Montessori Education Is

Research Based

The authentic Montessori System of Education that is implemented in eight countries by the Pan American Montessori Society (PAMS) is based upon more than100 years of scientific research.  PAMS Instructors are incorporating information from contemporary brain scan and neurological research in their teacher preparation programs which confirms many of the discoveries and insights found in Dr. Maria Montessori’s original child development studies.
Over the years, PAMS Instructors have conducted research that has produced much more effective Language and Literacy Curricula for English, Spanish and French. As a consequence, children in PAMS schools where these Language programs are being implemented all learn to write and read successfully by age 6.  PAMS bilingual programs are also research based resulting in hundreds of children learning to speak, write and read in two languages.

It is Widespread

The Montessori System of Education has been successfully implemented in over 22,000 schools in more than 100 countries, cultures and languages. In the U.S. alone, there are over 100 training centers and more than 5,000 private and public Montessori Schools.  The Montessori Community of Interest in the U.S. now numbers well over one million parents, teachers and children.

It is Scientific

The historical record makes it clear that Dr. Maria Montessori did not “invent a method.”  She was a medical doctor, a scientist who was accustomed to using the Scientific Method.  After observing children scientifically, she postulated an hypothesis and conducted carefully designed experiments with children.  Those scientific experiments produced proof that the traditional approach to education does not respond appropriately to how children actually develop and learn.
For more than 150 years, the traditional teacher-centered classroom has required its students to be totally subservient to the teacher, who is always in control. Most of the activity is imposed upon an entire group of children by the teacher, whether or not it is developmentally appropriate for each of them and there is precious little material with which the children can work to further their own education.  In that process, the students are permitted little or no initiative in pursuing their own education based upon their individual needs. As a consequence, today, millions of students are leaving school unprepared for college, for work, or for the many demands of adulthood.
An Authentic Montessori Program implements the 8 Evidence-Based Principles for Optimal Education identified by the research of Angeline Stoll Lillard of the University of Virginia.[1] Please click here to see Dr. Lillard’s landmark research.

It is Informed by Congruent Research

The PAMS Montessori System of Education is also informed by the research of other outstanding scientists and educators:

[1] Lillard, Angeline Stoll, 2005. Montessori: The science behind the genius. New York N.Y., Oxford University Press.