Autonomy Support in Montessori Education

• In Event: Facilitating Student and Teacher Outcomes by Supporting Autonomy: Innovations and Implementation in the Field

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this presentation will be to discuss the role of autonomy support in Montessori education and briefly review evidence regarding the outcomes of autonomy support within Montessori education.

Theoretical Framework
Montessori is the most enduring and highly represented alternative to conventional school. One of the hallmarks of Montessori education is self-determination. Many features of Montessori education support, reinforce, or stem from that premise (Lillard, 2019). Indeed, Dr. Montessori believed that self-chosen work would be better attuned to children’s developmental needs than teacher work choices because—as research now suggests (Kidd, Piantadosi, & Aslin, 2012, 2014)— in the absence of extrinsic motivators, children gravitate towards activities in their zone of proximal development that they are on the verge of being able to do.

Techniques
In a Montessori classroom, all the activities are available, and children choose what they feel impelled to work on. This kind of autonomy requires certain supports which Montessori education provides. For one, if such a system is to work, it must be highly ordered and organized, a feature of Montessori classrooms and activities. Second, the work must be very interesting or children would not engage with it. It is: the materials were experimentally developed to captivate attention. Third, at times a teacher needs to provide direction to children—yet if relations were bad, children might not listen to the teacher. Dr. Montessori counselled teachers to behave towards children in ways that give appropriate structure with emotional warmth and sensitivity to create genuine bonds, whereby children want to please their teachers. Finally, to truly have autonomous learning, there cannot be extrinsic motivators. Research shows that extrinsic motivators mitigate feelings of self-determination, and interfere with choices that stem from internal drives. In Montessori classrooms the materials are self-directing.

Review of Evidence, Arguments, and Substantiated Conclusions
These autonomous features have certain sequelae as well, borne out in empirical evidence. Because the self-chosen work is very interesting, children concentrate for long periods of time (Becker, 2019), developing executive function (Lillard & Else-Quest, 2006; Lillard et al., 2017). Since children have a strong desire to be with peers, especially after age 6, one sees a great deal of self-chosen group work in Montessori elementary and adolescent programs. Self-determination thus leads to group work.

Many studies, more importantly ones that use lottery-waitlist controls (Lillard & Else-Quest, 2006; Lillard et al., 2017) show that high fidelity Montessori has superior outcomes both in terms of academic skills and “soft” skills like executive function and social competence. Children in Montessori report having more positive feelings toward school (Lillard & Else-Quest, 2006; Lillard et al., 2017; Rathunde & Csikzentmihalyi, 2005ab). And finally, recent studies of long term outcomes (ages 18 to 70) will be presented to show that Montessori graduates (controlling for childhood SES and private schooling) thrive relative to conventionally schooled peers.

Scholarly Significance
This presentation will help researchers and practitioners to understand the use of autonomy supports within Montessori and their sequelae and briefly review evidence regarding the system’s outcomes.

Author

• Angeline S Lillard, University of Virginia