Principles of Montessori

Principles of Montessori

Education is the fundamental shaper of every society’s future. Whether or not the community will have creative, innovative, law binding and socially responsible members, it highly depends on the method of education that society has. There are methods of education that focuses on learners and their abilities without comparing the performance of one child with another. The other methods of education believe that the teacher knows better what is helpful for the child. Therefore, he should dictate to the child what he should learn, how to learn it, and what should be the results. This paper discusses two of these kinds of education methods, the Montessori and the traditional methods of education. In so doing it will first discuss the principles of Montessori and its elements, and thereafter discuss the differences between the Montessori and the traditional methods of education.

Principles of Montessori

There are several basic principles that provide an accurate and clear presentation on how Montessori educators should implement the Montessori method of education. These principles are the pillars of this method of education and qualities that make it outstanding and popular as it is. Here is a discussion of five major principles of the Montessori method of education.

Respect of the child

Respecting the child is the cornerstone on which all other principles of Montessori are based. Montessori was fully aware of how the traditional system of education forced children to imitate their teachers and accept their teachers’ convictions and arguments without question. She believed that forcing children to follow their teachers without regard to their individual abilities, interests, preferences and their special needs is being unfair and doing a great disservice to them.

Therefore, Montessori encouraged teachers to respect the interests and the unique developmental needs of every child. In this method of education, the success of children is not based on merit, but their individuality. Every child has a different journey in his early learning. This is why Montessori education integrates multiple pathways and styles of learning.

The absorbent mind

Montessori believed that children are born with the constant readiness and ability to educate themselves, although what they learn is much determined by their experiences, teachers and environment. By merely continuing living, children can learn from their environment. The child can himself and his world, thus developing a sense of confidence, belonging and independence.

Choice

Montessori believed that life is based on choices. Therefore, the best system of education should instil in children the ability to make their own decisions. In doing this, the child should have the free choice the whole day. When the child arrives early in the morning, he decides what to do and what material to use. He is allowed to do this for as long as he feels inspired. He then drops that task and picks another one and other materials. This cycle continues the whole day and throughout the learning process. The teacher’s role is to offer the assistance needed by the child, not to dictate what he should do.

Peer interaction

Montessori advocated for classrooms with mixed ages to enable different ages to assist one another. When the young ones see what the older ones are doing, they will try to imitate them and ask for an explanation where if the need be. The older ones who have mastered the concept teaches the young ones. When the young ones excel, they show their peer too. In this way, children learn to depend and assist one another at an early age.

Elements of Montessori

There are three significant elements of the Montessori method of education, as discussed below.

The adult (the directress-humble teacher)

The primary role of the adult is to guide the child according to the laws of child development in a passive manner. She should avoid being authoritative or forceful but provide non-directive guidance to the child. She also has to observe the child, noting his changing developmental needs, interests and emotion, and responding to them appropriately. In doing so, she should avoid judging the child based on the general expectation of how children in a particular stage should behave. But based on the child’s particular strengths and weakness.

The teacher should always understand that the child is the centre of learning, and his interests and convictions as a teacher should not surpass those of the child. Montessori emphasis the point that the task of a teacher is not talking, but arranging and preparing a series of activities helpful for child development in an environment made purposely for the child’s learning. The teacher should help the child to grow to actualize his full potential. Therefore, whenever she notices a child is engaging in inappropriate behavior instead of punishing the child, she should guide him on, he can divert his energy into meaningful activities.

Prepared environment

The learning environment of a child should be prepared in a manner that enables the child to discover who he is and develop his real personality and discover his full potential. Therefore, the child is provided with several forms of freedom like the freedom of movement, to move freely in the environment as he wishes. This will enable the teacher to observe the child and his behavior. The child is also given the freedom of choice, to choose the learning material he finds pleasing to him. This will help satisfy the child’s needs and feel motivated in his learning education journey.

There is also the freedom of repetition, which allows the child to repeat his work until he gets satisfied and mastered the key concepts in that area. This environment also provides the child with the freedom of expression, to express his feelings and emotions, both positive and negative. He should also be allowed to express his thoughts freely, whether he is right or not. Given such an environment, the child can grow to become the best he can.

Apparatus (the Montessori material and tools)

The learning environment must be rich in motives that will lead interest in an activity, thus inviting the child to try his own experiences. The Montessori material is grouped into three categories, sensational, academic and practical life materials. Sensory materials are meant to help the child to acquire knowledge through his senses. Sensory learning plays a vital role in early brain development of every child. It develops a neurological connection, which is critical for human intelligence.

Practical life materials are tools that the child uses or sees them daily at home. They enable the child to learn essential skills like sweeping, washing dishes, dressing or setting the table. By doing these activities, the child can learn essential skills like eye coordination, confidence, independence and problem-solving.

The use of the above learning materials helps to prepare the child to use the academic materials. These materials include language development materials like sandpaper letters, movable alphabets and phonics cards. Montessori also emphasis the use of hand-on materials like vintage golden beads, spindle boxes and number rods to learn science and mathematics. The interaction with these materials enables the child to develop a sense of self-worth and appreciate his abilities and limitations.

Goals of Montessori

There several holistic goals of Montessori education. These goals include,

Independence

Montessori believed that no one could be free who is not independent. Therefore, the learning process must be designed to enable the child to attain individual liberty. All the activities that a child carry from his preprimary classes to his elementary level classes aim at providing the child with the first-hand experience with his learning material corrected from his environment. This helps to develop a sense of independence and social responsibility in the child need for living in a community.

Confidence and competence

Montessori knew that lack of self-confidence could be a hindrance to the child’s ability to learn. Fear of failure makes children afraid of trying the task ahead of them. This is why in Montessori school, teachers are encouraged to reinforce the positive results with praise and applaud the children’s effort even if they did not get the required results. The educator continues to guide the child until he gets the correct results. This helps to develop a sense of self-confidence in children in their ability to learn new things, as well as developing confidence in themselves.

In the preprimary and elementary level, the child class presentation shift from verbally dominated presentations to sensorial and intellectual dominated presentations. This helps to build competence in the child and autonomy in his use and application of the knowledge acquired in the classroom. This makes the child feel well-equipped to handle a larger task and solve a more complicated problem. Thus, building a person who is ready to face any form of challenge in life.

Encourage curiosity

The learning environment is equipped with tools and materials that help to awaken the child curiosity to learn. The education toys and games provided in classrooms inspire the child to explore his world and discover how things work by trial and error method. Curiosity commands action and action leads to learning. The child learns this principle in class but applies it even outside his classroom. This enables the child to continue learning even after his classroom, as he interacts with members of his family and engage in family activities like farming.

Make learning joyful

According to Montessori, learning should be exciting for children. The use of toys helps the children to learn how to live with others in the community. It also enables them to solve a problem as a team through a fun learning approach. This will help create a love for learning in children and eagerness continue learning. Montessori believed that boring and monotonous learning environment might make the child hate learning and discourage him from continuing in his education journey.

The differences between the Montessori and traditional method of education

Teachers

The Montessori teacher aims at guiding the child through activities, instead of dictating to the child what he should and should not do. In this way, the teacher follows the learning path and the needs of every child. On the other hand, traditional schools, teachers follow a particular curriculum designed for every class. In this case, give the same task to all learners without considering each learner’s capacity.

Pace

The Montessori method encourages and honors the work pace of every child. Even if the task might be simple for all learners, every child possesses a unique personality. Some are slow in doing things, whereas others are aggressive and fast. But unfortunately, in the traditional method, time is set when the learners should accomplish a particular task. If the time lapses before he finishes, he needs to stop and submit an unfinished task. This can quickly demoralize the child and make him see himself as a failure, of which he is not.

learning environment

Montessori classrooms are equipped with a variety of learning materials that aim at satisfying the needs and the interest of every child. Here the child is the one who chooses what material want to use in learning and what kind of learning he wants to engage in. Whereas, in the traditional system, which is teacher-centred, the teacher determined what sort of material the child will use in learning, whether the child likes the material or not. This results in discouragement and disappointment, killing the morale and eagerness the child had for learning.

Self-esteem

In the Montessori method, teachers understand that the source of every child’s self-esteem comes from the pride he gets from accomplishing the given tasks himself. Thus, the teacher guides the child to finish the task given through by encouraging him in every attempt he makes, until he gets the correct results. On the other hand, self-esteem in traditional education method comes from external validation and judgement through praises from the teachers after performing well in the test, given to the whole class.

Schedule

In the Montessori method, the learner’s ability to do a particular task is highly considered. This way, the teacher tries as much as possible to avoid interrupting the child until he finishes his task. This allows the child to spend as much time as he needs in a particular task. Whereas in traditional method time to do a specific activity is limited by arbitrary schedules, which expect all learners to work on the same pace in every task given. Here teachers do not have the understanding that children are gifted differently in different fields. Thus, a child might be slow in one task and faster in another. Therefore, giving equal time to finish a particular task will be unfair and disadvantage to some learners.

Following the discussion above, one can deduce several facts. One is that the traditional method of education is interested in meeting the teacher’s set goals and the goals of the curriculum provided by the government.  It has little, regard if any, to the needs and personal ability of every child. This will be a disadvantage to many children whose individual skills have no space in this education system.

Two, the teachers dictate what the child must learn, how to learn it, and the results he should produce. This kind of learning will help the child to grow in the understanding that there are specific dictates in the society that are binding. This will enable the child to grow to be a law a binding citizen, who is not interested in only seeking his own satisfaction. On the other hand, to meet the expectations and dictates of society and suppress his potential. He will live and probably die without utilizing his full potential and abilities.

Conclusion

Every child is unique and uniquely does his task. This is a basic understanding of the Montessori method of education. Dictating and forcing a particular way of learning to the child can be translated to mean that some people have a superior personality. This is because the traditional method follows a curriculum designed by some people, and that favours certain personality traits. Every child should be allowed to explore his learning experience in his own way. His personality should be his sole guide and measure of his own success. No one’s ability should be set as a standard for another child’s success or failure.