Abstract/Notes: Project SYNC (Systems, Yoked through Nuanced Collaboration) details perspectives of a community of stakeholders committed to the enhancement of early childhood (i.e., prekindergarten through grade 3) education. Although there is a growing number of public-school programs informed by the Montessori philosophy, Montessori educational experiences often take place within affluent communities. SYNC aimed to enhance the prekindergarten through grade 3 educational experiences for traditionally underserved students by transforming two traditional early childhood classrooms to Montessori settings within a diverse, Title I school. Montessori pedagogy, curricula, and materials aligned with the school’s dedicated commitment to social justice. The study, one in a series, explored the impact of Montessori education on a neighborhood school community as evidenced through stakeholder opinions, project implementation, and teacher attitudes. Project data illustrate that a Montessori educational experience created learning opportunities that supported children from culturally and ethnically diverse communities in a traditional, Title I elementary school.

Language: English

DOI: 10.17161/jomr.v6i1.8539

ISSN: 2378-3923

Abstract/Notes: This article reviews the Montessori literature through the lens of leadership, using Maria Montessori’s writings for a perspective on leadership aligned with her principles and practices. Dr. Montessori was a strong leader who argued that adults, as leaders, should take direction from children as the spiritual builders of human beings. Her concept of the prepared environment, including the prepared adult, supports this foundation for leadership and has applications beyond the classroom context. Leadership in the Montessori context has a biological base but incorporates elements of service and morality that guide social reform with a peaceful telos. While there are overlaps with existing models of leadership, this review suggests that a distinct perspective on leadership does begin to emerge from Dr. Montessori’s legacy.

Language: English

DOI: 10.17161/jomr.v6i2.13537

ISSN: 2378-3923

Abstract/Notes: Prior research has demonstrated that the characteristics of school environments can impact the development of creativity in children. Thus, we explored the construct of creativity in the context of a Montessori environment. We used the Evaluation of Potential Creativity to measure creativity in children during one academic year. The study sample comprised 77 third-grade students at a Montessori public school in the southeastern United States and 71 demographically similar students at a traditional public school. Results show that Montessori students performed somewhat better on the Evaluation of Potential Creativity assessment than similar non-Montessori students did. Subgroup analyses indicate that male Montessori students demonstrated higher creativity than did male non- Montessori students. The findings of this study augment the body of research supporting creative development in Montessori children and suggest that researchers should continue to focus on the measurement of creativity in studies related to the efficacy of the Montessori model.

Language: English

DOI: 10.17161/jomr.v5i2.7695

ISSN: 2378-3923

Abstract/Notes: Researchers who study any intervention must rule out potential alternative explanations for their results by establishing that the program being investigated is implemented with fidelity. Various instructional practices are attributed to the Montessori Method because the term is not legally protected, meaning any school can say it is Montessori regardless of the degree to which it adheres to practices generally understood to represent Montessori education. Researchers have used a variety of tools to measure the fidelity of Montessori environments they study, but most of these tools lack an extensive psychometric foundation or are labor intensive, requiring in-person observation. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of instruments that were developed to measure Montessori implementation through Early Childhood (EC) and Elementary (EL) teachers’ reported instructional practices. Findings supported three hypothesized dimensions of Montessori implementation (structure, curriculum, and freedom), which worked fairly well in describing practices. While the properties of these instruments are promising and provide preliminary supporting evidence, results of this analysis suggest further refinement of the items in these instruments is necessary with larger and more diverse samples. While we do not suggest that these are finalized tools, we believe they provide a valuable starting point that is a vast improvement over the requirement of investigators to develop their own instruments as part of each Montessori study they design. The authors hope other researchers will incorporate these instruments into their studies to help build a robust body of evidence supporting their use.

Language: English

DOI: 10.17161/jomr.v5i1.9797

ISSN: 2378-3923

Abstract/Notes: Part II of this two-part article continues the discussion of what Maria Montessori viewed to be the important components of her educational system. Because she developed the system over her lifetime, we prioritized later accounts when contradictory accounts were found. Whereas Part I focused on the environment, Part II examines the second and third components of the Montessori trinity: the teacher and the child. This article includes descriptions of Montessori teacher prepara­tion, children’s developmental stages, and the human tendencies on which Montessori education capitalizes. It ends with child outcomes as described by Dr. Montessori and as shown in recent research, and provides an appendix summarizing features of authentic Montessori described in Part I and Part II.

Language: English

DOI: 10.17161/jomr.v5i1.9753

ISSN: 2378-3923

Abstract/Notes: The purpose of this study was to understand typically developing children’s repetitive behavior in a free-play, daycare setting. By studying repetition in a non-Montessori setting, we tested the assumption that repetition is a characteristic behavior of all young children and not limited to the Montessori environment. Although Maria Montessori identified repetition during her observations, there is little empirical evidence to support her claim: most research has considered repetition in terms of psychopathology. We collected naturalistic observational data on 31 3- to 6-year-old children for a total of 101 hours to investigate the frequency, contexts, and structure of repetitive bouts. Multilevel model results suggest the ubiquity of repetition, as all children in the study engaged in motor repetition. Furthermore, repetition occurred throughout all free-play activities (construction, animation, fantasy play, rough-and-tumble play, and undirected activity), although repetition was not equally distributed across activities. Motor repetition was not equal across ages either; younger children engaged in more motor repetition than did older children. To understand the structure of repetition, our study also looked at the length of repetition bouts, which ranged from 2 to 19 repetitions and averaged 2.86 repetitions per bout. This natural history of repetition is an influential starting point for understanding the role of repetition in development and is informative to both Montessori and non-Montessori early childhood educators.

Language: English

DOI: 10.17161/jomr.v5i2.7407

ISSN: 2378-3923

Abstract/Notes: In July 1922 a small private school called Nationale Onderwijs Instituut Taman Siswa was born quietly at a traditional town Yogyakarta in Central Java. Taman Siswa means literally “Garden for Pupils”. Nobody expected then that this pupils' garden would become a tough ground of resistance to the Dutch colonial Government later in the 1930's. The political climate in Indonesia around 1922 was showing a remarkable uprising of nationalism centering around the labor union movement guided by the Partai Komunis Indonesia (PKI, Indonesian Communist Party) and Sarekat Islam (Islam Union).

Language: English

DOI: 10.1017/S0022463400017306

ISSN: 0022-4634

Abstract/Notes: การศึกษาชิ้นนี้เป็นการค้นคว้า รวบรวม วิเคราะห์ และสังเคราะห์องค์ความรู้ทางด้านการออกแบบสถาปัตยกรรมและสิ่งแวดล้อมสำหรับเด็กปฐมวัยตามแนวการสอนแบบมอนเตสเซอรี โดยมีวัตถุประสงค์หลัก คือ การประมวลองค์ความรู้และสร้างฐานข้อมูลด้านการออกแบบสถาปัตยกรรมและพื้นที่สำหรับเด็กปฐมวัย ตามแนวการสอนแบบมอนเตสซอรี สาระ และกรรมวิธีการศึกษาของงานชิ้นนี้ ตั้งอยู่บนพื้นฐานของการวิเคราะห์เอกสาร (Document Analysis) โดยมีกระบวนการการศึกษา 3 ขั้นตอน คือ 1) การระบุเป้าหมายทางการศึกษาที่ชัดเจน 2) การศึกษาถึงความเป็นไปได้ที่สภาพแวดล้อมทางกายภาพจะช่วยพัฒนาไปสู่เป้าหมายทางการศึกษา และ 3) การแปลงเป้าหมายในลักษณะของแนวคิดการจัดการไปสู่การออกแบบทางกายภาพ ผลการศึกษาแสดงให้เห็นถึงประเด็นสำคัญของการออกแบบพื้นที่ตามแนวทางมอนเตสซอรี นั่นคือ สภาพแวดล้อมมีความสำคัญต่อการเรียนรู้แบบมอนเตสซอรี โดยสภาพแวดล้อมถือเป็นองค์ประกอบสำคัญที่ช่วยให้การเรียนรู้บรรลุเป้าหมายแนวทางของมอนเตสซอรีต้องการรูปแบบสภาพแวดล้อมที่ถูกจัดเตรียมอย่างมีจุดมุ่งหมาย (Prepared Environment) ที่สัมพันธ์กับกิจกรรมของเด็กซึ่งจะเกิดขึ้นอย่างอิสระและเป็นธรรมชาติภายในสภาพแวดล้อมนั้น ทั้งนี้ เพื่อให้เด็กมีอิสระในการเลือกมีอิสระในตนเอง และเพื่อให้เด็กได้เรียนรู้ ค้นพบ เกิดความตระหนัก และพัฒนาได้ด้วยตนเอง This study searches for the knowledge about architectural and spatial designs for young children led by Montessori approach. It aims to compile the relevant information and then to create a data base that could assist the architectural and spatial designs following the Montessori philosophy. Based on a document analysis, the study process consists of 1) identification of the educational goals, 2) recognition of the potential which the physical environment has for achieving the goals, and 3) phrasing the goals in operative concepts that can be translated into physical design. The result of the study displays the main ideas of the architectural and spatial designs following the Montessori approach. According to Montessori, environment is significant in children’s learning processes and “prepared environment” is a key to provoke children’s freedom to choose, to be independent, and ultimately, to discover, to have awareness and to develop all by themselves.

Language: Thai

ISSN: 2673-0456

Abstract/Notes: [in press]

Language: English

ISSN: 0022-2984, 2167-6437

Abstract/Notes: Childhood adversity and trauma are pervasive and have powerful, far-reaching consequences for health and well-being. Recent years have seen increased recognition of the need for trauma-informed practice, which aims to promote understanding, healing, and the prevention of retraumatization. Historical data show that the early Montessori schools were known internationally as healing schools, wherein children affected by adversity or trauma were apparently healed on a considerable scale. This study presents the findings from a documentary analysis of three primary sources, namely, Maria Montessori’s own original accounts, eyewitness accounts, and media reports pertaining to this healing aspect of the early Montessori schools. The findings demonstrate that, first, from the beginning of her career, Montessori worked with children who had experienced significant exposure to adversity or trauma, second, that her Montessori Method was shown to affect healing or recovery in these children, and third, that her long involvement with trauma-affected children directly led to her later attempts to set up an organization to be called the White Cross, which was to incorporate, among other things, a trauma-informed course for teacher–nurses. In this innovative approach to Montessori studies, we argue that Montessori was ahead of her time, that her work is even more relevant today in the context of adversity and trauma research, and that her methods, principles, and approaches may be harnessed and used in ways that promote trauma-informed practice in contemporary education settings.

Language: English

DOI: 10.17161/jomr.v8i1.15767

ISSN: 2378-3923