It is a method of education developed by an Italian doctor named Maria Montessori. She used her scientific background to create a system of education based on the child’s need for hands-on exploration in a carefully prepared environment.
She believed that children are active learners who need opportunity for independent, hands-on activity. Information is presented for exploration through active involvement with materials using a variety of senses: visual, auditory, tactile—even olfactory (smelling) and gustatory (tasting). She also observed that young children are very self-directed and have a strong desire to “do it myself.” This desire for independence allows children to become confident, competent learners who love to learn.
Montessori classrooms encourage children to make well considered choices. Children may work alone or in a small group. They may choose the curricular area in which to work and the length of time they spend working on an activity. They may choose from a variety of materials to practice a skill recently taught. Throughout the day, teachers provide guidelines for appropriate and responsible choices.
In a Montessori environment, children are in mixed-age groups. This promotes a feeling of community as older children help the younger ones and become role models and sources of inspiration for them. The younger children see their classmates tie shoes and learn to read and want to do the same. The older children reinforce their own learning by teaching the younger ones basic skills and gain confidence and self-esteem through nurturing others.
Since there are many levels of developmental ability in a mixed-age classroom, the focus is on individual needs instead of ability groupings. Children are able to learn at their own pace, according to their own interests. A mixed-age group also allows children to stay with the same teacher for two or three years and promotes in-depth knowledge of individual learning styles, continuity of instruction, and a strong sense of responsible group membership.
The teachers in a Montessori classroom present lessons in clear and sequential steps. Children learn best when concepts are simple and concrete at first, then made gradually more complex and abstract. A simple idea is introduced then gradually expanded upon. For example, within the 3 – 6 year old program, a child will be introduced to the shapes of rectangle, circle, and triangle, taught to name them, draw them, match them with their written names, write their names, recognize and identify a variety of their three dimensional forms (rectangular prism, sphere, cylinder, cone, triangular prism, triangle-based pyramid, etc.), first verbal then written, and identify whether or not they have bases (flat surfaces) and what those bases are (such as rectangle, circle, and triangle).
The Montessori materials are designed to “teach for success” and are, as much as possible, self-correcting. This helps the child develop the ability to judge for him- or herself what results are right and wrong and to encounter mistakes as a helpful part of the learning process. Children learn to correct errors not out of fear of being incorrect, but for the joy and excitement of learning something new.
The ideal age to begin a Montessori program is at 2.5 or 3, but a child who begins at 4 will still benefit from the enriched environment. The four-year-old tends to spend the first few months building the necessary foundation of concepts and skills, but often moves through the sequence more quickly than the typical first year child and is ready for more advanced learning in a few months.
First Year Students
During the first year of preschool, children develop motor coordination and control and, as a result, their ability to do things for themselves. They increase their ability to concentrate and lengthen their attention span. They learn how to practice social skills and learn classroom routines such as how to handle materials carefully and return them—ready for the next person—when they are done. Children also develop their vocabulary and knowledge of elements of print, refine their perceptive senses, classify and order information, practice making responsible choices, and build a foundation for more advanced academic learning.
Second Year Students
The second year builds and expands on this all-important foundation. As their muscles develop through maturity and practice, children are better able to control their movements and handle tools such as pencils. They can draw shapes, write letters and numerals more accurately, and have the ability to attend to more challenging tasks for longer periods of time. Children begin to understand complex concepts at a more abstract level and express what they have observed and learned the first year in the program. During this second year, children seem to suddenly make great advances in the academic areas of math, reading, writing, science, and cultural studies.
It is important to remember that the foundation for this growth was laid during that first year; Dr. Montessori compared the first stage to taking a picture with a camera, where the child is absorbing everything but no one can see the images yet. The next stage she compared to the developed film, where at last the pictures come into the open for everyone to view and enjoy. The second stage of external expression cannot happen without that first internal stage.
Third Year Students
The third year, typically when a child is five or six years old, is very important, as it is the culminating year for that child. This is the period when all the learning absorbed by the child during the previous years suddenly fits together, makes sense, and the child begins fluently reading, writing, doing more complex math, and showing exponential growth in many areas. The five and six year-olds are the admired role models for the school, and their sense of self-worth and leadership soars with their coveted position.
