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Master's Thesis (Action Research Report)
Efficacy of Community Building in Adult Online Learning Environments
Available from: St. Catherine University
Action research, Montessori method of education - Study and teaching, Montessori method of education - Teacher training
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Abstract/Notes: This qualitative research study was conducted during synchronous class sessions with adult learners enrolled in an online Montessori teacher education program. The aim was to determine which techniques were being used to facilitate adult learning in an online learning environment. The research collected data through data tools designed to record the observed behaviors of participants engaged in online synchronous class sessions. The data revealed the use of learning techniques beneficial to developing self-confidence, community building, and knowledge acquisition by utilizing qualitative and quantitative research methods. This study can serve as a framework for future research projects focusing on adult learning methods and techniques that will positively impact adult learners’ experience in online learning environments. This study provided evidence that supports techniques that focus on supporting and encouraging adult learners to build self-confidence while cultivating a supportive community of learners. Overall, having synchronous class sessions appear to be beneficial to the building of community, self-confidence of the adult learners, and worthwhile use of time to evaluate the effectiveness of learning in online environments. Synchronous class sessions, accompanied by asynchronous activities of adult learners, are a very effective way of educating future teachers in the Montessori method.
Language: English
Published: St. Paul, Minnesota, 2022
Doctoral Dissertation
Independent Learning in Four Montessori Elementary Classrooms
Available from: ProQuest - Dissertations and Theses
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Abstract/Notes: This is a descriptive study of independent learning in four Montessori elementary classrooms. It shows relationships between groups of variables for the student, teacher, and environment--with independent learning. Data were collected for the project in three schools in the Seattle area. A profile on each student consisted of demographic information, scores on four measures of independence, and data regarding observed classroom behavior. The teachers provided background information and philosophical orientation through questionnaire and their classroom behaviors were observed. The environment, including the physical and underlying structural climate, was revealed through teacher interview and observation of whole-class behavior. The resultant data were examined for relationships through correlational techniques. Student background, specifically sex, age, and previous Montessori experience, were not found to be predictive of observed independent learning. Teacher background and years of teaching experience in Montessori were also not predictive of the independent learning that occurred in the classroom. The environment, prepared by a Montessori teacher to facilitate independent learning, provided for self-directed study. Independent learning was observed by the behaviors of the individual student, the teacher, and the whole-class similarly in the four classrooms. It was observed in a variety of students. All four teachers had Montessori teacher education and experience. All classrooms were set up physically with shelves of manipulative materials and structurally with student-directed expectations. It was concluded that independent learning can occur when allowed and provided for.
Language: English
Published: Seattle, Washington, 1987
Doctoral Dissertation
An Analysis of Froebel's Play and Montessori's Work in Terms of Their Implementation as Learning Tasks in the Systems' View of Education
Available from: ProQuest - Dissertations and Theses
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Language: English
Published: New York City, New York, 1971
Doctoral Dissertation
The Potentiality of Play: The Shifting Design Language of Play-Based Learning
Available from: Edinburgh Napier University
Montessori method of education - Criticism, interpretation, etc., Play, Student-centered learning
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Abstract/Notes: This thesis, underpinned by cross-cultural design ethnography (DE) and research through design (RtD), re-reads play-based learning constructs as design practice. In doing so, it charts the shifting relationship between design and theories of play-based learning. The work frames the design of play-based learning processes, from their emergence in historical learning environments such as the Montessori method to current pedagogies of STEAM learning. This evolutionary focus will be of interest to a wide range of stakeholders such as pedagogues, designers, and policy makers, each of whom contribute to where, what and how children are taught. This thesis presents the following arguments: Firstly, it frames and re-reads key historical play pedagogues as designers and design thinkers, whose work has shaped and influenced the evolution of play-based learning through the inception of play artefacts, spaces, and structures. This thesis further elucidates that design-thinking has been at the heart of play-based learning, demonstrated through the design of modular and standardised pedagogic objects and spaces of historic learning environments. The design evolution within this framework helps to enlighten the development of tinkering and iterative prototyping as twenty-first century affordances of learning through play. Secondly, this thesis uses observation-based design ethnography of the Montessori method, to argue that Montessori’s restrictive pedagogy can be counterproductive to learning through intuitive processes of exploration and iteration. Thirdly, by adapting the practice-based research method of research through design (RtD), the thesis demonstrates and proposes that twenty-first century design affordances of tinkering and iteration can be suitably integrated to enrich historic play-based learning environments such as the Montessori method. In each of these arguments, the ways in which pedagogic theories of play are interwoven with the language of design thinking are revealed. By bringing into focus the triad of play, pedagogy, and design, an additional educational landscape of twenty-first century cultural learning environments is explored. Cultural learning environments (CLEs) such as museums and public galleries extend the scope of play-based learning beyond formalised spaces of schools and bring into relief, the predominance of design while incepting platforms, ateliers, and activities to initiate learning through play.
Language: English
Published: Edinburgh, Scotland, 2021
Doctoral Dissertation
Valuing Complexity in Education-Community Partnerships: SROI as Measurement Framework for Learning Ecosystems
Available from: OhioLINK ETD Center
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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
Article
A Learning Environment for Educationally Handicapped Children
Publication: American Montessori Society Bulletin, vol. 7, no. 2
Date: 1969
Pages: 1-22
Children with disabilities, Developmentally disabled children, Inclusive education, Montessori method of education
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Language: English
ISSN: 0277-9064
Article
The Montessori Method in the Light of Contemporary Views of Learning and Motivation
Publication: American Montessori Society Bulletin, vol. 5, no. 3
Date: 1967
Pages: 1-8
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Language: English
ISSN: 0277-9064
Article
Innovations, Excellence and Children's Learning
Publication: American Montessori Society Bulletin, vol. 1, no. 3
Date: 1963
Pages: 1-4
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Language: English
ISSN: 0277-9064
Article
Companions in Learning–The Extended Day Child and the Montessori Adult
Publication: AMI/USA News, vol. 12, no. 4
Date: Oct 1999
Pages: 4
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Language: English
Article
Application of Classroom Learning
Publication: AMI/USA News, vol. 14, no. 3
Date: May 2001
Pages: 7
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Language: English