Beyond executive functions, creativity skills benefit academic outcomes: Insights from Montessori education

Abstract

Studies have shown scholastic, creative, and social benefits of Montessori education, benefits that were hypothesized to result from better executive functioning on the part of those so educated. As these previous studies have not reported consistent outcomes supporting this idea, we therefore evaluated scholastic development in a cross-sectional study of kindergarten and elementary school-age students, with an emphasis on the three core executive measures of cognitive flexibility, working memory update, and selective attention (inhibition). Two hundred and one (201) children underwent a complete assessment: half of the participants were from Montessori settings, while the other half were controls from traditional schools. The results confirmed that Montessori participants outperformed peers from traditional schools both in academic outcomes and in creativity skills across age groups and in self-reported well-being at school at kindergarten age. No differences were found in global executive functions, except working memory. Moreover, a multiple mediations model revealed a significant impact of creative skills on academic outcomes influenced by the school experience. These results shed light on the possibly overestimated contribution of executive functions as the main contributor to scholastic success of Montessori students and call for further investigation. Here, we propose that Montessori school-age children benefit instead from a more balanced development stemming from self-directed creative execution.

Fig 1. Multiple mediation model (according to [31]) for the indirect effect of children’s school system (Montessori vs. traditional) via multiple mediators (executive functions, well-being at school, and creativity skills) on academic outcomes.

The only significant (z > 2) indirect mediation effect on academic outcomes was creativity skills in Montessori schoolchildren (green path). The standardized solution coefficients (ß) and significant p-values < 0.05 (depicted with a star) are reported next to related path.

Fig 2. Radial qualitative representation of the four different cognitive measures: executive functions, creativity skills, well-being at school, and academic outcomes, each located at a summit.

The scales depend on the measured cognitive skill; however, all run from the minimum at the center to the maximum at the border of the square. Individual results are represented with a thin line (Montessori schoolchildren on top left 2B, and control on the top right 2C), and mean for each group is reported with a bold line in the central square 2A, where the dotted red line marks the 0 of each cognitive measure’s z-score scale. Montessori (M) depicted in green, traditional (T) in blue. Group differences (M vs. T) are observed for creativity skills and academic outcomes.