Middle School Planning

“A Comparison of Montessori and Traditional Middle Schools:Motivation, Quality of Experience, and Social Context”

Montessori practitioners and parents have long recognized the important but intangible benefits of the child’s Montessori experience. Recently, researcher Kevin Rathunde published groundbreaking research results that for the first time verify these benefits through scientific and statistical research. Deborah Gilbert, Ph.D., a QAMS parent and member of our Middle School Planning Committee, summarized Dr. Rathunde’s research. Excerpts of her summary are presented below, CLICK HERE for the full version

Background and Study Design

Dr. Rathunde is an Associate Professor at the University of Utah. His research focuses on adolescent development in the family and the role of interest in education and lifelong learning. He is not a member of the Montessori community.

Dr. Rathunde studied five Montessori schools that included 150 students in the 6th and 8th grades. compared 150 6th and 8th grade Montessori students to 160 6th and 8th grade students from traditional middle schools. Both groups were “matched” in terms of parent education, ethnicity, parental employment, socioeconomic family resources, parental involvement, number of siblings, number of intact homes, and similar grades.

The data collection included a method called the Experience Sampling Method. The students were given programmed watches that signaled them approximately 8 times a day between the hours of 7:30 am and 10:30 pm for 7 consecutive days. When the watches beeped, the students took out response forms and answered that measured the following variables:

1) affect (general mood or happiness);

2) potency (energy level or excitement);

3) salience (feelings of importance);

4) intrinsic motivation (sense of enjoyment and interest);

5) flow (optimal level of challenge and skill); and

6) undivided interest (enjoyment and importance come together).

Results

The statistical analysis revealed that there were strong differences between the Montessori and Traditional students. The differences included:

1) Montessori students reported a significantly better quality of experience in academic work than the traditional students,

2) Montessori students appeared to feel more active, strong, excited, happy, relaxed, sociable, and proud while engaged in academic work,

3) Montessori students enjoyed themselves more, they were more interested in what they were doing, and they wanted to be doing academic work more than the traditional students,

4) Montessori students reported significantly higher percentages of undivided interest, higher motivation and higher levels of importance with regard to school work,

5) Montessori students reported more conditions where the challenges and skills used while doing academic work were above average.

Discussion

Why are these results important?

First, the results address a problem of traditional middle school where the focus is on performance goals in such a manner that the importance of intrinsic motivation is undermined. The developmental and psychological needs of the adolescent are emphasized and valued in Montessori education; thus middle school students are more engaged in the educational process and this results in higher levels of achievement.

Other research studies have shown that high skill, high challenge, motivation, and intrinsic motivation (all qualities found to be highest in the Montessori students) predict superior talent development in adolescent students.