Table 3. Scores per age level and group (mean, SD), and statistics.
| Kindergarten | Montessori mean (SD) | Traditional mean (SD) | Yuen’s test bootstrapped (p-values FDR corrected) | Main effect of pedagogy when controlling for age (ANCOVA) |
Effect size Cohen’s d |
Effect size Cohen’s d from randomized studies [11, 13] |
| Language (%) | 66.1 (26.7) | 51.8 (23.8) | 2.05, p = 0.06 | 5.26, p = 0.026 | 0.56 | 0.44 (Letter-Word) & 0.63 (Word Attack); 0.36 & 0.41 (Academic achievement at time 1 and time 2) |
| Math (%) | 45.1 (27.8) | 23.9 (31.0) | 3.52, p = 0.012 | 8.66, p = 0.005 | 0.72 | 0.55 (Applied problem) |
| Well-being at school (%) | 87.2(12.0) | 75.8 (13.9) | 3.69, p = 0.008 | 11.13, p = 0.002 | 0.88 | |
| Convergent creativity (score) | 3.88 (1.49) | 2.74 (1.27) | 3.54, p = 0.013 | 11.8, p = 0.001 | 0.82 | |
| Divergent creativity (score) | 6.63 (4.32) | 3.36 (2.72) | 2.89, p = 0.016 | 13.6, p < 0.001 | 0.90 | |
| Working memory (score) | 5.30 (1.85) | 4.16 (1.56) | 3.13, p = 0.016 | 7.01, p = 0.010 | 0.66 | 0.61 (Dimensional Card Sort); 0.35 (at time 3 for the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders and Copy-Design tasks) |
| Selective attention (ms) | 74.5 (203) | 144 (245) | –1.77, p = 0.100 | 1.29, p = 0.260 | 0.31 | |
| Cognitive flexibility (ms) | 46.7 (104) | 31.0 (76.7) | 0.22, p = 0.380 | 0.355, p = 0.554 | 0.17 | |
| Elementary | Montessori mean (SD) | Traditional mean (SD) | Yuen’s test bootstrapped (p-values FDR corrected) | Main effect of pedagogy when controlling for age (ANCOVA) |
Effect size Cohen’s d |
Effect size Cohen’s d from randomized studies |
| Language (%) | 74.4 (14.8) | 57.6 (26.7) | 3.74, p = 0.004 | 29.0, p < 0.001 | 0.78 | |
| Math (%) | 66.1 (25.0) | 45.1 (26.7) | 4.28, p = 0.003 | 30.6, p < 0.001 | 0.81 | |
| Well-being at school (%) | 65.7(20.7) | 63.4 (19.7) | 0.42, p = 0.77 | 0.60, p = 0.442 | 0.12 | 0.54 (positive school feeling) |
| Convergent creativity (score) | 5.13 (1.46) | 3.53 (1.51) | 6.07, p = 0.003 | 43.93, p < 0.001 | 1.07 | 0.71 (Creativity of narrative) |
| Divergent creativity (score) | 10.8 (4.08) | 7.42 (4.65) | 4.61, p = 0.003 | 22.76, p < 0.001 | 0.76 | |
| Working memory (score) | 7.32 (2.12) | 6.29 (2.35) | 1.99, p = 0.053 | 7.79, p = 0.006 | 0.46 | |
| Selective attention (ms) | 21.8 (85.4) | 7.18 (87.6) | 1.38, p = 0.24 | 0.94, p = 0.335 | 0.17 | |
| Cognitive flexibility (ms) | 51.3 (68.6) | 43.7 (54.5) | 0.12, p = 0.900 | 0.44, p = 0.508 | 0.12 |