Abstract/Notes: This article vividly describes the indoor and outdoor components of what Montessori calls Home Sweet Home. Her vision of a domestic Children's House contains many facets: rooms of varied space, beautiful flooring, gardens that educate and evoke collaboration, and places for year-round exercise. This is a definitive yet rare Montessori article that shows the profound overlap of both natural and man-made spaces in a house designed for children. [Copyright © 1944 Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company. NAMTA would like to express its gratitude to the Montessori-Pierson Publishing Company and the Maria Montessori Archives held at AMI for suggesting this lecture and making it available.]

Language: English

ISSN: 1522-9734

Language: English

Abstract/Notes: The purpose of this action research was to study the effects that daily proactive restorative circle practice (PRCP) had on speaking skills, listening, and positive classroom culture amongst Montessori Children's House students. The research took place over a four week period of time in a two way immersion Children's House in a Montessori public charter school in the Midwest. The population included 8 students ages 4-5.5 years. Students participated in a daily proactive restorative circle each afternoon. The researcher also observed students during lunch to collect data on any influence the PRCP had outside of circle time. Data was collected through field notes, tallies, and a sense of community scale. The intervention suggested an increase in speaking skills and maintaining positive classroom culture. Students also demonstrated an increased sense of responsibility and accountability to the implementation of PRCP. Continued research is needed to determine the effectiveness of PRCP with more participants as well as how the effects of the PRCP transfer over to the general classroom experience.

Language: English

Published: St. Paul, Minnesota, 2020

Language: English

ISSN: 0040-7887

Abstract/Notes: Although children’s books often include fantasy, research suggests that children do not learn as well from fantastical stories as from realistic ones. The current studies investigated whether the type of fantasy matters, in effect testing two possible mechanisms for fantasy’s interference. Across two studies, 110 5-year-olds were read different types of fantastical stories containing a problem and then were asked to solve an analogous problem in a real lab setting. Children who were read a minimally fantastical version of the story, in which the story occurred on another planet “that looked just like Earth,” were no more likely to transfer the solution than children who heard a story that was slightly more fantastical in that the story occurred on another planet and that planet looked different from Earth (e.g., orange grass, a green sky). In contrast, significantly higher rates of learning were observed when the story contained those elements and two physically impossible events (e.g., walking through walls). Furthermore, this improvement was obtained only when the impossible events preceded, and not when they followed, the educational content. Although fantasy may sometimes detract from learning (as other research has shown), these new studies suggest that minimal fantasy does not and that particular types of fantasy may even increase learning. We propose that the mechanism for this may be that a small dose of impossible events induces deeper processing of the subsequent events in the story.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105212

ISSN: 0022-0965

Language: English

Language: English

Language: English

Abstract/Notes: This research study explored the effects of using nature-based space and materials on the children’s concentration levels in an early childhood Montessori environment. Nineteen 3-6-year-olds participated in the study for four weeks. The researcher designed and implemented two interventions, nature-based space and nature-based materials, inside an early childhood Montessori environment. The purpose was to holistically improve the children’s concentration levels by being exposed to a nature-based area and materials. The data collection process relied on four qualitative and quantitative data tools: tally sheets, general observational notes, rate sheets, and measurement notes. The data analyzed in this research study suggests exposing young children to both nature-based space and materials in the learning environment is beneficial to their concentration levels. Lastly, the researcher considers further investigation of the effects of being exposed to nature and technology on the children’s brain by using scientific devices to read and interpret the brain activity.

Language: English

Published: St. Paul, Minnesota, 2020

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040