Montessori education is distinct for its implementation in 154 countries around the world. Lacking a Montessori trademark or comprehensive overseeing body, the expansion of the Montessori approach has often been diffuse and fragmented among competing organizations. The absence of centralized, accurate, and consistent accounting has made it…

The transition to distance learning in the spring of 2020 caused by COVID-19 was particularly challenging for Montessori educators and students because key elements of the Method were not directly transferable to this new and hastily designed format. Hands-on learning with Montessori materials and learning in a community, as well as careful…

Becoming a competent Montessori Elementary guide is a complex process, so we are developing the Montessori Coaching Tool Elementary (MCT-EL) rubric to describe teaching-practice expectations for self-reflection and formative feedback during the critical early period in a teacher's development. The purpose of this article is to share results from a…

This study offers a contextualized understanding of the distance-learning experiences of Montessori educators and students in the spring of 2020 in the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic. In this article, we build on results reported in a separate article published in this issue of the "Journal of Montessori Research." First, we…

Maria Montessori was one of Italy's first female physicians, and she developed a groundbreaking educational method based on astute observation of children's behavior while working in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Rome (Gutek 2004; Kramer 1988). As someone who witnessed the extent of injustice experienced by poor women and children…

Montessori schooling in Kansas City, Missouri emerged during a time of considerable conflict and legal turmoil within the public educational system. Indeed, the Kansas City, Missouri School District was in the midst of a decades-long struggle for racial, social, and educational equity resulting in a 2 billion dollar court case when the first…

Researchers who study any intervention must rule out potential alternative explanations for their results by establishing that the program being investigated is implemented with fidelity. Various instructional practices are attributed to the Montessori Method because the term is not legally protected, meaning any school can say it is Montessori…

Manipulatives are ubiquitous in early childhood classrooms; yet, findings regarding their efficacy for learning mathematics concepts are inconsistent. In this article, we present four general principles that have emerged from cognitive science about ways to ensure that manipulatives promote learning when used with young children. We also describe…