Montessori pedagogy: does it make children happier?

Does learning in a Montessori school provide long-term benefits for a child? This is what the authors of EssayMap online paper writing service decided to investigate. The Montessori school has both ardent fans and critics. The latter believe that students need to be guided, driven, given a common basis for all, and Montessori pedagogy does not include an active role of the teacher. 

How does well-being depend on the school?

Only two million families in the world chose this system of education. Pedagogy was developed by Italian educator Maria Montessori over a hundred years ago. The basis of Montessori education is the emphasis on the child's interest in a certain activity. It is believed that the baby feels his/her "growth zone", his/her curiosity pushes him/her to those tasks which he/she can already do, but not too simple, develop. The pupil finds a variety of activities in a specially prepared learning environment. The teacher does not conduct classes, but advises if necessary, and thus the child is self-taught.

For the study, they invited 2010 adults of different ages and asked them to take a series of surveys about well-being and psychological comfort. Researchers compared the results of surveys of those who had been in the Montessori system during their school years with a control group - those who attended traditional schools. Although the researchers admit they weren't hoping for a definitive result, the findings were striking. All of the people who learned from the Montessori system felt more resilient and psychologically healthy than the rest of those surveyed. Researchers took into account the obvious factors that affect well-being: age, race, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. But the trend still persisted.

And that's not all! Other patterns were also found. The longer a child attended a Montessori school, the higher his level of well-being. If only private school graduates were taken, the "Montessorians" among them still had more wealth. Even people who had studied only three years in this alternative pedagogical system as children felt much better off than they did after a traditional education.

Better essays, math, and cooperative play

Observations and experiments conducted under the supervision of a professor indicate the success of students in Montessori schools compared to their peers in traditional schools. Children in the elementary grades read better, write more creative essays, do better in math assignments, have a better sense of community, and play more and more cooperatively at recess. Another study proves higher achievement in science.

The most recent of these studies consisted of observing students for three years and four tests. Montessori school students outperformed their peers in learning motivation, mastery orientation, and social responsibility.

Other alternative methodologies, such as Waldorf schools and Dalton schools, were also tested, but the results were uneven and partially unsatisfactory. For example, Waldorf elementary school students were significantly behind in spelling and mathematics, but they had better knowledge of the world around them compared to students in traditional schools.

Centuries-old but modern.

So, Montessori pedagogy is superior to traditional teaching methods, especially in terms of the long-term psychological health and well-being of students. And this is important, because the goal of school is not preparation for university, not the sum of knowledge and skills, but distant results. A sense of happiness, prosperity, and psychological comfort makes people more productive in their work and creativity, as well as more socially active.

So why is this particular pedagogy recognized as effective? Researchers suggest that the Montessori curriculum increases children's well-being because it teaches them self-learning, proactivity, and cohesion.

Professional research paper writing service, Montessori's ideas are in tune with modern innovations: learning is student-centered, not teacher-centered, classes develop all skills. The Montessori system has the greatest effect on children who learn the worst in traditional schools. Consequently, this pedagogy can really be a "social elevator" for students. There are free public Montessori schools, although they are few in number. Educating children of diverse backgrounds there directs them toward social success and well-being.

Check pleasure and stress hormones

An important point: the accuracy of the educational concept. After all, there are schools where Montessori is just the name, but in fact there are only special materials, and the teaching methodology is traditional and even outdated. One study took into account the accuracy of the Montessori program. Children in a school with high compliance showed significantly greater gains in performance measures than those in a school with average compliance. And where the accuracy of Montessori pedagogy implementation was low, children performed worse in reading than students in public schools. So it's important to keep this point in mind.

Researchers believe that there will not be an explosion in the popularity of Montessori schools, because parents have to step out of their comfort zone if their child goes to such an institution. These students are more critical, they want to have a choice from childhood, they learn to assert their personal boundaries, and they do not resemble obedient and submissive children.

Psychologists have two more studies planned on this topic.

They want to test, in a long-term experiment, from the first to the last grade, how students feel psychologically comfortable and how these indicators change over the years in different types of schools. In addition to subjective feelings, they will test biomarkers such as blood levels of oxytocin (the pleasure hormone) and cortisol (the stress hormone).

In addition to well-being levels, former Montessori school graduates scored higher on the Intelligence scale of the Five Factor Personality Questionnaire. Researchers plan to test what influenced this score: the alternative school environment or the children's high level of openness initially. After all, these are the kinds of children who are more energetic and need unconventional approaches to be enrolled in Montessori schools.