GIVE YOUR CHILD THE WORLD!

Be part of the Kiddie Toes Montessori School Family!

Our elementary level follows the Progressive Education Method. We also use the Singapore Math Curriculum.

The Progressive Education’s main objective is to educate the "whole child" (physical, emotional and intellectual)

Qualities:
• Emphasis on learning by doing (experiential learning)
• Integrated curriculum focused on thematic units
• Strong emphasis on problem solving and critical thinking
• Group work and development of social skills
• Collaborative and cooperative learning projects
• Education for social responsibility and democracy
• Integration of community service and service learning projects into the daily curriculum
• Selection of subject content by looking forward to ask what skills will be needed in future society
• De-emphasis on textbooks in favor of varied learning resources
• Emphasis on life-long learning and social skills

School facilities

- Airconditioned classrooms
- Highly qualified Teachers
- Imported learning materials
- English as the medium of instruction
- Spacious play area
- Ideally located in the center of the city
- Comfortable waiting area

Monday, May 24, 2010

Montessori Schools Foster Social and Academic Skills

Researchers Report in Science

One of the first studies to scientifically test the impact of Montessori education suggests that Montessori schools can foster social and academic skills that are equal or superior to those in certain other types of schools, the authors report in the 29 September 2006 issue of the journal Science, published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.

Montessori education takes a different approach from the traditional by employing multi- age classrooms, student-chosen work in long time blocks, the absence of grades and tests and a special set of educational materials.

Angeline Lillard of the University of Virginia and Nicole Else-Quest of the University of Wisconsin, Madison studied two groups of five- and 12-year-old students in Milwaukee, Wis. The results indicated that by the end of kindergarten, the Montessori children performed better on reading and math tests, as measured using the Woodcock-Johnson Test Battery that assesses letter-word identification, word attack and applied math problems.

Montessori students also engaged in more positive interaction on the playground and showed more advanced social cognition and executive control. They also demonstrated more concern with fairness and justice.

The Montessori 12-year-olds wrote more creative and sophisticated narratives, performed better on a test of social skills, and reported feeling a stronger sense of community at their schools, the authors said.

"Inner-city children who attended a well-implemented Montessori program were found to have social outcomes that were superior to those of children attending traditional schools," said Lillard."And they had academic outcomes that were at least as good on all measures, and on several measures were better," she added.

The parents of the students in the study had average incomes ranging from $20,000 to $50,000 annually. All parents entered their children in the school district's random lottery for the Montessori school. The Montessori group attended a public, inner-city, traditional Montessori school. The control group attended another school because they were not selected in the district lottery.

Lillard was drawn to study Montessori education by its close alignment with research on learning."I decided to do a study to see if it actually makes a difference," Lillard said. Usually parents are the major influence in a child’s social skills but this research shows Montessori education fosters improved social and academic skills, Lillard explained.
Funding was provided by the Jacobs and Cantus Foundations and sabbatical fellowships from the Cattell Foundation and the University of Virginia.

Tunisia Riley
29 September 2006
Source: http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2006/0929montessori.shtml

1 comment:

CoffeeShopBloggers said...

I really like the Singapore Math curriculum and use it to supplement my kids' math at school. I blog on it at http://www.pragmaticmom.com/?page_id=1927

I also like and use Daily Word Problems and Life of Fred. More details on my blog.

Pragmatic Mom
Type A Parenting for the Modern World

http://PragmaticMom.com
I blog on education, parenting and children's lit