Browsing by Subject "Montessori"

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    “It’s What We Use as a Community”: Exploring Students’ STEM Characterizations In Two Montessori Elementary Classrooms
    (2017-06) Szostkowski, Alaina
    Integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education promises to enhance elementary students’ engagement in science and related fields and to cultivate their problem-solving abilities. While STEM has become an increasingly popular reform initiative, it is still developing within the Montessori education community. There is limited research on STEM teaching and learning in Montessori classrooms, particularly from student perspectives. Previous studies suggest productive connections between reform-based pedagogies in mainstream science education and the Montessori method. Greater knowledge of this complementarity, and student perspectives on STEM, may benefit both Montessori and non-Montessori educators. This instrumental case study of two elementary classrooms documented student characterizations of aspects of STEM in the context of integrated STEM instruction over three months in the 2016-2017 school year. Findings show that the Montessori environment played an important role, and that students characterized STEM in inclusive, agentive, connected, helpful, creative, and increasingly critical ways. Implications for teaching and future research offer avenues to envision STEM education more holistically by leveraging the moral and humanistic aspects of Montessori philosophy.
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    Nisaidie nif anye mwenyewe, Помоги мне это сделать самому:a comparative case study of the implementation of Montessori pedagogy in the United Republic of Tanzania and the Russian Federation
    (2010-09) Schnepf, Candy A.
    The system of education developed by Maria Montessori, noted Italian feminist, anthropologist and physician, is the single largest pedagogy in the world with over 22,000 public, private, parochial, and charter schools on six continents, enduring even as other teaching methods have waxed and waned. Despite its international diffusion and longevity, research into the pedagogy is glaringly absent from mainstream educational literature. The purpose of this study is, first, to explore Dr. Montessori's involvement in international conferences and examine how the exchange of ideas by participants may have influenced her pedagogy. Second, this study investigates the implementation of Montessori pedagogy in two countries, the United Republic of Tanzania and the Russian Federation, focusing on the interplay of teacher training, classroom practice, and culture. This comparative multiple case study was designed to differentiate what is universal in the Montessori pedagogy and what is country specific or culture bound. Observations in classrooms guided by a checklist of ten essential elements, interviews with teachers, trainers and leaders of Montessori associations, and historical and contemporary documents are the primary sources of data. The results of the data indicate that limited economic resources, the quality of training, government regulations and availability of Montessori books translated into the Kiswahili and Russian languages influence the implementation of Montessori pedagogy in the United Republic of Tanzania and the Russian Federation to a greater extent than culture. Montessori pedagogy as implemented in Tanzania is thriving and is providing much needed quality education for young children. Several factors influence its implementation, but poverty permeates through all the classrooms and is the most significant. Montessori pedagogy as implemented in Russia also is thriving, in spite of the challenge of consistent training. Impressive efforts such as the work of the Belgorod Montessori Study Center to develop the theoretical understanding and practical applications of cosmic education and Michailova Montessori School's experiment in integrating into a self-managed government school may determine whether Montessori remains on the periphery of pedagogy or moves to the center, influencing future policy.