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A Montessori curriculum contains these elements as essential elements:

  • Mixed age classrooms, with classrooms for children aged 2½ or 3 to 6 years old by far the most common
  • Student choice of activity from within a prescribed range of options
  • Uninterrupted blocks of work time, ideally three hours
  • A Constructivist or "discovery" model, where students learn concepts from working with materials, rather than by direct instruction
  • Specialized educational materials developed by Montessori and her collaborators
  • Freedom of movement within the classroom
  • A trained Montessori teacher

I have often seen the claim being made that the Montessori curriculum better prepares children for school and that the children tend to do better. Where I live, that perception definitely holds amongst the parents in the area.

At the same time, Montessori daycares are more expensive and are therefore attended by children of more wealthy and involved parents.

Are there any good, verifiable sources that avoid selection biases and can either verify or dispute that claim?

Sam I Am
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MrFox
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  • @Sancho I would hope that there are, considering that educational research is a real bona-fide field. However, my question does leave open the door for a "No, there are no good sources" kind of an answer provided that it's supported by something. – MrFox Aug 21 '13 at 16:02
  • are you using the term "daycare" to distinguish from pre-K and elementary Montessori? – Abe Aug 21 '13 at 20:04
  • @Abe "Daycare" and "pre-K" are [usually the same thing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education#Ages_three_to_six). And, not "elementary" because part of the questioned claim is, "prepares children for school" (therefore it's pre-school). – ChrisW Aug 21 '13 at 21:47
  • Isn't preschool always optional, not provided by the state, and for-fee? If so then how could a study exclude 'selection bias', if by that you mean, "a self-selecting group of parents"? – ChrisW Aug 22 '13 at 10:55
  • @ChrisW There might be some internationalization issues there. In the United States "daycare" and "pre-k" are two different things. "Daycare" would someplace you could leave a child for a day to be minded, but the age could be anywhere from months old, to a teenager, while "pre-k" is structured education at school that is before kindergarden. – rjzii Aug 22 '13 at 13:18
  • @rob There might be, yes. In Canada (or in Ontario at least) a professional, licensed "day care" or "pre-school" may include infants, toddlers, and pre-kinder-garden (not to mention a late-afternoon after-school). What I was saying to Abe is that, in Montessori they deliberately mix the ages of children in the room, so that for example 3-to-6-year-olds would all be the same class-room: that (the Montessori context) is why I said, "the same thing". – ChrisW Aug 22 '13 at 13:34
  • @ChrisW As per your comment regarding seletion biases - my undertanding is that in Europe day care is mostly state sponsored. I'm thinking it should be possible to control for parent incomes/background and have a study based on European data. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's part of the question. – MrFox Aug 22 '13 at 13:41
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    Where's the **notable** claim here? – 410 gone Aug 22 '13 at 19:05
  • @EnergyNumbers Something like [Children at Montessori Schools Are Better Educated](http://montessorischools.org/blog/children-at-montessori-schools-are-better-educated/) might serve a claim. It might also (I haven't looked at it) be a bit of an answer, because it says, "`Parents won places for their children at the unnamed Montessori school by entering a ‘lottery’ run by the local education department.`" – ChrisW Aug 22 '13 at 19:39
  • @EnergyNumbers I just asked [Must every questioned 'notable claim' include a referenced citation with a quote?](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/q/2497/2703) on Meta. – ChrisW Aug 23 '13 at 16:27
  • One "Off-Topic" close reason says, "Questions regarding claims that are not widely heard or read are off-topic." I can believe that a claim, especially an implicit claim, about Montessori is widely heard or believed. My problem is that, with no citation, I don't know what the claim in question is. For example a more usual Montessori claim might be that it's developmentally age-appropriate, and not that it better-prepares children for subsequent schools or "leads to higher educational achievement". Given you have "often seen the claim being made", I hope you will be able to reference/quote one. – ChrisW Aug 25 '13 at 12:29

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