Just as the classroom guide must prepare for observation in the classroom, so too should parents prepare themselves for classroom observation. What is the purpose of their observation? What is the procedure? What should they note? What points of awareness should they keep in mind? Using the format of a letter to parents preparing to observe in a…

Laurie Ewert-Krocker emphasizes the teacher's role in nature's prepared environment. Without directing or controlling the child's work, learning spaces can be maximized for concentration by connecting the adolescent's intrinsic learning to the beauty and order of the natural world. The most artful balance is the global understanding of the…

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…

English as a Second Language (ESL) learners at the upper elementary level have struggled to demonstrate the vocabulary required to read in English at grade-level. Although multimedia technologies have demonstrated positive effects as language acquisition educational tools at the university level, it remains unclear how useful they are for language…

"Just as every child is human, every child, no matter the circumstances, deserves an education that promotes his or her development to the fullest human potential." Using Cornerstone Montessori, a public Montessori school, as a case study, Liesl Taylor sets out to show the importance and impact that the Montessori approach can have on…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a psychometric validation of a course evaluation instrument, known as a student evaluation of teaching (SET), implemented in a Montessori high school. The authors demonstrate to the Montessori community how to rigorously examine the measurement and assessment quality of instruments used within Montessori…

More than 6,000 charter schools exist in the United States, and of these 120 are Montessori charter schools. When studying charter school practices, researchers often examine issues such as performance accountability measures and effectiveness of charter school curricula. In doing so, the outcomes often overlook the challenges for teachers as they…

The Montessori method is an attractive alternative to traditional education for many parents in the United States of America and abroad (Lillard & Else-Quest, 2006). There are between 4,000 and 5,000 private Montessori programs in the United States, and thousands more internationally (American Montessori Society, 2016; Lillard &…

A learning path has been developed on system dynamical graphical modelling, integrated into the Dutch lower secondary physics curriculum. As part of the developmental research for this learning path, students' understanding of the relation structures shown in the diagrams of graphical system dynamics based models has been investigated. One of our…

Inspired by Baiba Krumins-Grazzini's interdependencies lecture at NAMTA's Portland conference, David Kahn shows the unifying structures of the program that are rooted in the natural and social sciences. Through a connective web, these sciences explore the integration of all knowledge and lead to a philosophical view of life on earth, including…

The use of homework has been a controversial topic in education for many years: what types of homework to give, how much, and how often. In previous years, Ocean Montessori School (a pseudonym), the site of this study, offered homework like that of traditional public schools, such as worksheets and rote skill practice. Feeling conflicted about the…

Pat Ludick's commentary on grace and courtesy is established by a philosophical orientation to development: Grace is oriented to the life of the interior that is consciousness and being, and courtesy moves outward to daily living where civility reflects on success with human interactions. Pat's projected grace and courtesy across the planes is…

Mary Lou Cobb gives a framework from a very practical point of view, leaning on the aspects of grace and courtesy that are fundamental and arise out of a Montessori administrative point of view. Her examples are pragmatic, such as the grace and courtesy of a greeting, of movement, as a whole-school culture, and the right use of language. She calls…

Introducing real community into the Children's House goes back to the roots of Montessori education through all-day Montessori. The all-day environment is a house where children live with a "developmental room" of Montessori materials including a living room, kitchen, dining area, bedroom, bathroom, greeting rooms, and outdoor spaces.…

Forty years ago, Peter Hanson decided to attend the 38th Indian Montessori Training Course. In this article he describes himself as a college-educated generalist who liked kids but was working for little more than minimum wage as a delivery boy. Becoming a teacher in an alternative school seemed like a good move, and a step up without…