The effects of Montessori training program for mothers on mathematics and daily living skills of 4-5 year-old Montessori children

This study investigated the effects of Montessori Training Program for Mothers (MTPM) on math and daily living skills of Montessori children ages 4 to 5 years old. Sample of the study included 19 Montessori pre-schoolers (8 and 11 children in experimental and control group respectively) who enrolled at an applied kindergarten affiliated to a university at Konya in 2016-2017 school year. Verified to be a reliable and valid measure for Turkish children, two subtests – Mathematics (MATH) and Daily Living Skills (DLS) – of the Basic School Skills Inventory 3 (BSSI) were used to collect data. Tests were administered to the students as pre-test, post-test and follow-up test by their teachers. MTPM was administered to the mothers in the experimental group for 12 weeks-36 hours in total while control and experimental group children continued their Montessori education. Four weeks after the program was completed, BSSI-3-MATH and BSSI-3-DLS tests were re-administered as follow-up test. Mann Whitney U test and Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test were used for the analysis of the study data. A comparison between the post-test mean scores of the experimental and control group showed a significant difference (p <.05) in math skills favoring the experimental group; no difference was found in pre and post-test scores in daily living skills (p>0.5). No significant difference was noted between the post-test and follow-up mean scores that experimental group children obtained on BSSI-3-MATH and BSSI-3-DLS, which showed that program gains were maintained.