MONTESSORI METHOD
Rationale:
The Montessori Method is characterized by providing a prepared environment: tidy,
pleasing in appearance, simple and real, where each element exists for a reason in order to help
in the development of the child. A Montessori classroom integrates children of mixed ages that
are grouped in periods of 3 years. This promotes socialization, respect and solidarity among them
naturally. The prepared environment offers the child opportunities to commit to interesting and
freely chosen work, which brings out long periods of concentration that should not be
interrupted. Freedom develops within clear limits, and this allows children to live in harmony
with others in the small society they belong to in the classroom.
Children work with concrete materials that were scientifically designed, which provide
them the keys to explore our world and develop basic cognitive abilities. The materials are
designed to allow the child to recognize the error by him/herself and become responsible for
his/her own learning. The adult is an observer and a guide: he/she helps and stimulates the child
with all his/her effort. This allows children to act, want and think by themselves, and helps them
to develop confidence and inner discipline. The Montessori education covers all periods in
education, from birth to 18 years old, providing a integrated curriculum (Fundacion Argentina
Maria Montessori).
At the end of the lesson, student will be able to:
1. Determine the program characteristics in Montessori concept.
2. Understand and apply the Montessori concept in children's learning.
3. Identify the curriculum areas of Montessori Education.
4. Describe the different role of a Montessori Teacher.
Content/Discussion:
Maria Montessori (1870–1952) was an extraordinary person by any standard who overcame
great difficulties to become one of Italy’s first female physicians. Her gift of observation was
sharpened by her studies in anthropology, resulting in her first book, Pedagogical Anthropology
(Montessori, 1913). She also worked with what were then called “defective children” at the state
Orthophrenic School in Rome. In her work with this very diverse population, she drew from the
work of Jean Itard and Edouard Seguin, French physicians and educators of developmentally
disabled children (Loeffler, 1992).
In 1907, she was asked to create a program to care for the children of families in a housing
project in Rome serving a lower income population of 4- to 7-year-olds; this was the first Casa
dei Bambini, or Children’s House.
In the United States, there was a great deal of interest in Montesori education from 1910 to
1920 (Montessori’s program was demonstrated with a model classroom in San Francisco at the
1916 World’s Fair), but declined dramatically until the late 1950s. However, during these three
decades, Montessori schools increased in Europe and India.
Most of the mismatches between Montessori and current theories have been resolved
through advances in our understanding of child development and learning and her onceradical
theories, such as the importance of children learning through hands-on activity, the preschool
years being a time of critical brain development, and parents being included as essential partners
in their children’s education, are currently accepted as standard thinking in the field of early
childhood education.
The contemporary U.S. Montessori movement began in the late 1950s as a set of private
schools serving an almost entirely middle-class population. Many of these early schools were
founded by parents. In 1959, the American Montessori Society (AMS) was established. Its
founder, Nancy McCormick Rambusch. The word Montessori has been used widely in the public
domain in the United States; and thus both schools and teacher education programs proliferated
and were licensed without name-brand regulation or restriction. Some schools (then and now)
used the name Montessori to refer to programs that have little relation to the schools she
described.
Beginning in the late 1960s, parents in several school districts began to advocate for the
public schools to offer the Montessori model for their children, many of whom had graduated
from private Montessori preschools.
THE BACKGROUND AND KEY TENETS OF THE MONTESSORI METHOD
Because there are no restrictions on the use of the word Montessori, many people rely on a
school’s affiliation with a major Montessori organization to determine whether a program is in
fact Montessori. Two of these organizations are the AMI and AMS.
What are some of the characteristics of a Montessori classroom, then, that differentiate it
from a traditional early childhood classroom? What might a visitor to a contemporary
Montessori classroom expect to see?
The first thing that an observer might notice is the mixed-age grouping: typically 3-, 4-, and
5-year-olds are together, as are 6-, 7-, and 8-year-olds, and so on. Another difference is the
arrangement of the room, with low, open shelves holding many carefully arranged materials
from which the children can choose. Tables and desks are grouped to facilitate individual or
small group work.Open floor space allows for work on the floor. The Montessori manipulative
materials are designed for use by individual students or small groups rather than as teacher
presentation aide.
The single most important criteria for judging a program to be a good implementation of
Montessori is the activity of the students. In full-day programs, students should be engaged in
individual and small-group work of their own choosing for 3 to 4 hrs.A prevailing attitude in
Montessori classrooms is one of cooperation rather than competition in completing work. For
example, in an elementary classroom, the answers to math problems and science or geography
questions are freely available to students. Students complete work independently and then check
responses with the “control” material. Children in Montessori classrooms commonly ask other
children for help, not perceiving the teacher as the sole source of information in the room.
MONTESSORI’S VIEW OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Montessori viewed education as a vehicle for “giving help to the child’s life…helping the
mind in its process of development”. Her oft-cited phrase “follow the child”.
Montessori viewed the first period of life to be the most developmentally dynamic and of
the highest importance. Her developmental paradigm depicts a series of four related triangles,
which she termed, “the constructive rhythm of life”.
The Absorbent Mind
Montessori noted, with great respect, the unique capacity of the very young child to
assimilate, or to take her/his surroundings. She observed that from infancy, this capacity enables
the child to absorb each experience in a powerful and direct way. As Montessori phrased it,
“Impressions do not merely enter his mind; they form it. They incarnate themselves in him.
From birth until about 3 years of age, the child is in the phase of the unconscious absorbent
mind, during which time the child explores the environment through the senses and through
movement, also absorbing the language of the surrounding culture. At about the age of 3 years,
according to Montessori, the child’s capacity for such powerful absorption shifts to a more
conscious, purposeful type. At this point, the child becomes a factual as well as a sensory
explorer, noting relationships between things and making comparison.
Discipline: The Development of the Will
As children enter the learning environment, they are unaccustomed to its materials, social
expectations, and ground rules. According to Montessori, such purposeful engagement deepens
the experience and children’s ability to concentrate and direct actions in other situations as well.
Through such a series of actions on the environment, children’s will, or ability to direct their own
actions, begins to develop.
In other words, within Montessori class rooms, an atmosphere of freedom within limits is
maintained–freedom to choose and use materials with purpose and care, to direct one’s own
learning, to interact with others, to move about the space freely.
THE PROGRAM CHARACTERISTICS
The Prepared Environment
The Montessori prepared learning environment is both physical and psychological. The
physical environment is designed to be ordered, proportioned to the child’s size, aesthetically
pleasing, and visually harmonious. It is orderly but not rigid, prepared but not fixed. The teacher
constantly reprepares or fine-tunes the environment based on observations of the children’s
interests and needs.
Much of the success of the prepared environment will depend “on the teacher’s ability to
participate with the children in a life of becoming” (Lillard, 1972, p. 61).
Lillard (1972) outlined six essential components of the Montessori learning environment:
(1) freedom,
(2) structure and order,
(3) reality and nature,
(4) beauty and an atmosphere that encourages a positive and spontaneous response to life,
(5) Montessori learning materials and
(6) the development of community life.
Freedom
In Montessori’s view, the natural thrust of the child is toward independence, independence
of the “I can do it myself” variety. Freedom is necessary so that the child can choose from
among the materials and experiences offered those that are of most use and interest at any point.
When a child undertakes a purposeful task that satisfies an inner developmental need,
attention is fixed on this task in a manner that lengthens the focus, attunes the “will” toward a
purpose or object, and thereby begins growth toward self-discipline.
Structure and Order
Given the young child’s acute sensitivity to order, it makes sense that the rhythms and
routines of the classroom should be predictable, the learning materials should be organized in a
logical fashion, and the delivery of lessons as guides to action should be exact and concise.
Reality and Nature
Because of the absorbent quality of the young child’s mind, Montessori felt that the material
placed in a child’s hands should be of authentic quality and tangibly represent the real world.
Children are provided with real, workable, child-sized tools of everyday living in the Montessori
environment. Montessori felt strongly that young children should be immersed in a world of
reality, not fantasy. Her position was that the child’s imagination develops from a sensory base
and a foundation in real-world experiences, rather than from an immersion in adult-created
fantasy (Montessori, 1965).
Beauty and Atmosphere
Montessori felt that nature should be a part of the learning environment. Plants, animals,
and small gardens cared for by the children are standard in many Montessori classrooms. The
environment should be clean, attractive, and well cared for. In addition to the aesthetic outies of
beauty, Montessori advocated an overall environment of peace, nurturance, and, in a sense,
spiritual beauty in which to immerse the developing child.
Montessori Learning Materials
“The ‘prepared environment’ is designed to help the child achieve a sense of himself,
selfmastery and mastery of his environment through the successful execution and repetition of
apparently simple tasks which are nonetheless linked to the cultural expectations the child faces
in the context of his development”. Montessori materials are designed to prepare the child both
directly and indirectly for other subsequent learning. They have visual appeal and are
aesthetically pleasing.
One of the unique qualities that run throughout the Montessori materials is a concept Dr.
Montessori called Control of Error.
One of the first materials a child works with in the Prepared Environment is the Pink Tower. Here, a
child will build a tower of pink wooden cubes, starting with the largest cube for the base, continuing in an
ascending order until it is completed with the smallest cube at the top.
Montessori has assessed, “The control of error through the material makes a child use his
reason, critical faculty, and his ever increasing capacity for drawing distinctions”
The Development of Community Life
Children are free to choose friends from a wide range of possibilities and to discover and
explore qualities in others unlike themselves. Cooperation and respect for others are foundational
concepts in a Montessori classroom community.
THE CURRICULUM AREAS
The Montessori learning environment for 3 to 6 year-olds.
Four basic areas:
1. practical life (everyday living);
2. sensorial (materials focusing on one or more of the
senses);
3. language; and
4. mathematics.
5. Also the music, art, movement, and drama are included in the
curriculum (American Montessori Society, 1994)
PRACTICAL LIFE
Practical life is generally seen as the sine qua non of the Montessori curriculum.
Through involvement with practical experiences in everyday living, the child begins to develop
these skills and tendencies that will support focused learning in all other classroom endeavors.
Through involvement with familiar, home-based experiences such as sweeping, sewing, and
gardening, the child begins to focus attention on a single activity.
This child learns to follow a sequence from beginning to end, to coordinate movements toward a
particular goal, and to organize each step of a given task, thereby attaining independence
through self-directed activity.
Practical life activities invite the child’s participation in the surrounding culture through offering
child-sized versions of activities commonly done in the home–reinforcing for the child a fluent
transition from home to classroom.
- specific activities involve self-care;
- care of the environment;
- life skills;
- fine-motor development; and
- community living.
Few practical life activities are standardized. Therefore, teachers create most materials for this
curricular area. Great diversity exists from one classroom to the next as each teacher responds to
the needs, interests, and cultural makeup of the class.
As children mature, practical life involves more complex cooking activities, first aid, bicycle
repair, telephone manners, computer skills, and knowledge of simple machines (Chattin-
McNichols, 1992).
SENSORIAL
From birth children are immersed in a stimulus-rich environment and unconsciously use all of
their senses to absorb sensory impressions, in the absorbent mind (Montessori, 1973). In the third
year of life, according to Montessori, the child can begin to order and classify
impressions through hands-on examination of specifically prepared materials.
The sensorial materials are a series of sequenced exercises, aesthetically pleasing and seemingly
simple in design, which are offered so that the child can “catalog and classify” (Montessori,
1948/1967b) sensory impressions.
These open-ended exercises also advance from an immediate and concrete experience to the
child’s more abstract awareness of the relevant concept or quality.
By doing this, the child has internalized the image and identity of triangle, and knowledge has
reached the conceptual stage. Later, the child will construct a definition of triangle as well as of
the various types of triangles earlier explored in this hands-on way.
LANGUAGE
[Language] is not a material; it is a process. If we consider the Montessori legacy for “language as
process,” the language area…expands to include much more–the whole learning environment and, in fact,
the whole world. The language curriculum becomes a context rather than a content, a smorgasbord rather
than a carefully prescribed diet; and the key to the pantry is the child's own spoken language.
(Turner, 1995, p. 26)
Language development in a Montessori classroom is fostered throughout the environment:
- the social environment of community and free exchange between children;
- the exact terminology offered by the teacher through specific lessons; the songs, rhymes, and
conversation shared during whole-group gatherings;
- the selection of quality books found in the library corner, and the specific didactic materials
developed to promote language and literacy development.
The Montessori classroom provides a rich context for oral language development, which lays the
groundwork for the child’s eventual conquest of the mechanics of written language. According to
Montessori, for the child to learn to write (which is seen as social activity), that child must first
acquire the mechanics of writing.
This is accomplished in part through use of didactic material called the “metal insets,” which are
a variety of metal geometric templates that allow for a large number of different tracing and
drawing activities, appropriate to a wide range of pencil skills.
The child’s hand is prepared for these activities in the previous handling of practical life and
sensorial materials.
Development of the mechanics of writing is also accomplished through the child’s handling of
individual wooden letters, as well as tracing sandpaper letter forms, which have been glued
to masonite plaques.
Most contemporary Montessori teachers consider the metal insets, the sandpaper letters, and the
movable alphabet as core language materials expanded on by a variety of teacher-
generated materials, all designed to meet the needs and interests of specific children.
The Montessori language sequence assumes that writing generally precedes reading, but that the
two are highly interrelated. Many specific activities supporting the skills of beginning readers are
included in most classrooms.
MATHEMATICS
Mathematical thinking originates in many other seemingly unrelated activities that happen prior
to experiences in the math area proper. Montessori felt that the order, precision, attention
to detail, and sense of sequence fostered through use of the practical life and sensorial materials
lay the foundation for what she termed the “mathematical mind.”
“Prerequisite activities prepare a child for the exactness and logical order required for
mathematics” (Scott, 1995, p. 26).
The concept of one-to-one correspondence, for instance, is embedded in the use of
dressing frames (one button for each hole), the knobbed cylinders (one cylinder for each socket),
and all matching activities. The child explores and compares similarities and differences through
all grading and sorting activities, explores spatial relations through making relational patterns
with sensorial materials, and explores temporal relations through experiencing the predictable
pattern of daily routines.
The child is indirectly introduced to the base-10 system through grading sensorial
series that contain 10 objects (tower of cubes, broad stair). Moreover, grading various series
(e.g., long rods, knobbed cylinders) acquaints the child with the concepts of greater than and less
than.
The math sequence proper begins as a logical extension of a familiar sensorial
experience. The child who previously graded the 10 red rods according to length is now
introduced to identical rods on which red and blue segments, denoting quantity, are included.
The child orders these rods from shortest to longest, counting each segment. Later, following a
visual and tactile introduction to numerical symbols (sandpaper numerals), the child returns to
the rod activity, relating numerical symbol to quantity. In similar fashion, all of the Montessori
mathematical materials progress gradually from the concrete and known to the abstract and
unknown, targeting one difficulty at a time; math materials are the physical manifestations of
abstract concepts, or “materialized abstractions”.
Montessori math materials are grouped into four categories:
(1) 0 to 10 numeration and quantification;
(2) linear counting (systematic number-line counting of increasingly large numbers);
(3) the decimal system (using the classic golden bead material to represent place value – unit
beads, 10 bars, 100 squares, and 1,000 cubes); and
(4) operations (addition, subtraction, and so on).
The use of Montessori materials, presentations of the math materials are brief and always offered
to a willing and interested child; materials are chosen by the child, not assigned by the teacher.
The purpose for their availability and use is not to push early academics, artificial abstraction, or
memorization of math facts. Rather, Montessori believed mathematics to be a natural and
satisfying function of the human mind. Systematic discovery of the relationships among numbers
lead children to become mathematical thinkers and problem solvers. “Abstraction is a creative
process undertaken by the child to construct knowledge” (Chattin-McNichols, 1992, p. 97).
As stated in the American Montessori Society’s “Position Statement on Mathematics Education”
(American Montessori Society, 1996), “mathematics arose as a way of solving problems
associated with daily life–involving space, size, and quantity.”
Children are urged to think clearly and to use concepts learned in new and imaginative ways.
The ability to understand and use concepts in problem solving is considered the purpose of
all education, not just mathematics education.
ARTISTIC EXPRESSION
“Concurrent with emphasis on the developing cognitive skills must go attention to the child’s affective
life, inner thoughts and feelings, and modes of self-expression” (American Montessori Society, 1996).
Montessori was a pioneer in environmental aesthetics in education and saw the profound effect
that aesthetic quality and overall balance in the environment can have on the young child’s
development. She favored an indirect environmental approach to aesthetic education during the
early years, feeling it important to include beautiful and carefully selected works of art in the
early childhood environment. A rich array of sensory experiences, both through classroom
materials and from the natural world, provide an ample palette for the child’s later blossoming of
creative expression.
Today’s Montessori classrooms reflect this focus on aesthetics and rich sensory experience as
well as on an awareness of the importance of the visual arts in child self-expression and symbolic
meaning making. A wide range of expressive art media, such as paints, clay, collage materials,
various drawing and coloring media, and papier-mâché, are generally included in contemporary
Montessori environments.
MUSIC
Musical awareness and expression and training in the basic elements of music are inherent in
Montessori programs (American Montessori Society, 1997).
Exercises that prepare the ear for the distinction of sounds, such as the “silence game,” the sound
cylinders, and the Montessori bells (for distinction of pitch), are considered core curriculum in
Montessori early childhood programs.
Aditional music activities described by Montessori and found in contemporary settings:
Rhythmic activities,
Listening to classical and other types of music,
Group singing,
Experimentation with simple musical instruments, and simple music notation.
Montessori programs in elementary schools typically offer children the opportunity to study
various instruments, as well as to read and write music and to engage in group musical
experiences.
THE CULTURAL SUBJECTS: GEOGRAPHY AND SCIENCE
She viewed the needs of humans as universal and the study of the diverse cultures of the earth as
an investigation of the ways in which humans interact with nature to meet such needs
(Montessori, 1965).
In most Montessori classrooms, children are offered physical models of land forms (e.g., an
island to surround with water, a lake to fill with water) and puzzle maps of the continents
and other areas of the earth.
Scientific exploration, for preschoolers, involves “direct observation (which provides the basis
for generating and testing informal hypotheses). The role of the senses in direct observation of
nature provides the experimental base for later abstract thought” (American Montessori Society,
1996).
For the young child, this means direct daily contact with the natural world; the opportunity to
experience, label, and begin to categorize natural phenomenon; the opportunity to ask “what?”
and “how” questions; and routine interaction with an adult who is willing to serve as mentor to
the child’s inborn sense of wonder.
THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER
Montessori’s goal was nothing less than to recreate the world into a more
peaceful, compassionate, and purposeful place by focusing on both the nature and development
of the child. Within this scheme, the teacher’s role is to regard the child respectfully, appreciate
the unfolding of each child’s development, and protect the child’s natural impulse or drive to
create her own personality (Cossentino & Whitcomb, 2003).
Montessori realized that a new paradigm or model of the role of the teacher would have to be
created (Montessori, 1964). The school and the teacher must permit freedom within a prepared
environment if the goals of this new type of education are to be reached. Within this perspective,
the child who is given such freedom in a carefully prepared environment will develop according
to the child’s own natural timetable and tendencies.
Therefore, the teacher’s job is not to artificially “teach in” what the child lacks but rather to
be a careful observer of each child’s development, providing learner-responsive materials as
well as guidance in the form of instruction, consistent structure, and appropriate
encouragement.
The role of teacher as observer differed most radically in Montessori’s day (as it still
does today) from the common notion of the teacher as the controlling, central force in the
classroom.
Misunderstood by some as a laissez-faire or passive stance, the observation of a trained
Montessori teacher is, on the contrary, the studied observation of a scientist.
As the teacher first observes these “disordered movements” exhibited (even today) by
children new to the environment and unfamiliar with the routines and materials therein, that
teacher sets in motion active imagination; the teacher begins to imagine a child “who is not
yet there.” The teacher trusts in the eventual appearance of a focused and calm child who
will reveal him- or herself through the purposeful activity referred to as “work” (Montessori,
1963).
The teacher’s primary roles beyond this central one of keen observer (or in
today’s vernacular, “kidwatcher”) are to carefully prepare and maintain the learning
environment, to respond to disorderly children through redirection and attention to their
perceived difficulty, and to present lessons with didactic materials to those children who
show interest.
Teachers are also responsible for conducting large group meeting times and for maintaining
careful records on each child.
They are generally expected to maintain close contact with each child’s family
through periodic communication such as conferencing.
The teacher plays an active role in establishing the initial connection between child and
materials and, as such, invites the child to investigate materials and provides specific lessons
on their use (Montessori, 1948/1967b). These lessons should be brief, simple, and exact.
They are offered to clearly demonstrate the purpose of an activity–blueprints for subsequent
investigation by the child but not standards of perfection to be exactly emulated.
The teacher is expected to have worked each lesson to mastery, this same standard is not to
be imposed on the child. The offering of each lesson is intended “to stir up life, but leave it
free to develop” (Montessori, 1948/1967b, p. 111).
Upon the child’s purposeful involvement, the teacher should take a back seat to the child’s active
interaction with the material. The primary learning is seen to reside in the child’s doing not the
adult’s teaching. “It is the child who uses the objects; it is the child who is active, and not
the teacher” (Montessori, 1948/1967b, p. 149).
The trained Montessori teacher, in fact, must specialize in observing the delicate balance
between intervention and non-intervention in a child’s activity.
The control of error, designed into the material, is intended to assist the child in
successfully investigating the material.
The teacher’s role is to intervene and actively redirect whenever children exhibit roughness,
rudeness, or disruptive behavior, but to sensitively observe and remove herself
from interference with the child’s spontaneous interest and involvement whenever the
child’s behavior corresponds with the intended purposes of the material.
The teacher observes, records, and thereby comes to know the needs and interests of the
children, preparing and maintaining an attractive, ordered learning environment that contains
both traditional Montessori learning materials and those originally developed.
The teacher seeks the good match between children and materials through observation,
serving as a potent but subtle catalyst for child activity.
The teacher offers polished, streamlined, and concise lessons, demonstrating a clear set of
impressions as to the purpose and direction of a given material.
The teacher redirects in cases of inappropriate or abusive acts and maintains a watcher’s
stance when the child is engaged in purposeful, focused activity.
MONTESSORI EDUCATION IN THE ELEMENTARY YEARS
Montessori elementary programs are increasingly common in both the private and public sectors
in the United States. A traditional framework for the Montessori elementary curriculum is a
series of “Great Lessons” designed to capture the child’s imagination and inspire a keen interest
in the disciplines related to each question.
From the core of the story frameworks, which offer the big picture of an epoch to the child, come
the details of the related disciplines: mathematics; language; science; and geography. Because
of the unifying picture offered through the Great Lessons, one subject stands independent from
the others.
Elementary classrooms are usually organized around the same 3-year age spans found in the
early childhood programs: a 6- to 9-year-old and a 9- to 12-year-old grouping are typical.
The attitude is one of cooperation, rather than competition. Of course, Montessori education is
not magical, and an observer would certainly find examples of competition among children in a
typical American classroom.
But a number of practices serve to reduce this, such as the following:
The cooperative nature of many of the tasks, rather than a focus on who finishes first or who
gets the best grade. The availability of the answers in many of the activities;
This focuses the attention on understanding rather than “who got the right answer”?
An explicit commitment, as well as materials and curriculum, in the areas of conflict
resolution and peace education.
In the Montessori elementary classroom, the most common form of instruction is a short
introduction to a material, which is typically given to an individual or small group, followed by
the child or children working with the material.
The Montessori principle of Control of Error finds expression in the elementary classroom
through having most answers (to math problems, for example) available to the child.
Montessori elementary social studies make use of a series of lessons called the “Fundamental
Needs of People.” A variety of presentations, discussions, and work by the children leads each
class to their own ideas about what needs of humans are fundamental.
Typical needs are food, clothing, shelter, heat and light, defense, and transportation.
These needs, studied first in the children’s own culture, allow interdisciplinary tie-ins in life
science, cooking, architecture, physics and other areas.
Synthesis/Summary:
Great diversity exists from one classroom to the next as each teacher responds to the needs,
interests, and cultural makeup of the class.
The teacher’s job is not to artificially “teach in” what the child lacks but rather to be a
careful observer of each child’s development, providing learner-responsive materials as well
as guidance in the form of instruction, consistent structure, and appropriate encouragement.
Montessori’s goal was nothing less than to recreate the world into a more
peaceful, compassionate, and purposeful place by focusing on both the nature and
development of the child.
