In line with the motto “Help me to do it myself” Montessori-Schools intend to provide students feedback that stimulates and fosters self-regulated learning as well as the development of the whole person – not only the intellect (Lillard 2008). Undoubtedly grades are the wrong tool to achieve this goal: First, grades “don’t even do the one thing they are supposed to do, which is tell us what students know” (Wiliam 2011, 122). Worse, they are associated with a considerable number of undesirable side effects (e.g. increase of competition resp. decrease of collaboration among students). Against this background Bavarian Montessori-Schools consider the replacement of grades by free-formulated learning reports as a core element of a formative classroom assessment.

To our knowledge there are no empirical findings on the contents or the effectiveness of free-formulated learning reports at secondary level Montessori-Schools. Empirical studies of learning reports in traditional elementary schools showed that its formative potential is largely left untapped and there are some widespread deficiencies like paraphrases of grades, impersonal and imprecise learning advices etc. (Köller 2005). The latter, some researchers assume, might be a consequence of the traditional teacher-centered classroom, which does not allow students to learn in their own way and therefore makes it impossible for teachers to write child-centered learning reports. Conversely, this could mean that the child-centered Montessori classroom provides an appropriate context for an effective practice of learning reports (Tillmann/Vollstädt 2009). By examining the following research questions we intend to partially fill the research gap mentioned above and want to provide some basic insights on whether the practice of free-formulated learning reports at Montessori-Schools might be a role-model for an improvement of classroom assessment at traditional schools.

1. What are free-formulated learning reports at Montessori-Schools about? What weight is given to different content-areas?

2. Do Montessori schools tap the full formative potential of free-formulated learning reports while simultaneously avoid typical deficiencies?

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