Research in Education

Groundbreaking cognitive neuroscience research has occurred over the last 20 years – without parallel growth of consumer awareness and appropriate professional dissemination. “Cognition” remains an elusive concept with unclear implications outside the research community.

Earlier this year, I presented a talk to health care professionals at the New York Academy of Medicine, titled “Brain Fitness Software: Helping Consumers Separate Hope from Hype”. I explained what computerized cognitive assessment and training tools can do (assess/enhance specific cognitive functions), what they cannot do (reduce one’s “brain age”) and the current uncertainties about what they can do (i.e., delay Alzheimer’s symptoms). At the same symposium, Dr. Gary Kennedy, Director of Geriatric Psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center, provided guidance on why and how to screen for executive function deficits in the context of dementia.

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The University of Virginia conducted a variety of studies on academic performance, social skills, behavioral tendencies and psychological norms of Montessori students who were five and twelve years of age. They then did comparable research on non-Montessori school children of the same ages. The study was recently published in the academic journal Science by Dr Angeline Lillard, one of the university’s professors of psychology at their Charlottesville campus. The results of the study lead to surprising headlines on mainstream media sources such as the Guardian in the United Kingdom and CBS in the United States.

In brief, the Montessori Method was developed over nearly four decades by the education and psychology specialist Maria Montessori. Her research and implementation of what is now the Montessori Method started at the beginning of the 20th century and has continued to be implemented in its purist forms and in other cases contextually adapted to meet social and cultural norms. The core principles stay the same regardless of contextualization though. First and foremost, the student is provided a safe and stimulating environment where they are granted the authority to follow their natural instinct to gravitate towards wanting to learn. Teachers guide students through the self-directed learning process and play the role as the facilitator and observer more so than the traditional teacher model. Sharing, fairness and inter-age socialization are encouraged while the system downplays the need for competition and stress in the classroom. Testing and grading is not a standard within the original methodology, but in countries such as the United States, children do complete the national standard exams. The culture of a Montessori school is sharply different than non-Montessori schools but the goal of educating the students is the same. But which is more effective?

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