Action Research

Montessori Australia launched the Montessori Action Research Advisory (MRAC) committee in 2010. The MRAC works to build a comprehensive research framework for Montessori in both New Zealand and Australia. One of the first schemes of the Montessori Research Advisory Committee has been to initiate the first Montessori Research Workshop. The workshop was first conducted back in May 2010 and was open to all Montessori educators working with children from birth to eighteen years as well as Montessori teacher trainers. The aim of the workshop was to involve educators in classroom based research.

Participants in the research project were asked to write a research question of their own and design a small research project to explore this question. The projects were ones that could be implemented simply and effectively in their own classrooms in order to reflect critically and systematically on a single area within the curriculum, or a classroom based problem, with the goal of achieving real positive change. The results of the project have each been published in an Action Research book, which provides a summary of the action research covered in the workshop. These reports demonstrate the breadth of the potential Montessori classrooms offer teachers for pursuing both practitioner based enquiry as well as research projects that can become the basis of study towards a higher degree.