Date of Award
5-2017
Document Type
Action Research Project
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Education
Department
Education, Montessori
First Advisor
Karen Anway
Department/School
Montessori Early Childhood
Abstract
The study aimed to determine in what way daily grace and courtesy lessons and more thoughtful, consistent adult intervention would affect children’s responses to conflict in an early childhood Montessori environment. There were 17 participants between the ages of three and six in an independent Montessori school in Northern Michigan. The researcher gave the children daily lessons on aspects of conflict resolution, used a scripted intervention strategy during conflict, and implemented three guided discussions throughout the course of the study. The researcher collected data by tallying number of conflicts, recording responses during guided discussions, recording details and language of each conflict, and reflecting in a journal. The study revealed that children knew many conflict resolution strategies before beginning the intervention, but they used more language from the lessons after the intervention and solved more conflicts independently. The number of conflicts decreased overall but did not consistency decline. The data shows further research is needed to support children to calm down before attempting to apply conflict resolution strategies and to determine the most effective waiting time before teacher intervention.
Recommended Citation
Andrews, Megan C.. (2017). Supporting Conflict Resolution in an Early Childhood Montessori Environment. Retrieved from Sophia, the St. Catherine University repository website: https://sophia.stkate.edu/maed/206