accordingly. Previous research showed that in adult participants, error monitoring is associated with two distinct and robust behavioral effects. First, a systematic slowing down of reaction time speed is typically observed following error commission, which is known as post-error slowing (PES). Second, response errors have been reported to be automatically evaluated as negative events in adults. However, it remains unclear whether (1) children process response errors as adults do (PES), (2) they also evaluate them as negative events, and (3) their responses vary according to the pedagogy experienced. To address these questions, we adapted a simple decision-making task previously validated in adults to measure PES as well as the affective processing of response errors. We recruited 8- to 12-year-old children enrolled in traditional (N = 56) or Montessori (N = 45) schools, and compared them to adults (N = 46) on the exact same task. Results showed that children processed correct actions as positive events, and that adults processed errors as negative events. By contrast, PES was similarly observed in all groups. Moreover, the former effect was observed in traditional schoolchildren, but not in Montessori schoolchildren. These findings suggest that unlike PES, which likely reflects an age-invariant attention orienting toward response errors, their affective processing depends on both age and pedagogy.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1111/desc.13045

ISSN: 1467-7687

Abstract/Notes: This study examined the effects of the Montessori Method on preschool children's readiness to primary education. The research group is composed of five-six year olds attending SU MEF Ihsan Dogramaci Application Nursery School in 2009-2010 school year in Selcuklu county of Konya. The participants composed of five-six year olds were unbiasedly chosen. A total of 50 children were included in the study, 25 being in the experimental group and 25 being in the control group. In the study, Metropolitan Readiness Test was used to determine preschool school children's school readiness levels, B form of PKBS Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scale was used to determine preschool children's social skills, FTF-K attention gathering skills test for five-year old children was used to determine preschool children's attention gathering skills. The tests were administered to children before and after experimentation, and it was applied to experimental group again six weeks later. Mann Whitney U test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used to analyze the data. The general conclusion of the results obtained is that The Montessori Method makes positive contribution to preschool children's readiness to primary school and is more efficient than current preschool education program.

Language: English

ISSN: 1303-0485

Abstract/Notes: This paper presents perspectives from early childhood practitioners of pre-school children’s (n = 100) social and emotional competencies upon entering pre-school and again after term three of the pre-school year. This research reports findings from five pre-school settings within rural and urban locations. A quantitative approach is used with pre-school practitioners completing the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and an Emotional Regulation Questionnaire to rate the children’s social and emotional competencies. Our findings indicate that many of the social and emotional competencies increase by the end of term three of the pre-school year. We report higher proficiencies in emotional competencies in comparison to their social competencies. Overall the findings suggest that children can transform their competencies during the pre-school year.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1080/09669760.2020.1865134

ISSN: 0966-9760

Language: Japanese

ISSN: 0913-4220

Abstract/Notes: Happiness should be a fundamental aim of education. This philosophical assertion raises the practical question of how teachers generate happiness in their classroom programs while operating under the current paradigm of educational accountability. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the perspectives of early primary teachers, students, and parents on what makes a happy classroom. Data were collected through interviews of 12 teachers from public, independent, Waldorf, Froebel, and Montessori schools; over 72 hours of observation in eight early primary classrooms; interviews with 23 students (ages 3 to 8), drawing and photography with 64 students (ages 3 to 8); 66 parent surveys, and eight teacher exit interviews. Four cycles of analysis, including descriptive and conceptual approaches, resulted in the identification of five core conditions of happy classrooms: (a) relational pedagogy, (b) embodied learning, (c) pedagogical thoughtfulness (d) an ethos of happiness, and (e) an ethos of possibility. These five conditions were supported by 17 facets, which describe practical and conceptual ways to support pedagogical thinking and decision-making about children’s happiness in the complex worlds of busy classrooms. Five of the facets are spotlighted: (a) kids need to play, (b) stepping in stepping out, (c) sounds shape feelings and experience, (d) rhythms and routines, and (e) romancing children into delight. In addition, student and parent participants identified that play, positive friendships, time outdoors, experiences involving the arts, and experiences of positive feelings make children happy at school and when they are learning. The discussion centers on the role of teachers in establishing the tone of happy classrooms, considers the notion of strong pedagogy, discusses the generation of happiness in early primary classrooms in the form of lessons to be learned from different pedagogical traditions, and argues that, above all, children’s interests, needs, and development should be a teacher’s first point of consideration for all decisions about instruction and learning in the classroom. The discussion concludes with implications for teaching professionals and offers suggestions for future research.

Language: English

Published: Ottawa, Canada, 2013

Abstract/Notes: Aiming to improve child and family health through community- and hospital-based initiatives, the Community Health Division of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC is adding the Montessori method of educational...

Language: English

ISSN: 1047-806X