The CLASS-PreK instrument is widely used to evaluate early childhood classrooms, but how classrooms using Montessori, the world's most common alternative education system, fare on CLASS is understudied. Because CLASS focuses largely on teacher-child interactions as the situs of learning, but in Montessori theory, child-environment interactions are considered more primary, Montessori classrooms may score systematically lower than conventional classrooms on CLASS. CLASS also collects format, content, and demographic information that could illuminate how Montessori classrooms compare to other classrooms. Here we used data from the first national study of public Montessori preschool to examine CLASS data in Montessori preschool classrooms as compared to a lottery-control-selected set of business-as-usual ones. Montessori classrooms (n = 54) had 50% more children on average, and significantly higher child:adult ratios (roughly 9 vs. 6) than a set of intentionally stratified control classrooms (n = 19 of 128), and CLASS scores did not differ across classroom types. Children in Montessori classrooms were observed in whole group activities during fewer cycles and in freely chosen activities during more cycles; also children were observed engaging with math content during more cycles in Montessori than in control classrooms. Counterintuitively, but consistent with Montessori theory, Montessori classrooms with larger class sizes (up to 26) had higher Emotional Support and Classroom Organization domain scores, and those with higher child:adult ratios (up to 13:1) trended towards higher Instructional Support domain scores.

中文翻译：

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当更大看起来更好时：CLASS 在公共蒙台梭利学前班的成果


CLASS-PreK 工具广泛用于评估幼儿课堂，但对使用蒙台梭利（世界上最常见的替代教育系统）的课堂在 CLASS 上的表现研究不足。由于 CLASS 主要将师生互动作为学习场所，但在蒙台梭利理论中，儿童与环境的互动被认为是更主要的，因此蒙台梭利课堂在 CLASS 上的得分可能系统性地低于传统课堂。CLASS 还收集格式、内容和人口统计信息，这些信息可以阐明蒙台梭利课堂与其他课堂的比较。在这里，我们使用了来自公立蒙台梭利学前班的第一次全国性研究的数据，以检查蒙台梭利学前班课堂的 CLASS 数据与抽签控制选择的一组正常业务相比。蒙台梭利教室 （n = 54） 的儿童平均多 50%，儿童与成人的比例（大约 9 对 6）明显高于一组有意分层的对照教室（128 个中的 n = 19），并且 CLASS 分数在不同教室类型之间没有差异。在蒙台梭利教室中，儿童在较少的周期中被观察到在整个小组活动中，在较多的周期中被观察到自由选择的活动;此外，还观察到儿童在蒙台梭利课堂中参与数学内容的周期比在对照课堂中多。与直觉相反，但与蒙台梭利理论一致，班级规模较大（最多 26 人）的蒙台梭利课堂具有较高的情感支持和课堂组织领域分数，而那些儿童与成人比例较高（高达 13：1）的课堂则倾向于更高的教学支持领域分数。