The Montessori Method A Passport To The World

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Dr. Maria Montessori

• Medical Doctor
• Scientist
• Anthropologist
• Philosopher
• Pedagog
• Teacher
• Mother

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The Montessori MethodA Passport To The World
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Dr. Montessori discovered the childs true nature
in 1907 by observing poor young children living
in very difficult social conditions. In this
first Childrens House experiment in Rome, Italy,
she found the combination of extreme poverty,
parental ignorance and untrained teachers.
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The Montessori Classroom

• Spacious
• Organised
• Freedom
• Child Sized
• Designated Areas
• No Teachers Desk
• No Formal Lessons
• Mixed Age Groups
• No Text Books

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AREAS OF LEARNING

• SENSORIAL
• Visual Sense
• Tactile Sense
• Thermic Sense
• Auditory Sense
• Olfactory Sense
• Gustatory Sense
• Stereognostic Sense

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Practical Life
Preliminary Exercises Care Of The Person Care Of
The Environment Grace And Courtesy Control Of
Movement
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LANGUAGE

• Oral Language
• Written Language
• Handwriting
• Reading
• Total Reading
• Reading Analysis
• Cultural Work

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Mathematics

• Numbers Through Ten
• Decimal System
• Linear And Skip Counting
• Tables Of Arithmetic
• Passage To Abstraction
• Fractions

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Childrens House
Sensorial
Language
Practical Life
Cultural
Math
Using their hierarchy, the Superordinate level
denotes the broad category, the basic level
describes a group category and subordinate
categories are specific exemplars. In other
words, (broad) ANIMALS (basic) DOG
(subordinate) German shepherd or poodle. In the
Montessori classroom, the Superordinate
Categories are Practical Life, Sensorial, Math,
Language and Cultural.
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Childrens House
Letter recognition/
Sensorial
Language
The five senses
Handwriting
Attributes of geometry
Word building/ grammar
Care of indoors
Practical Life
Care of the person
Care of outdoors
Math
Cultural
Mathematics
Cultural
Cultural
- x / sq- cubes
1-10, 1- 9,999
Arts, Sciences
Arts, Sciences
Cultures, Time
Cultures, Time
Properties/ frac
On the shelves in each level, are their basic
categories. Lessons for the Five Senses can be
found on the Sensorial shelf, for example.
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With all of those materials available to
students, one might think the classroom would
cluttered or over-stimulating. But instead, the
classrooms are very homelike and quite cozy.
There is a place for everything, and everything
in its place!
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Children need organized learning environments and
educational materials that provide enriching
meaningful experiences to support their cognitive
development.
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Each lesson leads to another in a spiral of
learning, with the curriculum building carefully
over time.
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We call the large masses of land
continents. We call the large bodies of water
oceans
Our earth has LAND and WATER, and is surrounded
by a blanket of air
We can learn the names of the continents and
oceans.
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The Montessori approach to education has three
key components 1. The child 2. The favourable
environment 3. The teacher The relationship
between the child, the environment and the
teacher are constantly evolving and developing
because it is based on observation of the
child. Montessori believed that children develop
in stages or planes and that each stage has its
own unique qualities and characteristics. 1. The
absorbent mind conception to six (birth to
three unconscious absorbent mind three to
six conscious absorbent mind) 2. Childhood
six to twelve (considered to be calm and
conducive to learning) 3. Adolescence twelve
to eighteen (twelve to fifteen is as
unpredictable as the first stage).
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There are six sensitive periods 1. Order 2. Moveme
nt 3. Small details 4. Language 5. Refinement of
the senses 6. The social aspects of life It is
the manifestations of the sensitive periods on
which the prime carer or teacher should focus as
they observe, so that they can provide
appropriate learning opportunities for the child.
Montessori saw the environment as a key factor
in childrens spontaneous learning.
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Foundation Phase Areas of Learning Seven areas
of learning have been identified to describe the
Foundation Phase. These must complement each
other and all work together to provide a
practical relevant curriculum for 3 to 7 year
olds. Emphasis is placed on developing childrens
skills across all the areas of learning. The
Seven areas of learning are
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1. Creative Development - This area of learning
focuses on developing imagination and creativity.
Their natural curiosity and disposition to learn
is stimulated by everyday sensory
experiences. 2. Physical Development - Enthusiasm
and energy for movement is continually promoted
through helping children to use their bodies
effectively. Spatial awareness, balance, control
and co-ordination are encouraged to develop motor
and manipulative skills. 3. Knowledge and
Understanding of the world - Children will be
given experiences that increase their curiosity
about the world around them and to begin to
understand past events, people and places,
livings things and the work people do. 4. Welsh
Language Development - Welsh Language skills are
developed through communicating in a range of
enjoyable, practical planned activities and using
a range of stimuli that build on childrens
previous knowledge and experiences.
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• 5. Mathematical Development - Children will use
  numbers in their daily activities and develop a
  range of flexible methods for working mentally
  with numbers. They will then move onto using more
  formal methods of working and recording when they
  are developmentally ready.
• 6. Language Literacy and Communication Skills
  These skills will be developed through talking,
  signing, communicating and listening. Children
  will be encouraged to communicate their needs,
  feelings and thoughts and retell their
  experiences
• 7. Personal and Social Development, Well-Being
  and Cultural Diversity - This area of learning
  focuses on children learning about themselves,
  their relationships with other children and
  adults.

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Montessori Within The Foundation Phase The
Montessori method fulfills all of the
requirements for each of the seven areas of
learning. The Guide to the Early Years Foundation
Stage in Montessori settings (Appendix 4) shows
how the Montessori approach to planning, to the
areas of learning and to assessment meets the
requirements of the EYFS in England and the
Foundation Phase in Wales without compromising
Montessorian principles. The Foundation Phase
supports these Montessori approaches, which we
have used for over a hundred years, and we can
demonstrate how this supports the requirements.
Given that the EYFS and the Foundation Phase in
Wales are almost identical apart from the
omission of the area on Welsh Language
Development, I would assert that the guide is
appropriate as an example of how the Montessori
method of education conforms to the Foundation
Phase in Wales. Furthermore the following four
themes and principles guide all early years
practitioners working with children. They are
closely linked with the Governments agenda for
children as set out in Every Child Matters,
www.everychildmatters.gov.uk. The following text
offers a Montessori perspective on these
principles
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1. A Unique Child Every child is a competent
learner from birth who can be resilient, capable,
confident and self-assured. Montessori
perspective within each child lies a hidden
potential. For this potential to be unlocked we
need to give children the opportunities to
develop trust and autonomy, which will nurture
confidence, self-esteem and courage. The ability
to embrace new challenges, take risks and act
with initiative is a natural outcome of these
conditions and underpins the principles of the
unique child. Montessori saw freedom as the
single most important factor in allowing children
to develop as spontaneous, creative
individuals. This fashioning of the human
personality is a secret work All that we know is
that he has the highest potentialities, but we do
not know what he will be. He must become
incarnate with the help of his own will.
(Montessori, 1966, 32)
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2. Positive Relationships Children learn to be
strong and independent from a base of loving and
secure relationships with parents and/or a key
person. Montessori perspective the parents are
the childs first educators and need to be
respected. A partnership with parents gives
children opportunities to develop their full
potential and become unique, strong and
autonomous individuals with consideration for
themselves and others. Little children between
three and six years of age have a special
psychology. They are full of love. They are only
without love if they are ill treated. If they are
badly treated their real nature is altered. They
are full of love themselves and need to be loved
in order to grow. (Montessori, 1989, p. 41)
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3. Enabling Environments The environment plays a
key role in supporting and extending childrens
development and learning. Montessori
perspective a favourable environment, which
supports the childs self-construction, is
carefully prepared by knowledgeable
practitioners, ensuring that childrens
developmental needs are met. This is further
explained in the Absorbent Mind (1949) and is
linked with Montessoris view of human
tendencies, stages of development and sensitive
periods. While the Montessori legacy of specific
learning materials is strong and will be key in
preparing enabling environments, it is also
creative and forward-thinking to include other
materials in the environment to meet the
individual needs and interests of children,
provided these are used in such a way as to
support the essential principles and philosophy
of the Montessori approach. In an open
environment, that is, one that is suitable to his
age, a childs psychic life should develop
naturally and reveal its inner secret.
(Montessori, 1966, p. 110)
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4. Learning and Development Children develop and
learn in different ways and at different rates,
and all areas of learning and development are
equally important and inter-connected. Montessori
perspective not just being a particular way of
learning and development, more importantly
Montessori principles are concerned with the
development of the whole personality, seeing it
as the foundation on which everything which
follows will be built. Children are active
learners and will learn from the environment if
it offers appropriate stimuli to their
development. Learning is guided by the childrens
developmental needs, and flourishes when the
children are given time and space to observe,
explore and investigate the environment and
engage with it. Empathetic practitioners play an
active part in engaging children with the
favourable environment. They facilitate the
childs need to learn, not only from them, but
also from peers and by themselves.
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it aims, in short, at a total development of
the personality a harmonious growth of all the
potentialities of the child, physical and mental,
according to the law of its being. (Montessori,
1965, p141) The child who concentrates is
immensely happy he ignores his neighbours or the
visitors circulating about him. For the time
being his spirit is like that of a hermit in the
desert a new consciousness has been born in him
that of his own individuality. (Montessori,
1949, p. 273)
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Each child has multiple intelligences that help
one understand the world. Each of the
intelligences must be explored and learned.
There is no such thing as a fixed and
predetermined IQ. There are also different
learning styles, which we all must recognize and
understand.
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Intelligence Linguistic Logical/Mathematical
Spatial/Visual Bodily/Kinesthetic Musical
Naturalist Intrapersonal Interpersonal
Characteristics Play with words, enjoys stories,
interest in sounds of language (phonics) Explora
tion of patterns, counting, reasoning, problem
solving Visualization of concepts Strong
motor skills and coordination. Learning through
movement Ability to produce and appreciate
pitch, rhythm. Understanding of musical
expressiveness Classification of living things
plants, animals, features of the natural
world Understanding of ones self, ability to
discriminate and act on ones feelings Ability
to understand others and work well together.
Availability of leadership roles
Montessori Representation LANGUAGE AREA
Sandpaper letters, moveable alphabet, insets for
design, stories, writing SENSORIAL/MATHS AREA
Knobless cylinders, solid cylinders, PRACTICAL
LIFE Order in the environment. Specific place
for each material ALLL AREAS OF CLASSROOM
OUTDOORS CURRICULUM MUSIC AREA Montessori
bells, songs, rhymes, music specialists GEOGRAP
HY BIOLOGY AREA Geography and social studies
curriculum, care of indoor and outdoor
environment Respect of personal spaces, ability
to choose to work alone Montessoris Response To
Gardeners Theory Of Multiple Intelligence
adapted by A Evans
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The root of the problem, as I see it, does not
reside in education per se, but rather in
by-now-strongly-established social relations
between children and adults, pupils and teachers.
Reflecting on my own experience as a student and
later on as a teacher, I realize now that adults
generally fail to view a child as a unique human
being gifted with reason and logic and capable of
self-directed intellectual development.
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In conclusion, one could argue that Montessori is
beginning this century as she did at the start of
the nineteenth century. Her ideas and pedagogy
are being revisited, validated and included in
the challenge to the contemporary construction
and conceptualization of childhood. Montessoris
principles could be seen as pre-empting concepts
and thinking that are considered cutting edge
today principles that place a childs wellbeing
as central to her or his experience.
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