By: Elizabeth Silva and Gaby Mena

Born in Ancona, Italy in Originally wanted to be an engineer. Wanted to enter medical school, and achieved to do so, even despite the head of the board’s dispute. Graduated from the university of Rome in 1896 as Italy’s first female physician. Worked at psychiatric institution, orthophrenic school, and at the University of Rome before starting Casa dei Bambini in Died 1952

Sensitive Periods Free Choice Child’s choices lead development Structured choice Constructive Activity Limited choice Materials Correct size Attractive Gradual learning

Concentration Normalization Good behavior Self –regulation

When given the choice to pick an academic activity, and allowed to work independently for 8—10 minutes, will children be less willing to take a break than those whose academic activity is picked out for them?

Yes. We believe that the children with free choice will be less likely to want a break than those whose academic activity is picked out for them.

Holy Family of Nazareth Wednesday 4 December :20 a.m.—12:00 p.m. *5 tables *12 Kindergarteners * (6) Montessori materials Circular animal puzzle Bow-tying frame A mystery bag Moveable alphabet letters Movable numbers with counters Tangram shapes

Tested Montessori’s free choice theory in the following way: We worked with three groups of children at different times. The first group had 5 children, the second had 4, and the last group had 3 (12 children total). First we asked the children 2 pre-questions. Then the child was either assigned a Montessori task to complete or given the freedom to choose one. We gave them about 10 minutes to work independently & recorded their activity. We asked them in between the time limit if they wanted to take a break from their work & recorded their response. Then we asked them 3 post-questions & allowed them to go back to their classroom.

Experimental Group (A) Allow children to choose the task they want to work with. Control Group (B) Assigned a particular task to complete.

P RE QUESTIONS 1. What do you like most in school? What’s your favorite thing to do? Do you like reading and writing? Math? 2. What kind of toys do you like?

Student group/ Number Pre-question 1: What do you like most about school? Pre-question 2: What toys do you like? A1 countersMathTransformers/cars A2 puzzleDrawing/writingTrain/cars A3 mystery bagPlaygroundCars A4 tangramsBlocks/countingMakeup/barbies A5 puzzleBlocks/playgroundDinosaurs A6 countersCounter boardJack-in-box/horse/cow/ everything B1 tangramsWritingTrain/planes B2 alphabetEverythingSoccer/transformers B3 alphabetBlocksShooting B4 countersBlocksMario kart/shooting B5 alphabetWritingHorses B6 mystery bagWritingBlocks

*Would you like to take a break? Why did you/ did you not want to take a break? Did you like your activity?

Student group/ Number Post-question 1: Would you like to take a break? Post-question 2: Why did/didn’t you want a break? Post-question 3: Did you like the activity? A1 countersNo“Because I didn’t want to.”Yes A2 puzzleNo“I wasn’t tired. I love puzzles.”Yes A3 mystery bagNo“I wasn’t tired”Yes A4 tangramsNo“I wanted to keep building shapes.” Yes A5 puzzleNo“I wanted to play again”Yes A6 countersNo/later Yes “I was done.” Yes B1 tangramsNo“Because I liked that.”Yes B2 alphabet Yes “I don’t know”Liked it* B3 alphabetNo“B/c I like doing my letters. My mommy wants me to grow up to go to my sisters school.” Yes* B4 counters Yes“Because I finished.” “I liked it a lot.” B5 alphabet Yes “Because my arms were getting tired.” “a lot” B6 mystery bag Yes“Because I was done.” “yes, a lot”

Student group/ Number BreakWhy/Why not he/she wanted to take a break Observations: A1 countersNo“Because I didn’t want to.”Concentrated/working diligently after we showed him how to use the tangrams A2 puzzleNo“I wasn’t tired. I love puzzles.”Concentrated/working A3 mystery bagNo“I wasn’t tired”Worked, although he didn’t seem to know what he was doing “This is getting boring” A4 tangramsNo“I wanted to keep building shapes.”Concentrated/working A5 puzzleNo“I wanted to play again”Concentrated/working A6 countersNo/Yes “I was done.” Determined/ Concentrated B1 tangramsNo“Because I liked that.”Somewhat distracted but worked eventually B2 alphabet Yes “I don’t know”Disinterested “This is taking a long time.” B3 alphabetNo“B/c I like doing my letters. My mommy wants me to grow up to go to my sisters school.” Tried to work but became increasingly disinterested. Kept talking. B4 counters Yes“Because I finished.” Distracted after a while B5 alphabet Yes “Because my arms were getting tired.”Very disinterested *body language B6 mystery bag Yes“Because I was done.” Didn’t seem to understand.

Based on our data, our hypothesis was proved : children with free choice are less willing to take a break than those who were assigned an activity. Children who got to choose their activity were more concentrated on their work. More likely to say that they were “done” if they did take a break. (which fulfills what Montessori says about individual work: that when children are satisfied with their work they will stop on their own.) Children who were assigned an activity were distracted and got bored easily. Most of them took a break (4/6).

We were only able to work with 1 kindergarten class, when we initially wanted 2. Some children wanted to work on the same things. Not sure how honest the children really were. Amount of time (perhaps). Experiment with one child at a time to prevent more than one child wanting to work with the same thing. Could have employed randomization. Furthermore, hide the extra materials when we needed to assign only one of them to a child. Limitations How could we improve this study?

W ORKS CITED Theories of Development by William Crain The Montessori Controversy by John Chattin McNichols Maria Montessori, Her Life and Work by E.M. Standing. The Discovery of the Child by Maria Montessori The Absorbent Mind by Maria Montessori Montessori, The Science Behind the Genius by Angeline Lillard montessori-mafioso/ ontessori