The The Contribution of “A Sister of Notre Dame” and the “Nun of Calabar” to Montessori Education in Scotland, Nigeria and Beyond

Although the English Montessori Movement was declining, two educators, trained in the Method in England in the 1920s, contributed significantly to the continuity of Montessori education. “A Sister of Notre Dame”, was the anonymous author of A Scottish Montessori School, published in1932. The “Nun of Calabar”, established Montessori schools between 1926 and 1934 in Nigeria. Their work is placed within the political, social, and cultural context of the time.

H is for Hurricane, M is for Maria: Supporting literacy in Vieques

The case study, H is For Hurricane and M is For Maria explores the public Montessori System of Puerto Rico as an educational philosophy of resilience. The authors present a counternarrative to early literacy development on the island by focusing in on two public Montessori schools from Vieques, Puerto Rico. The study was conducted one year after the passing of Hurricane Maria. Data collected, highlights the strong effectiveness of combining children’s home life experiences together with foundational early literacy development. Through this piece, teachers and parents share how they teach early literacy by making the absolute most of what surrounds them physically and culturally. Puerto Rico is poorer than the poorest state yet has had the fastest growth of public Montessori schools, than anywhere else in the United States. Major conclusions state that access to public Montessori education in Puerto Rico offers children an advantage in early literacy development.

Is digital heroin creating disturbing behaviors among children?

Addiction of cell phones, tabletsand computers is creating disturbing behaviors among society members universally. The purpose of this study is to describe the influence of digital heroin on youngsters that are students of top Montessori schools and how their parent’s addictive habits acts as a moderator. This research includes the survey of four hundred and fifty respondents, most of them are the parents of children aged between 3 to 8 years in Lahore, Pakistan. Gymboree (a Montessori academy by Beaconhouse), Lahore Grammar School and Choueifat was included in this survey. The results of the survey exhibit that overwhelming usage of digital gadgets has sudden and significant influence on the youngsters’ health; the greater the addiction of parents towards smart phones, greater is the tendency of a child to demonstrate disturbing behavior. Children of this age are having more interaction with digital technology but there is a very fine line between healthy and addictive usage. There are a lot of reasons why parents let their children use smart gadgets for a longer period of time, one of the reasons of which is easy parenting. This research can play a significant role for social science as well as for technological companies who need to realize that the real game lies in long term goodwill and not the short-term profitability through considering the drivers of youngsters’s psychological problem.

Relation between Pupils’ Mathematical Self-Efficacy and Mathematical Problem Solving in the Context of the Teachers’ Preferred Pedagogies

In research focused on self-efficacy it is usually teacher-related phenomena that are studied, while the main aspects related to pupils are rather neglected, although self-efficacy itself is perceived as a belief in one’s own abilities. Evidently, this strongly influences the behavior of individuals in terms of the goal and success in mathematical problem-solving. Considering that alternative teaching methods are based on the principle of belief in one’s own ability (mainly in the case of group work), higher self-efficacy can be expected in the pupils of teachers who use predominantly the well-working pupil-centered pedagogies. A total of 1133 pupils in grade 5 from 36 schools in the Czech Republic were involved in the testing of their ability to solve mathematical problems and their mathematical self-efficacy as well. Participants were divided according to the above criteria as follows: (i) 73 from Montessori primary schools, (ii) 332 pupils educated in mathematics according to the Hejný method, (iii) 510 pupils from an ordinary primary school, and (iv) 218 pupils completing the Dalton teaching plan. In the field of mathematical problem-solving the pupils from the Montessori primary schools clearly outperformed pupils from the Dalton Plan schools (p = 0.027) as well as pupils attending ordinary primary schools (p = 0.009), whereas the difference between the Montessori schools and Hejný classes was not significant (p = 0.764). There is no statistically significant difference in the level of self-efficacy of pupils with respect to the preferred strategies for managing learning activities (p = 0.781). On the other hand, correlation between mathematical problem-solving and self-efficacy was confirmed in all the examined types of schools. However, the correlation coefficient was lower in the case of the pupils from the classes applying the Hejný method in comparison with the pupils attending the Montessori schools (p = 0.073), Dalton Plan schools (p = 0.043), and ordinary primary schools (p = 0.002). Even though the results in mathematical problem-solving are not consistent across the studies, the presented results confirm better performance of pupils in some constructivist settings, particularly in the case of individual constructivism in the Montessori primary schools. The factors influencing lower correlation of self-efficacy and performance in mathematical problem-solving ought to be subject to further investigation.

Understanding Teacher Identity Construction: Professional Experiences of Becoming Indonesian Montessori Teachers

This study sought to investigate the identity construction of Indonesian Montessori teachers. The research was done in two Montessori schools in Yogyakarta: Cosmic School and Universe School (pseudonyms). The participants involved in this research were eight teachers in total. The data gathering process employed questionnaire, classroom observation, interview, and written reflections. The findings have shed a light on the ways teachers develop their identities within Montessori’s values and principles that they reflect and implement in their daily teaching practice. The findings of the research portrayed that there were four major salient principles influencing the identity formation of becoming Montessori teachers. They were movement and cognition, choice, interest, and teacher ways and child ways. Those principles and values were becoming teachers’ guidance of creating professional working ethos. Montessori principles also influenced the teachers in the ways they perceived and treated the students. This study also revealed the undertaken agencies to hold identity as Montessori teachers. There were three broad themes to explain their agencies. They entailed the essence of building communication between teacher and parents, the significance of community support, and the importance of being well-prepared teachers. Based on the findings and discussion, some recommendations for future studies are also presented.

Montessori as an alternative in post-totalitarian and ‘folwark’ educational culture – ethnographical research report

The article addresses the issue of alternative education in the context of cultural codes. On the basis of ethnographic research conducted in primary Montessori schools in Poland the author analyses the significance of local culture for the global range pedagogy, and in this way questions the thesis according to which Montessori is indifferent to cultural differences. The results of the research show, that all three cultural codes, including the totalitarian and folwark ones are present in many different situations investigated during the research. At the same time Polish Montessori schools are undoubtedly these places in which the modernization code is overwhelmingly present.