Examining the Effects of the Montessori Approach on Children’s Concept Acquisition

Abstract

The main purpose of this research is to examine the effect of Montessori education approach on 4-6-year-old children’s concept acquisition such as school readiness, direction/position, self/social awareness, texture/material, quantity and time/sequence. Th emethod of this research was pre-test/ post-test, experimental and control group. Pre-test/post-test was carried out to examine the effect of the Montessori education on 4-6 year- old children who are the experimental group and the control group was formed to compare the effect of Montessori education on the experimental group. Sample of research consisted of 24 children who were educated with Montessori education at Gazi University Faculty of Vocational Education Department of Child Development and Education Application Preschool and 24 children who were educated at Ankara University Application Preschool and Child Club, where MoNE’s curriculum was carried out. For children’s acquisition of concepts such as school readiness, direction/position, self/social awareness, texture/material, quantity and time/sequence Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised was used as data collecting instruments. Comparing both groups for pre-test and post-test mean score obtained from Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised results show that statistical differences were found between the experimental and the control group and these differences were in favor of the experimental group. There are differences between children who got education through Montessori approach and MoNE’s curriculum in school readiness, direction/position, self/social awareness, texture/material, quantity and time/sequence areas.