Abstract/Notes: Published by Cleveland Montessori Association (Cleveland, Ohio). Previously delivered as a paper at the National Catholic Education Association Convention, Atlantic City, New Jersey, April 5, 1961.

Language: English

Language: English

ISSN: 0277-9064

Language: English

Abstract/Notes: In Appalachian Ohio, a grassroots group of citizens across industry sectors have convened to use community assets to create solutions impacting multiple parts of the community system, thus attempting to solve complex rural problems in innovative ways. One intermediary organization, Building Bridges to Careers (BB2C), has implemented community and career connected learning programs as a way to solve problems threatening rural community viability through engaging multiple community stakeholders including the community’s youth. Using an exploratory mixed-methods approach, this study investigated the contributions of stakeholders and the impact to community systems of one community and career connected learning program: high school internships. This study conceptualizes the place-based, cross-sector, bidirectional interactions facilitated by community and career connected learning as a learning ecosystem. Further, this study uses Social Return on Investment (SROI) to quantify impact within the learning ecosystem to communicate and maximize change. This study found for every $1 invested in high school internships, between $13.07–$15.37 of value to social and economic systems is created. The ability to explore career fields through experience in order to eliminate career paths not of interest to them and then to be able to clearly define next steps in career paths that were of interest to them were outcomes valued most by students as stakeholders. Host site stakeholders reported the most valuable impacts to economic and social systems were, respectively, development of a workforce with basic skills and the personal satisfaction of being able to watch a young person in their community grow and develop through the internship period and beyond. For community supporting stakeholders, the most valuable impacts were the increased connection between schools and businesses in the community as well as the potential to reduce outmigration. Repeatedly, participants drew attention to long- term impacts of their contributions to the learning ecosystem as “an investment in the future” of the community, a perspective which matches this study’s SROI measurement framework.

Language: English

Published: Athens, Ohio, 2022

Abstract/Notes: The purpose of this action research study was to discover if exposure to nature-based education would increase student’s eco-centric views of the environment. The intervention took place over a four week period at a private Montessori school in France. 11 students and their parents participated in the study. Students ranged in age from 2 to 3 years. Qualitative and quantitative data were both collected via a parent questionnaire, pre and post student surveys, daily observations, and a teacher reflection journal. Analysis of the data revealed that the more days a child participated in the nature-based lessons and activities, the more eco-centric development they achieved. Further research could be done during different seasons throughout the year as outdoor time was limited during the winter months. A similar study conducted over a longer period of time may also yield interesting results.

Language: English

Published: St. Paul, Minnesota, 2017

Abstract/Notes: This study investigates the efficacy of Conscious Discipline’s teaching strategies to enrich social-emotional learning and establish a positive classroom climate in an early childhood Montessori classroom. Conscious Discipline is a written program, of instructional and behavioral strategies created by Dr. Becky Bailey (2011). The question throughout this research project was “Does teaching Conscious Discipline strategies enhance social-emotional learning in preschool aged children?” The study was conducted in a Montessori classroom, the participants being both boys and girls ranging in age from 3 to 4 years. For six weeks, Conscious Discipline strategies were being implemented on a day-to-day basis, when dealing with real-life incidents in the classroom, reading books purchased through Conscious Discipline and establishing a Safe Place. During this sixweek study data was gathered through observations, a pre-survey, and a standardized assessment, and analyzed to document the effects of Conscious Discipline. The data collected demonstrated an increase in social-emotional learning, an increase in the joy in teaching, a positive classroom climate, a decrease in aggressive acts, and an increase in student respect and responsibility in a social community.

Language: English

Published: St. Paul, Minnesota, 2014

Abstract/Notes: The purpose of the experiment was to find if integrating physical education with the culture curriculum would enhance participation and increase learning in the classroom. The experiment was conducted at a Montessori school with one hundred elementary students split into a control group and experiment group. The control group received the traditional established physical education lessons while the experiment group received lessons integrated with culture themes. A pre and post assessment were given to the students to track improvements in concept retention.Observations were made during the lessons and a survey was given to the supervising teachers. There was not a meaningful change in participation but there was significant increase in scores between the pre and post assessment with the first and second graders in the experiment group. Physical Education integration with the culture curriculum aided younger students in remembering classroom lessons. Physical education will now be integrated with the culture curriculum for all elementary classrooms.

Language: English

Published: St. Paul, Minnesota, 2013

Abstract/Notes: More than ever before, schools and societies are looking to educate children in and for a global world. In the United States, these efforts have taken the form of increased interest in incorporating global or international perspectives into educational curricula, programs, and policy over the past decade (Hayden, 2011; Parker, 2011; U.S. Department of Education, 2012). Despite this interest in what I call global education, ambiguity remains regarding what it means to provide an education for a globalized world, both in terms of its underlying motivations and its ultimate execution in practice (Ortloff, Shah, Lou, & Hamilton, 2012).Two components often placed at the heart of these efforts in the United States—second/foreign language and digital technology—both reflect and contribute to understandings of global education. This study, rooted in an ecological theorization of discourse, asked how different school actors (teachers, administrators, parents, and students) position these two components in education today, how these positionings differ across groups, and what this means for understandings of global education. These questions were investigated through two complementary approaches: a survey distributed to a large cross-section of schools around the United States and an in-depth focal case study of one school. The survey was distributed to teachers, students, parents, and administrators at a broad range of U.S. secondary schools and assessed perceptions of second/foreign language and digital technology in education today. The focal case study focused on two secondary classrooms at a multilingual immersion K-8 school in the western US over a four-month period; data collection included field notes, analytic memos, and audio/video recordings from participant observations as well as multiple rounds of interviews with five students, four teachers, two administrators, and three parents. Data were analyzed using iterative rounds of inductive and deductive coding (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Saldaña, 2009) and critical discourse analysis (Blommaert, 2005; Fairclough, 2001).Findings suggest that second/foreign language and digital technology were positioned in a range of different ways that had concrete ramifications for schools and that built up divergent understandings of global education. The survey component of the study highlighted common discourses reproduced across groups, including: second/foreign language learning as a way to promote cultural understanding and awareness as well as economic opportunity; or digital technology as a threat to learning and as an omnipresent necessity. The focal school offered a more detailed look into these different discourses and their reproduction across groups. Analysis revealed trended similarities and differences across groups. For example, even though parents, teachers, and administrators often articulated a similar understanding of second/foreign language and digital technology, parental actions suggested more alignment with economic-based understandings of these two components. These differences in how second/foreign language and digital technology should be positioned within a global education created a “battle” between parents and the focal school as well as tension within the learning environment. The impact of these discourses and battles on students was unclear: while students at times voiced the discourses that their parents, teachers, and administrators reproduced, data also suggests that students were influenced by outside sources. These findings suggest that resulting understandings of global education were multiple and divergent across school groups. Data analysis also revealed the potential that anxiety, concern, or even fear of globalization and its effects could undergird adult understandings of second/foreign language and of digital technology: beneath economic as well as cultural motivations for second/foreign language and for digital technology learning resided trepidation about a changing world, changing identities, and the unknowns that lay ahead. This suggests that, underneath multiple and complex discourses, there can be a singular discourse that manifests in different ways, nuancing understandings of ecological approaches to discourse. It also suggests that different understandings of global education could stem from the same place: fear or anxiety in the face of a globalizing world. These findings highlight the need for a global education that equips students to navigate a changing world, its challenges, and any potential fears that may arise from these changes and challenges. The study concludes with a pedagogical framework built around discourse analysis that could offer students tools to understand their globalizing world.

Language: English

Published: Berkeley, California, 2017

Abstract/Notes: This multimethod study involved quantitative procedures to measure to what extent a tactual/kinesthetic art approach using clay would help low achieving or developmentally delayed kindergarten students learn the alphabet (a pre-reading skill). Data collected at each session ranged from twenty to twenty-five meetings per child over a period of ten weeks occurred within a single subject, multiple baseline design. Qualitative data collection and analysis revealed differences in participants' reactions to, preferences for, and processes with clay such as expressing their lives, dreams, stories, beliefs, and fears. Analysis of social interactions, student self-initiated practices, and variations of the interventions (i.e., clay play personifying letters, ABC book, songs, associations, images on cards, and artworks) suggested that gender differences occurred more strongly when clothing differentiated gender, and in the types of stories told, but not in the clay processes initiated. I began the study with 18 participants, selected by their teachers, using the criterion that the student could not identify more than 17 alphabet letters. The findings are based on the 10 remaining students who were not able to name more than 17 letters after five baseline sessions. The baseline sessions consisted of recording students' recognition of lower-case alphabet letters. If a child did not recognize a letter, I implemented the tactual/kinesthetic clay instruction, a multiple intelligences pedagogical approach influenced by Montessori methods. The intervention of forming with clay was implemented at staggered times across groups of letters (three letters at a time) for each participant. The participant's recognition of the distinctive features of a letter demonstrated progress in learning a new letter. An intervention of a tactual/kinesthetic art approach using clay did improve all of the participant's abilities to recognize, learn, and remember letters. The findings support the theory that kinesthetic/tactile perception is a primary channel for early learning. In spite of the apparent importance of kinesthetic methods, multisensory learning, and manipulative materials, few programs that incorporate kinesthetic/tactile pedagogy. Interdisciplinary arts-based teaching addresses the multiple intelligences of individual children and their different learning styles.

Language: English

Published: Lubbock, Texas, 2002

Abstract/Notes: In line with Montessori methodology, the Knysna Montessori School runs its programmes in an integrated and holistic manner. Learning programmes are based on a blend of various Montessori learning programmes and the Revised National Curriculum Statement (RNCS). Classes are divided into three year-age groupings; and integrated learning programmes are in place within the pre-school, (including grade R), the grade 1 to 3 class, and the grade 4 to 6 class. However, the grade 7 to 9 Montessori class has been running in a more traditional and less integrated manner since its inception in 2004. That has motivated the undertaking of this study. The main aim of this qualitative study has been to determine how to best arrange the RNCS according to Montessori principles, that is to say, in a holistic and integrated manner, with the intention of presenting a learning programme for the grade 7 to 9 class. This aim was based on a constructivist philosophical foundation and addressed in conjunction with interpretivism and critical theory. The grounded theory research paradigm was followed. In this paradigm research findings are grounded in the data gathering and the analysis. Three methods of data collection were applied, namely a literature review, interviews and document analysis. A literature review was conducted to gain a better overview and understanding of the RNCS and Outcomes-Based Education (OBE). Furthermore, through the literature review, an in-depth understanding of the Montessori method of education, adolescent development and integrated and holistic education have been achieved. Interviews were conducted with staff from the Knysna Montessori School, with the purpose of gathering information on the Knysna Montessori School and its current application to the RNCS, from pre-school to grade 6. An availability and purposive sampling method was applied, in order to determine which staff members to interview. Finally, document analysis was done. The learning areas for the senior phase (grades 7 to 9) of the General Education and Training Band (GET) of the RNCS were coded and analysed in order to discover emergent themes within the RNCS and how these link with the Montessori curriculum arrangement for this age group. It became apparent that Montessori classrooms, both prior to and for the senior phase, are divided into three areas, namely language, mathematics and cultural studies. Based on this knowledge, as well as the documentary analysis, an integrated learning programme, grounded in the data analysis, was designed. It was found that the RNCS matches well with Montessori’s curriculum arrangement. Thus, this learning programme is in line with Montessori’s curriculum arrangement for the senior phase of the GET band. Such a curriculum arrangement integrates the learning outcomes and assessment standards from arts and culture, economic and management sciences, life orientation, natural sciences, social sciences and technology into different studies. These are globally referred to as cultural studies. However, specific attention was also given to moral education, self-expression through music, art and drama, entrepreneurship, career education and sport. The conclusion was reached that an integrated learning programme, based on Montessori principles and in line with the RNCS requirement, is possible for the Knysna Montessori School.

Language: English

Published: Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 2010