Abstract/Notes: The 4 P’s creativity model (person, process, press, and product) underlines how creativity is strongly connected with the materials employed to conceive and realize a creative outcome. As a multiform construct, it invites a wide variety of approaches to the study of it. One of the most promising ways to address this issue is to connect it with cognitive development and related educational pathways, as creativity can be enhanced and stimulated in every child, leading to an improvement both at personal and societal level. Even if creativity is recognized and highly valued, there is still a lack of methods which can stimulate creativity in an effective way. Useful hints may come from the outstanding contributions of Piaget and Montessori who underlined that interaction with the physical world is a fundamental building block for cognitive development. In this paper, starting from these fixed points, we describe some creativity enhancing methods for children which give importance to the edge between digital and physical materials. Digital materials open new ways to the use and integration of physical materials with hybrid platforms which can be used in educational contexts. Together with this perspective we provide a description of the application of these methodologies to enhance creativity in children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

Language: English

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00755

ISSN: 1664-1078

Abstract/Notes: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of olfactory stimuli using aromatherapy in an early childhood Montessori classroom. This study explores the effectiveness of essential oil in a collective setting with younger students. Also, this research seeks to evaluate the usefulness of aromatherapy as a tool of the Prepared Environment or materials for a Montessori classroom. The 26 students between three to six years old from a Children’s House were observed for 45 minutes during morning work cycle and the data was collected in both control condition (non-essential oil) and lemon essential oil condition days. Lemon essential oil was distributed by two diffusers in the classroom during the research periods. The data was collected collectively and independently. Four quantitative and one qualitative instruments were used for data collection. In conclusion, the lemon essential oil condition lowered productivity and stimulated students during the study period. However, this result indicated that aromatherapy intervention impacted the student’s productivity. With further careful consideration, aromatherapy can be an effective tool for the Prepared Environment and positive intervention if it is the right kind of essential oil.

Language: English

Published: River Falls, Wisconsin, 2020

Abstract/Notes: Discusses the role of Montessori education in developing lifelong skills for creativity. Considers self-expression the key to recovering human authenticity and spirit. Urges teachers and parents to develop this inner self in themselves and their children as a barrier against contemporary materialism, hurried life, and alienation caused by high-tech communications, suggesting a new definition of creativity. (JPB)

Language: English

ISSN: 1522-9734

Language: English

Language: English

Language: English

ISSN: 0040-7887

Language: English

Published: River Forest, Illinois: Montessori Publications, n.d.

Abstract/Notes: excerpts from Psicogeometria

Language: English

ISSN: 0519-0959

Language: English, Italian

Published: Rome, Italy: Opera Nazionale Montessori, 2006

ISBN: 88-88227-33-4

Abstract/Notes: The birth of Montessori’s Case dei Bambini (“Children’s Houses”) and the adoption of her innovative teaching method constitute an interesting chapter in the renewal of educational practices in Italy in the early years of the 20th century. Spreading from North to South, the biggest impact was felt where the social question was most acute. Milan, Rome and Città di Castello (the location of the Villa Montesca belonging to Leopoldo Franchetti and his wife Alice Hallgarten), together with very small communities such as those of Ferruzzano and Saccuti in the province of Reggio Calabria, were ideal contexts in which to test the assumptions of Maria Montessori’s approach to pedagogy. Specifically, this paper examines the experience of the Children’s Houses and nursery schools set up in Calabria by the Associazione Nazionale per gli Interessi del Mezzogiorno d’Italia (ANIMI, the National Association for the Interests of the Italian Mezzogiorno). The use of partly unpublished materials kept in the Association’s Historic Archive makes it possible to reconstruct the enthusiasm for the Montessori method of some teachers who were not from Calabria and to assess its positive effects on the children, who were among the country’s most neglected, often condemned to a series of privations. 

Language: Italian

DOI: 10.36253/rse-10369

ISSN: 2532-2818