Abstract/Notes: The focus of this research is the spiritual experience of young children in early childhood educational settings. Spirituality is included in the New Zealand early childhood curriculum, Te Whariki, but is a relatively unarticulated aspect of educational practice. In order to find out how spirituality is supported in early childhood educational contexts this qualitative case study research took place in three early childhood settings: a Montessori casa, a private preschool and a Steiner (Waldorf) kindergarten. The methods used in the research included participant observation, interviews and focus groups. The teachers were asked to make a video about spirituality to reflect their own context and photographs were taken in each setting. The metaphor of spiritual landscape is used in this research. In this landscape everyday experience merged with the spiritual to form the concept of everyday spirituality. The cultural theories of everyday life supported a realisation that ordinary daily activity can become wonderful and mysterious when the spiritual dimension is realised. The themes that emerged from analysis of the case studies are conceptualised as transformative aspects of learning and relationships. They are aspects of everyday spirituality identified as spiritual withness; spiritual inbetweenness; and the spiritually elsewhere. Representing spiritual experience is challenging. The thesis is written in narrative form and contains core narratives as prose and poems. Using writing as a means of discovery made communicating spirituality through the medium of words a possibility. Spirituality is proposed to be an inclusive concept that affirms a sense of connection and this thesis found that all pedagogical practices in early childhood settings have the potential to include a spiritual aspect. In Aotearoa New Zealand many children lead their everyday lives in the context of an early childhood environment that includes teachers and parents as part of that community. This thesis argues that when everyday spirituality permeates early childhood contexts that all aspects of the curriculum are realised and the spiritual experience of everyone connected to that setting is supported.

Language: English

Published: Palmerston North, New Zealand, 2007

Abstract/Notes: Maria Montessori famously designed her own materials to support children’s development. Thus far, the literature which focuses on Montessori Sensorial education - and on creativity, problem solving and creative problem solving - has not investigated connections between these matters. This study investigated the effect of using the Montessori Method on children’s skills, especially in creative problem solving. This research examines the integration of Montessori materials into a social context to develop children’s creative problem solving, and analyses these data using the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) framework [Isaksen et al., 2000] and Rogoff’s model [1990] of social interaction. The study provides a new way of using the CPS framework, for data analysis, rather than as a way of training an individual or a group in solving problems creatively. The methodology combines a quasi-experimental design with a sample of qualitative cases. The research was conducted in one pre-school in Saudi Arabia, in the city of Riyadh, and involved twenty-four five-year-old children (12 boys, 12 girls) and four teachers. Six matched pairs of children were observed using Montessori sensorial materials (MSM) for one academic year. All the children were assessed on their problem solving capacities, in order to compare their development, using the British Ability Scale-II. The results from the quantitative analysis reveal significant differences between the experimental and control groups in their capacity to solve problems, using a pre-post-test of the four subscales of the BAS II. The qualitative analysis shows social interaction assists children in the “understanding of the challenge” component of the creative problem solving process while individual differences were identified in relation to the three creative skills. The results revealed the children’s different ways of framing and solving their own problems creatively through exploring different positions of the materials and applying them in creative solutions. The research also found that children’s own individual experiences with, and interests in, the material affected their creative problem solving.

Language: English

Published: Southampton, England, 2011

Abstract/Notes: En el presente trabajo se describen y comparan los niveles de adaptación, ansiedad y autoestima registrados en 72 alumnos de escuela tradicional y 65 de escuela Montessori de la ciudad de Puebla, de entre 9 y 12 años de edad. No habiendo encontrado diferencias estadísticamente significativas en las tres variables estudiadas entre estas dos escuelas, es dado concluir que tanto la adaptación, como la ansiedad y la autoestima son fenómenos determinados por una multiplicidad de factores tanto internos (inteligencia, personalidad, maduración, aptitudes, actitudes, entre otros.), como externos (familia, escuela, sociedad, cultura), que actúan interrelacionados. Así mismo se establecen las correlaciones existentes entre adaptación, ansiedad y autoestima. Se describen, además, los análisis factoriales aplicados a los tres instrumentos psicométricos utilizados en esta investigación, ya que dos fueron generados en España y otro en Estados Unidos de América. Se recomienda que, ante la escasez de instrumentos psicométricos construidos y validados en nuestro país, se promuevan investigaciones que tengan como fin la producción y difusión de tests en México, lo que permitirá realizar estudios confiables y válidos en el campo de la Psicología. [In this work, the levels of adaptation, anxiety and self-esteem registered in 72 students from a traditional school and 65 from a Montessori school in the city of Puebla, between 9 and 12 years of age, are described and compared. Not having found statistically significant differences in the three variables studied between these two schools, it is possible to conclude that both adaptation, anxiety and self-esteem are phenomena determined by a multiplicity of internal factors (intelligence, personality, maturation, aptitudes, attitudes , among others.), and external (family, school, society, culture), which act interrelated. Likewise, the existing correlations between adaptation, anxiety and self-esteem are established. The factor analyzes applied to the three psychometric instruments used in this research are also described, since two were generated in Spain and another in the United States of America. It is recommended that, given the shortage of psychometric instruments built and validated in our country, research is promoted aimed at the production and dissemination of tests in Mexico, which will allow reliable and valid studies in the field of Psychology.]

Language: Spanish

Published: Cholula, Mexico, 2010

Abstract/Notes: La presente ricerca, di impianto teorico, si prefigge lo scopo di indagare - all’interno della cornice teorica del problematicismo pedagogico - le connessioni tra due proposte educative che concorrono alla promozione dell’esercizio del pensiero complesso già nell’infanzia: il Metodo elaborato da Maria Montessori e la Philosophy for Children sviluppata da Matthew Lipman. Attingendo alla bibliografia scientifica di riferimento, sia nazionale sia internazionale, e a partire dalle connessioni individuate, si arrischiano sconfinamenti in saperi altri: sostando in ambiti di ricerche, apparentemente lontani, vengono interrogate le teorie dell’apprendimento, i rapporti con le tecnologie, fino al confronto con le interessanti conferme che emergono dalle recenti ricerche neuroscientifiche. La scelta dell’oggetto della ricerca nasce da una riflessione relativa all’emergere di fenomeni di negazione dell’infanzia e dei suoi diritti; ra gli altri, il diritto al pensiero. Sembra necessario richiamare alla responsabilità di accompagnare l’infanzia sulle strade della complessità nella cittadinanza GLocale. In questa direzione, le proposte educative prese in esame sembrano offrire, a partire dall’infanzia, modalità diversificate e divergenti delle esperienze di conoscere, sentire, comunicare alle quali poter attingere come bambini e bambine e nelle successive età della vita. Con il presente lavoro di ricerca, che mi ha vista impegnata in diverse forme per tre ricchi e intensi anni, ho tentato di mettere al centro della riflessione l’esercizio del pensiero che emerge come imprescindibile responsabilità educativa a cui i dispositivi propri del Metodo Montessori e della Philosophy for Children possono contribuire a corrispondere. [The research undertaken for this doctoral thesis - within the theoretical framework of pedagogical problematicism - explores the connections between two educational proposals that contribute to the promotion of the exercise of complex thought already since childhood: the Method elaborated by Maria Montessori and the Philosophy for Children developed by Matthew Lipman. With reference to the scientific bibliography, both national and international, this work matches Learning Theories, Studies on New Technologies and Practices in Education, comparing it with the interesting discoveries that emerge from recent neuroscientific research. It seems necessary to recall the responsibility of accompanying childhood on the roads of complexity in GLocal citizenship and, so, to offer children the tools and times for developing the capacity to think critically, to reason around events, and to undertake constructive relations with the environment and with others. With the present research, which has engaged me in different forms for three richly intense years, I have tried to centre my analysis on the exercise of thought as an indispensable educational responsibility to which the devices of the Montessori Method and of the Philosophy for Children can contribute.]

Language: Italian

Published: Bologna, Italy, 2018

Abstract/Notes: The object of this research was to investigate young children's mathematical spatial reasoning in a Montessori classroom. Spatial reasoning is an important part of children's mathematical learning and development; however, opportunities for rich spatial reasoning are not readily available in the classroom. Rather, there is a focus on numeracy at the expense of geometry where activities for spatial development are usually found. Montessori designed a sensory curriculum around children's development, yet spatial reasoning in a Montessori classroom has not been fully investigated. This was a qualitative study using some tools of ethnography. The theoretical framework was Radford's sensuous cognition (2013, 2014) which allowed for an understanding of human development as cultural with the body essential to that development. The data, captured by video, were the children's semiotic traces (Bartolini Bussi and Baccaglini-Frank (2015, p. 393) which are the visible productions of the children's spatial reasoning such as their movements, text, drawings, and speech. The analysis found that the children had ample opportunities for engaging in challenging mathematical problems which required their spatial reasoning. These engaging activities resulted in the children using a wide range of spatial skills as they reasoned mathematically. The children's movement, the main semiotic trace generated by the children, was crucial to their spatial reasoning. This investigation concluded the pedagogical practices created a rich and dynamic environment for the children's spatial development. Practices included the use of well-designed mathematical manipulatives, engagement in the manner of guided play, co-operative learning with peers of mixed ages, extensive time for activities, and assessment based on observations of individual children.

Language: English

Published: Ottawa, Canada, 2022

Abstract/Notes: Este estudio tuvo tiene por objetivo determinar la influencia del Método Montessori en el desarrollo de la Lectoescritura en los niños de 6 años en la Unidad Educativa “Juan León Mero” Santo Domingo 2021. Se plantea la siguiente hipótesis Existe influencia en el Método Montessori y el desarrollo de Lectoescritura en los niños de 6 años, la muestra estuvo conformada por 32 alumnos del segundo año de básica elemental “Juan León Mero” Santo Domingo. Se trata de un trabajo no experimental, con un diseño correlacional asociativo, la técnica realizada fue la observación, con una escala ordinal, la cual validó el instrumento que fue el cuestionario, se empleó un método de análisis de información SPS, se tuvo como resultado explicado en la Tabla 7 sig.: 0.210 y rho: 0.228, siendo comprobada la hipótesis, la conclusión de la investigación es no existe una influencia significativa del método Montessori y la lectoescritura en los estudiantes del segundo de básica de la Institución de educación Juan León Mera, Santo Domingo.

Language: Spanish

Published: Piura, Peru, 2022

Abstract/Notes: Address given at 1965 Annual Convention fo the National Association for Crippled Children and Adults

Language: English

ISSN: 0277-9064

Language: English

ISSN: 0277-9064

Language: English

ISSN: 0277-9064

Language: English

ISSN: 0277-9064