Montessori

The Science Behind the Genius

By: Angeline Stoll Lillard

Narrated by: Chelsea Stephens

One hundred and ten years ago, Maria Montessori, the first female physician in Italy, devised a very different method of educating children, based on her observations of how they naturally learn. In Montessori, Angeline Stoll Lillard shows that science has finally caught up with Maria Montessori. Lillard presents the research behind nine insights that are foundations of Montessori education, describing how each of these insights is applied in the Montessori classroom. In listening to this book, parents and teachers alike will develop a clear understanding of what happens in a Montessori classroom and, more importantly, why it happens and why it works. Lillard explains the scientific basis for Montessori's system and the distinctions between practices in traditional, "Montessomething", and authentic Montessori education.

Furthermore, in this new edition, she presents recent studies showing evidence that this alternative to traditional schooling does indeed make a difference. Montessori is indispensable for anyone interested in teaching, training, or considering Montessori schooling, in developmental psychology, or in understanding about human learning and education overall.

©2005, 2007, 2017 Oxford University Press (P)2020 Tantor

Excellent overview… story to continue

Montessori focuses on hand on understanding of our world. An absolutely must for a successful foundation in life. However, this foundation requires opportunities to thrive beyond a foundation. In an analogy, video gaming should be discouraged for our children, unless the goal is to understand how games are designed, instead of being a user or player of the games. Instead of using 3-D printers, primary students can learn how to assemble a 3-D printer. An excellent Montessori education without opportunities to thrive is a major obstacle to sustained growth of the pedagogy. Yes, we know the founders of Google and amazon are among the Montessori alumni community, we need to correlate this alumni community to greater opportunities for all Montessorians. The challenge is: where will these opportunities come from?

It's a wonderful read!

I wish some of the figures for viewing but overall, it's a great book. I recommend this for those who are interested in different educational methods.

Scientific, deep, and evidence-based review.

Scientific, deep, and evidence-based review of principles of learning and application of Montessori education.

Few factual statements made

I wanted to read something that gave the info from evidence based practices. I am a teacher and am a huge data freak so I was excited to hear all the details as we're doing Montessori at home and intending to send our son to a Montessori school. This data here is weak; case studies are small and not representative of the population. One compares Montessori education to Head Start, the issue here is the obvious difference of economic standing, parent education, and access to resources. Head Start is a federal program for at risk children. These are not comparable programs! Mind blowing. The information shared and correlations made are laughable. Very disappointing.