I did some graduate work in Montessori and observed its use in pre-schools (70's). I was impressed by nuance that Montessori's materials-based affordances for development lent to the supposedly ordinary act of play, especially 2 year-olds cleaning, say, a table top....
A new longitudinal study from the University of Virginia has been published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology comparing the Montessori educational method to regular preschool education. The results show marked differences between the two approaches, with the Montessori education leading to better performance on several measures and, importantly, to more equalized outcomes between groups of children coming from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
The Montessori method was developed by Dr. Maria Montessori in the first half of the 20th century and stemmed from Montessori’s observations on how children developped in their natural environment. Central to the method is creating an environment with specialized educational materials in which the child learns through discovery rather than direct instruction and is free to make constructive choices.
Some major differences from regular schooling methods are lack of exams and grades as well as a multi-age classroom in which children can choose whether to work alone or with peers. Sergei Brin, Larry Page, Jeff Bezos, and Jimmy Wales have all attended Montessori schools, which are thought to be better at developing creativity.
The newly published study is one of few on the Montessori method that has overcome study limitations like good controls, sample sizes and program quality. It lasted for three years, and included a total of 141 children (starting at age 3) who were randomly assigned via a school lottery to a Montessori (70) or another preschool (71).
Although there were no differences between the two groups at the first test point, by the end of the third year Montessori children fared significantly better on measures of academic achievement and social cognition, were more likely to have a growth mindset (a belief that intelligence is not fixed and one can master new challenges by putting effort into developing new abilities) and had a relatively more positive attitude towards school activities. There were no significant differences between the two groups on measures of creativity or executive function.