The design challenge of this project was to create an engaging environment for learning; one that through its architecture, encourages discovery, sensory and intellectual development and stewardship of the environment. This school seeks to embody the Montessori ideal of "structure and freedom". Through the design process, an "architecture of opposites" emerged — edges and endings, light and dark, solid and transparent, quiet and noise, city and nature, bridge and barrier. It is this struggle between opposing forces that creates a dynamic environment. A site at the intersection of P and 26th Streets in Georgetown on the western edge of Rock Creek Park was chosen for the project because of its nature as a haven within an urban context. / Master of Architecture

Universiẗat, Diss--Münster (Westfalen), 2007.

This study examines processes connected to teacher’s transformation of the Montessori theory and it's described application to a daily practice.  The aim is to create knowledge about what constitutes possibilities and limitations for teachers in their daily work with Montessori education. This does not only refer to what constitutes opportunities and limitations in teachers'  everyday work with teaching, but also to what constitutes opportunities and limitations for teachers to learn at work. The theoretical framework is based on action theory and theories on adult learning and connects to a tradition called workplace-learning in which learning is considered to take place in, but also between, individuals. This approach indicates that the contextual conditions which the teachers were imbedded in are important to identify. The study was conducted in four different Montessori-environments and involved nine Montessori teachers. The methods used were participant observation, interviews, informal conversations and review of teacher produced material and documents. Possibilities and limitations in teachers work were related to if they had access to Montessori materials or not. In work with Montessori materials teachers identified the children's abilities to a greater extent than they did when other materials were in use. This identification directed their interventions. When the teachers did not have access to Montessori material their method often appeared to be the same as “individual work” with the provided material. Furthermore, interventions of the teacher were then significantly often procedural rather than content-related, although the teachers clearly expressed that they wanted to go into a dialogue with children about the treated subject area. The survey therefore contradicts with the opinion that Montessori-teachers withdraw in favor of Montessori materials that sometimes has been brought up by interpreters of the pedagogy. Rather, teachers stepped back when other materials were in use. The study also shows how a prerequisite for a collective development-oriented learning among the teachers was dependent on whether teachers made their own private understanding of the pedagogy available to each other. At times, however, teachers took the use of the materials for granted. Some of the teachers also deliberately refrained from making their personal understanding available to others due to the fact that they then could be seen as a less competent Montessori-teacher. This maintaining of a “false” collective understanding is seen as an expression of an institutionalization of teaching practice which was maintained by sanctions from the environment if the individual didn´t recognize the institutionalization in question. Since teacher’s “space for action” in this way was limited, the institution created conditions that prevented a possible development of the working methods in use. In those cases when conditions for a collective development-oriented learning were more favorable, it was clear that the teachers did not perceive Montessori education as a given method but rather saw it as a "model" for teaching in which the teachers had to interpret and define their own method from. The teachers thus came to take advantage of a potential “space for action” which was not noticed when the pedagogy was seen as a method.

The aim of this graduate essay is to elucidate and compare the approach to learning that emerges in texts about the two educational practices Montessori and Reggio Emilia. The guiding research questions in this study are: What do Montessori and Reggio Emilia that learning is about? The mean Montessori and Reggio Emilia that learning goes to? How do you describe the Montessori and Reggio Emilia justification why it is important to learn?  Through a poststructural theoretical framework and text analysis the study focused on what has been written about learning in the traditions of Montessori and Reggio Emilia. The results of the study indicate that both Montessori and Reggio Emilia look at the child in a similar way in which the child have the desire to explore and learn. Both pedagogy traditions think that the child will develop into independent people who can change society in the future for the better and with a democratic basis. The study also reveals how the Swedish curriculum (Skolverket, 98/10) is inspired both by the Reggio Emilia and Montessori traditions through describing how preschool should stimulate and challenge the child's development and learning, utilize and strengthen the interests of children to learn to conquer new experiences, knowledge and skills.

Zugl.: Münster (Westfalen), Univ., Diss., 1997

Universiẗat, Diss., 1997--Münster (Westfalen).

Bakgrund: Montessoripedagogiken har mest belysts för yngre åldrar och mycket fokus har lagts på det montessorimateriel som har en viktig roll inom inriktningen. För högre åldrar har det dock varit otydligt hur eller om montessoripedagogiken har kunnat tillämpas i samma utsträckning som för yngre åldrar. Syfte: Syftet med studien har varit att bringa klarhet i hur montessoripedagogiken förstås och tillämpas i undervisningen för högstadieelever. Metod: Studien har utgått från kvalitativa intervjuer med lärare och rektorer på två montessoriskolor samt från ett mindre antal klassrumsobservationer som har fungerat som stöd eller tillägg till intervjuerna. Sammanlagt intervjuades sju personer på de två skolorna. Eftersom syftet med studien inte har varit att framställa en generaliserad bild av lärares tillvägagångssätt utan snarare att visa på möjliga sätt som montessoripedagogiken tillämpas på kan detta anses tillräckligt för att skapa en ökad förståelse. Analysen har inte följt en specifik teknik utan har följt de mönster som har kunnat utläsas ur intervjusvaren. De svar som har visat sig intressanta och relevanta för studien har sedan återkopplats till den undersökta litteraturen. Resultat: Utifrån undersökning av tidigare litteratur och forskning i jämförelse med intervju och observationsresultat har vissa tendenser utmärkt sig som kan visa på montessoripedagogikens tillämpningsmöjligheter för högstadieelever. Montessoripedagogiken har bland annat visat sig kunna vara inkluderande även för barn med svårigheter eftersom man har stora möjligheter att individanpassa undervisningen. Detta stämmer väl överens med lgr11:s krav på individanpassning. Om en montessoriinriktad skola ska ha möjlighet att arbeta montessoriskt beror dock ytterst på hur väl organiseringen av och kring lektioner och arbetspass fungerar för att det friare arbetssättet ska få utrymme. Man kan också se att montessorimateriel har en ytterst liten del i arbetet med de äldre eleverna. Istället ligger fokus på att förankra elevernas kunskaper i verkligheten.

This thesis argues that the practice and discourse of Montessori education should be explicitly concerned with the creation of a culture of response rather than with the implementation of a method. It is argued that in order for a culture of response to occur there must be within Montessori discourse and practice an explicit recognition of the need for teachers to engage critically and continuously with the assumptions that underpin Montessori thought and practice. This is difficult, however, because there is a tension between Montessori as a method and Montessori as response. An attempt is made to examine Montessori discourse in order to understand the nature of this tension. This involves looking at Montessori discourse from a perspective that borrows from Poststructuralist thinking. It is suggested that in Montessori discourse there exists a relationship between certain elements of the discourse and its practices that may bind tightly together the subjectivity, or identity, of the teacher; the claims to legitimacy and truth of the discourse itself; and particular, positivist, notions of the individual, of truth, nature, change, society, and knowledge. From a Postructuralist perspective this constellation of relationships begins to unravel when Montessori discourse is seen to arise from specific beliefs and assumptions that underpin apparently common sense understandings regarding children, learning, society and change. These understandings may result in the maintenance of the dichotomy between the observer and the observed, the teacher and the child, the knower and the known and the inevitable power relations that accompany such dichotomies. This Poststructuralist concern with the issue of power is thus a significant issue for educators who are attempting to provide a learning environment that is responsive to children's diverse attempts to make sense of the world and to find a voice. A critical engagement with Montessori discourse, and practice, thus requires an engagement with the ways in which it may construct a relationship between teacher and child that may be inimical to the development of a culture of response in Montessori schools.

Syftet med studien var att få kunskap om de metoder som förskollärarna använder vid arbetet med skriv- och läsutveckling. I studien ingick sju förskolor där de ansvariga förskollärarna/barnskötarna intervjuats om sina arbetssätt samt vilka metoder det valt i sitt arbete. EASE projektets frågeställningar vad gäller språkarbetet har använts vid dessa intervjuer. Resultatet visar att det är högre frekvens av planering och dokumentation rörande skriv- och läsutvecklingen om förskolorna valt en metod för arbetet.

Syftet med detta arbete har varit att studera hur Montessoriförskolans interiör, i detta fall färger, är anpassad till barnens önskemål. Vidare har syftet varit att studera likheter och/eller skillnader mellan barnens och pedagogernas uppfattningar kring detta. Tillvägagångssättet för att studera det ovan nämnda har varit att intervjua ett visst antal barn som har sin verksamhet på en Montessoriförskola. Vidare har metoden varit att lämna enkäter till pedagogerna som arbetar på förskolan. Dessutom har jag genomfört egna observationer av hur miljön, och i synnerhet färgsättningen, sett ut.  Resultaten från barnen och pedagogerna visar att de färger som pedagogerna ser som bra färger för barnen inte alls stämmer överens med de färger som barnen verkligen vill ha. Om barnen hade fått vara med och bestämma hade färgsättningen sett annorlunda ut, detta är både barn och pedagoger överens om. Resultatet visar också att inga barn hade på ett direkt sätt fått vara delaktiga i utformandet av interiören.