Language: English

ISSN: 1071-6246

Abstract/Notes: There are 25 million displaced children worldwide, and those receiving schooling are often educated in overcrowded classrooms. Montessori is a child-centred educational method that provides an alternative model to traditional educational approaches. In this model, students are able to direct their own learning and develop at their own pace, working with materials rather than in supervised groups or with direct teacher instruction. Because most children are working alone, teachers have more time to work one-on- one with children even when student-teacher ratios are quite large. This gives teachers increased opportunity to tailor their teaching to the specific needs and strengths of each student. We conducted an evaluation of Montessori classroom conversion for displaced students on the Thai-Myanmar border. We administered the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) to 66 children before and after classroom conversion and across treatment and control classroom conditions. We then conducted difference in difference testing. All domains showed meaningful improvements in ASQ scores, with the Montessori students gaining 18 points relative to the traditional students (p = 0.33). However, only the personal-social domain of the ASQ was statistically significant (8.8 point gain for the Montessori students relative to the control, p < 0.05) in our underpowered sample.

Language: English

ISSN: 1443-1475, 2202-493X

Abstract/Notes: Part 1 of a series

Language: English

Abstract/Notes: Fotografija. Užsiėmimai Marijos Varnienės „Vaikų nameliuose“. Fotografas – Ilja Jasvoinas, Kaunas, 1935 m. Nespalvota, horizontalaus formato fotografija figūrinėmis žirklėmis apkirptais kraštais. Vaikai žaidžia lauke. Pagrindinių judesių lavinimas lauke (Montessori metodas). [Photography. Classes in Marija Varnienė's Children's Home. Photographer - Ilja Jasvoinas, Kaunas, 1935 Black-and-white, horizontal-format photography with scissor-edged edges. Children play outside. Field training in basic movements (Montessori method).]

Language: Lithuanian

Archive: Lietuvos švietimo istorijos muziejus / Museum of Lithuanian Education History (Kaunas, Lithuania)

Language: English

ISSN: 1522-9734

Language: English

Abstract/Notes: Play and work are, besides science, two basic forms of human activity. Play is not only the basic form of the activity of a small child, but also the organization of the educational process in a kindergarten. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to answer the question of why Maria Montessori calls a child’s activity work and not play. The explanation of this issue is carried out in two stages. The first is a literature review, on the basis of which the most important issues of the contemporary understanding of the concept of play and work are formulated. The second is an analysis of M. Montessori’s views and comparing them with the assumptions about play and work. The work of a child according to M. Montessori leads to their independence, allowing them to build relationships with others and discover the meaning of their actions, as well as objects in their immediate vicinity. The intention of M. Montessori was to appreciate the child’s actions, which promote holistic and integral development. Her views can be considered as convergent with contemporary concepts in primary education, focusing on subjectivity. She created a well-prepared environment for the child to be able to choose their own activity, termed as work. / Zabawa i praca są, obok nauki, dwiema podstawowymi formami działalności ludzkiej. Zabawa jest nie tylko podstawową formą aktywności małego dziecka, ale też organizacji procesu wychowawczego w przedszkolu. Dlatego celem artykułu jest udzielenie odpowiedzi na pytanie, dlaczego Maria Montessori nazywa działalność dziecka pracą, a nie zabawą. Wyjaśnienie tego zagadnienia jest realizowane w dwóch etapach. Pierwszy to przegląd literatury, na podstawie której sformułowano najważniejsze kwestie współczesnego rozumienia pojęć zabawy i pracy. Drugi to analiza poglądów M. Montessori i porównanie ich z założeniami dotyczącymi zabawy i pracy. Praca dziecka według M. Montessori prowadzi do jego samodzielności, pozwala na budowanie więzi z innymi oraz na odkrywanie i nadawanie sensu swojemu działaniu, jak i przedmiotom znajdującym się w najbliższym otoczeniu. Intencją M. Montessori było dowartościowanie działania dziecka, które sprzyja holistycznemu i integralnemu rozwojowi. Jej poglądy można uznać za zbieżne ze współczesnymi koncepcjami edukacji dziecka, stawiającymi na podmiotowość. Włoszka tworzy odpowiednio przygotowane otoczenie do tego, by dziecko mogło dokonywać wyboru własnej aktywności, która została nazwana pracą.

Language: Polish

DOI: 10.14632/eetp.2017.13.47.69

ISSN: 1896-2327, 2353-7787

Abstract/Notes: In this paper, we present a pilot study aiming to investigate the challenges of teaching AI and Robotics to children in low- and middle-income countries. Challenges such as the little to none experts and the limited resources in a Mexican town to teach AI and Robotics were addressed with the creation of inclusive learning activities with Montessori method and open-source educational robots. For the pilot study, we invited 14 participants of which 10 were able to attend, 6 male and 4 female of (age in years: mean=8 and std=$pm$1.61) and four instructors of different teaching experience levels to young audiences. We reported results of a four-lesson curriculum that is both inclusive and engaging. We showed the impact on the increase of general agreement of participants on the understanding of what engineers and scientists do in their jobs, with engineering attitudes surveys and Likert scale charts from the first and the last lesson. We concluded that this pilot study helped children coming from low- to mid-income families to learn fundamental concepts of AI and Robotics and aware them of the potential of AI and Robotics applications which might rule their adult lives. Future work might lead (a) to have better understanding on the financial and logistical challenges to organise a workshop with a major number of participants for reliable and representative data and (b) to improve pretest-posttest survey design and its statistical analysis. The resources to reproduce this work are available at: https://github.com/air4children/dei-hri2023.

Language: English

Published: Mar 5, 2023

Language: English

Language: English