This paper is to examine the following research question, is Montessori education better than public education? There are five peer review journal articles which will be reviewed and analyzed in determining whether Montessori education is better than public education. The paper is divided and organized into separate sections. Firstly, there is a Literature review which examines the five peer review journal article. The next section is a discussion which compares the peer review journal articles and authors views on Montessori schooling. The next part is the conclusion segment, which will summarize the findings in this paper. Lastly, there is a flowchart to understand the significance of the Montessori curriculum.
Literature Review
The first peer review article is written by Kevin Rathunde called “Middle School Students Motivation and Quality of Experience: A Comparison of Montessori and Traditional School Environments.” Rathunde stated in his peer review article that Montessori students reported higher average grades than public school students. One of reasons is he felt students in Montessori had more interest in completing their schoolwork than traditional students. “Montessori students reported higher affect and intrinsic motivation while doing schoolwork, and spent approximately three and a half hours more per week than traditional students doing schoolwork ” (Rathunde, Pg341, 2005). This shows that Montessori schools has a significant impact on students perceptions of schoolwork’s compared to public school students. Also children with in both types of schools reported a similar quality of experience at school. Both groups showed a significant correlation between motivations in school activities. However, stud...
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...ri schools often acknowledge a disadvantage for their students with respect to standardized test performance (Lopata, Wallace, Finn, P8, 2005).
Conclusion
Overall, the majority of authors have the same opinion that Montessori education provides satisfactory education in regards to work ethic, behaviour and skills. However several authors were critical in their respective articles in questioning the lack of standardized testing in Montessori schools. With testing and grades, there is an easier research method which can value the effectiveness of Montessori, and can have an increased use of more of the curriculum in the future, and less public school format. In conclusion, based on the evidence, the majority of the authors favour the Montessori education and possibly with a change of standardized testing, it can have increased numbers of schools in the future.
Education is a constantly changing industry that has adapted throughout history and continues to adapt. America’s current public education system, however, has stayed static and dissatisfactory despite many attempts to reform how children are taught. One of the most progressive attempts to reform education has been the Montessori Method. The Montessori Method is a type of schooling that encourages children to be eager to learn on their own through hands-on learning. There are specific materials and structures that the Montessori Method uses. This specific method is based on the observation of the development of children’s minds and environments that they learn and grow best in. Although it is more common for American children to go to public
Almost state has gained federal funding from accumulating the test data from all of their schools (Ravitch 107). Data collected from multiple choice questions determines the intelligence of every student and their teachers. The test data is tracked throughout their lifetime in relation to their test scores, graduation dates and other statistics companies such as Amazon and Microsoft use to evaluate different groups (by age, ethnicity, etc) as a whole (Ravitch 107). Ravitch claims there are many problems with this, mainly, tests do not measure character, spirit, heart, soul, and potential (112). Not everyone is the same, and just because one may be weak in math or writing doesn’t mean they’re not smart, resourceful individuals with much to share with the world. For schools to be even seen with a slight amount more than just their test scores, they have to be in great standings with their students’ average test results. The government’s intense focus on test results hurts schools’ ability to be a well-rounded school immensely. In contrast to federal’s pinpoint focus on what students learn, educated consumers desire their kids to have a full, balanced, and rich curriculum (Ravitch 108). Schools need to be more than housing for test-takers. The Education Board may claim students’ proficiency in their testing makes them better people, prepares them for college, and ultimately, the workforce. What they are
Standardized testing scores proficiencies in most generally accepted curricular areas. The margin of error is too great to call this method effective. “High test scores are generally related to things other than the actual quality of education students are receiving” (Kohn 7). “Only recently have test scores been published in the news-paper and used as the primary criteria for judging children, teachers, and schools.”(2) Standardized testing is a great travesty imposed upon the American Public School system.
Rathunde, K. & Csikszetnmihalyi, M. (2005), "Middle school students' motivation and quality of experience: A comparison of Montessori and traditional school environments", American Journal of Education 111 (3): 341–371.
Early Learning The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the issue of preschool to determine if children who participate in structured preschool programs are more successful in kindergarten or first grade. There are a few types of preschool programs. First, there are structured preschool programs that focus on emphasizing an actual school setting and classroom activities in order to prepare the child for kindergarten or first grade. There are also day care centers, which are not as structured as preschool centers.
Teachers are major learning resources in a young child’s life. “Teaching young children is one of the most important and most difficult of educational jobs.” (Edwards, Knight, 1). With these things in mind, how effective are early childhood learning programs? What are their purposes? Through this research paper all of these questions and more will be answered. We will review the purpose of each program and it’s effects on the students. The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the effectiveness of early childhood learning programs with respect to the long-term academic achievement of those students who attend the early childhood programs.
High Scope revolutionized early childhood education system with a new approach to teaching and learning. The purpose of High scope approach is to help children develop in every learning domain using a carefully designed process, called active participatory leaning. Active learning emphasizes that children learn best through active experiences with people, materials, events and idea. The first section of this essay will provide further details about High Scope curriculum and the second part will be the discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of High Scope approach. In the final section, I am going to talk about what I have learnt about High Scope and how it is going to assist my future teaching.
A research-based article by Almon, J. and Miller, E. (2011) showed some researches from different parts of the world regarding the Crisis in Early Education. One of those crisis they found out was children were pushed to early learning. They focused on the cognitive accomplishment rather than play-based learning. With all the evidences they have gathered, they found out that when children get inappropriate early education, it has a long-term negative effect.
The Waldorf Approach Preschool is a highly debated area of a child’s educational journey. One of the primary goals of preschool is to prep the child for traditional elementary school. There are various contemporary models of early education that have been constructed to help children develop their educational career. A few examples of these models are the Bank Street Approach, The Reggio Emilia Approach, The Montessori Approach, and the Head Start Program just to name a few. The Waldorf approach is the program of discussion in this particular paper.
With the success of working with these children she was asked to open a school in a housing project in Rome, which was opened on January 6 1907, which was called Casa dei Bambini or Children’s House. Montessori was focused on teaching the children how to develop their own skills at their own rate, which was a principle Dr. Montessori called “spontaneous self-development”. [Early Childhood Today, p. 74.] Montessori discovered that children’s innate power for learning worked best when the children were able to be left alone in a safe, and a hands on environment. When the children were given furniture, equipment, and supplies they were able to work by themselves, they were also self-motivated to explore experiment and reach new understandings. Montessori found self...
Maria Montessori was born in Italy in 1870 and influenced childcare massively in the 20th century. Montessori believed that children learn best through using their hands. She felt that one of the main factors that contributed to the child’s development was the ‘prepared’ environment. Children learn through exploration and the adult’s role is to create an environment where they can do
The Montessori Method has been and is very popular around the world with early childhood practitioners and parents. The Montessori approach is designed to support the natural development of children in a well-prepared environment. Some of the principles and philosophy are respect for the child, sensitive periods, the prepared environment, absorbent mind, and observations. (hardy, 2013) (Notes, 2013)
It is important to note that it is a right for the children to have a quality education. In this aspect, reasonable learning environments are a critical factor contributing to children education. All parents want their children to have an access to quality and better education. In the quest for such, parents always seek learning environments with competent teachers and better learning facilities. It is therefore, common to see parents always having a choice to make between taking their children to public schools, private school or have the children taught at home. Different opinion about home schooling and public school has recently been a subject of contention. Either way, the two forms of learning should offer the learning child with a better education. Nevertheless, each of the two forms of learning environments should be supported by valid arguments as discussed below.
Innovations designed to improve student achievement must be technically sound. Leaders must look at how Montessori works. Is Montessori successful at other charter schools? How was the curriculum implemented at other charter schools? The curriculum development team needs to observe other Montessori schools and research their data to make sure the curriculum w...
... such a manner that its curriculum framework is open to interpretation enough to be adapted to most if not all child-centered early years educational approaches. Montessori has a structured curriculum, which while not as flexible as High/Scope can still adapt to Aistear’s framework into their own set curriculum using already established Montessori exercises. In addition, Montessori and High/scope both share an emphasis on the importance of the prepared environment for the children, which is in accordance of Síolta, without which the Aistear framework cannot be successfully undertaken.