THE EFFECT OF MONTESSORI AND TRADITIONAL METHODS OF EDUCATION ON EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE OF CHILDREN

The Montessori Method of education is becoming more popular in Indian cities in the recent decades. The parents, educationists and policy makers are keenly interested in the overall development of their children or stakeholders. Since its inception, the Montessori Method of education is adopting several procedures based on its basic principles of cognitive, social and emotional development of the children. Although every principle of Montessori education is not followed in the Indian Montessori schools, the schools are adhering to several of them. The present article adopted comparative analyses to determine the effect of Montessori and traditional method of education on emotional intelligence of the school children. A total sample of 1082 children between the age group of 12 – 16 years was selected from the schools of Montessori and traditional education. The data were collected using the Bar-on, (1997, 2000) Emotional Intelligence scale with Likert response patterns ranging 1 to 5. The obtained data was subjected to ‘t’ test analysis and it was evident in the result findings that the children of Montessori method of education has significantly higher emotional intelligence than the children of traditional method on the total and as well on all dimensions of emotional intelligence. This highlights the education intervention method having strong bearing on emotional development of the children. Further, the findings related to gender effect provides inconclusive results both with Montessori and traditional children.