The Montessori method offers an alternative approach to public and independent schooling. In the Greek educational system, the Montessori method is mainly applied in preschool and primary educational contexts. The main research objective was to investigate the early mathematical competence of students aged 4-7 years old attending a Montessori…

The main purpose of this study was to examine whether the age at which children start to learn to read affects their later progress. The study was conducted in Zürich, Switzerland, and compared a first grade class in a local school with two first grade classes in a Montessori school. It was found that although the Montessori children had an…

Understanding of base 10 and place value are important foundational math concepts that are associated with higher use of decomposition strategies and higher accuracy on addition problems (Laski, Ermakova, & Vasilyeva, 2014; Fuson, 1990; Fuson & Briars, 1990; National Research Council, 2001). The current study examined base-10 knowledge,…

Elementary education has theoretical underpinnings based on cognitive psychology. Ideas from cognitive psychologists such as James, Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky coalesce to form constructivism (Cooper, 1993; Yager, 2000; Yilmaz, 2011). Among others, the Montessori Method (1912/1964) is an exemplar of constructivism. Currently, public education in…

Schools following the Montessori philosophy use individual and small-group teaching methods and hands-on, concrete materials. This study investigated the understanding of place value concepts and abilities of Montessori students by comparing interview task responses of 93 students in grades 1-3 in a Montessori school (n = 47) and in a mostly…

There are two purposes of the current study. First was to examine whether or not children in the elementary school in Taiwan who had received Montessori early childhood education obtain significantly higher scores on tests of language arts, math, and social studies than children who attended non-Montessori pre-elementary programs. Second one was…

This article describes Bob Montgomery's Famous Kindergarten First Graders! project. The aim of the project is to assist his students in learning about each other, to introduce them to digital photography using iPhoto (they participate in a group lesson in editing as well), and to introduce them to moviemaking using iMovie software. The project…

This issue features seven studies that address affective as well as academic educational outcomes. The first article incorporates teachers' perceptions of the role of technology in supporting English language learners' writing. The second article highlights results for two cohorts of young children served by an Early Reading First program at…