Angeline Stoll Lillard
How Can We Help Our Children? Results from the First National RCT of Public Montessori Preschool Outcomes
Although there have been many studies of Montessori education, most have involved only 1-2 schools; while results are largely positive, those schools might just be especially good ones. A new study of 24 schools across the US enrolled 588 children and used an intention-to-treat randomized design to see if the outcomes of children who were randomly admitted to public Montessori schools at age 3 by a lottery (because the schools were oversubscribed) differed in end-of-kindergartent (ages 5-6) outcomes from those who were not admitted. The results of this study will be presented.
AUDIO VERSION
Angeline Stoll Lillard
Angeline S. Lillard is the Commonwealth Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia where she directs the Early Development Laboratory and the Montessori Science Program; her research focuses on children's play and Montessori education. She is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science, and Chief Editor of Frontiers in Developmental Psychology. She received her PhD in Psychology from Stanford University in 1991, and the American Psychological Association's Boyd McCandless Award for her early career contributions to Developmental Science. Her book "Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius" (Oxford University Press) received the Cognitive Development Society Book Award, is translated into several languages, and is currently in its 3rd edition. She has been keynote speaker at dozens of Psychology and Montessori conferences worldwide. Her research has been funded by the Institutes of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and many private foundations. Her new book "The Montessori Difference: Considering the Evidence" will be out later this year from Oxford University Press.
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Thank you, Angellina for sharing your study results. Interesting that schools can use the word Montessori just by doing something Montessori. I really enjoyed hearing about the materials that Montessori made years ago and still being used today for self-correction and the brain development.
Also, you mention observation, based standard, passable, Montessori cost less and the study will continue to get more feedback.