Dr. Maria Montessori was the first female Italian physician. She was deeply interested in child development and educational theory. She based her theories of child education on many years of close observation of children. The first Montessori classroom opened nearly a century ago. Since then, Montessori education has become well established throughout the world. The Montessori Method fosters independent, self-motivated and goal-directed children with a life-long love of learning. The Montessori Method is based on strong respect for the child. Maria Montessori believed that children want to learn.
Montessori education is a balanced program that addresses all aspects of a child’s development: intellectual, social, moral, physical and aesthetic. Montessori education is highly individualized, which is why it works so well for such a wide variety of children, from typical learners to gifted learners, to children with learning disabilities.
The Montessori materials
The Montessori materials are key to the Montessori approach to education. They are different from traditional “teaching aids” because their purpose is to give the child the chance to discover and learn for him-or herself (rather than being told what he/she should know). When you hear that the materials are “self-correcting” this means that the child can use them and learn from them without constantly checking back in with the teacher to see if they “got it right”. Exploring the materials (learning how to learn) is as important as “getting the answer right”.
The materials are designed so that children can learn academic subjects (like math, for example, or geography or writing) in a concrete way, before progressing to an abstract understanding. This has many benefits: 1) Children can grasp concepts concretely before they could get them abstractly, so they progress more quickly; 2) Children enjoy working with the materials, so they associate learning with pleasure; 3) When children are ready to move onto more abstract thinking, they have a solid base of understanding on which to build. It is because the Montessori materials are self-correcting that the children can progress at their own rate. No child is held back while the whole class learns something that that one child already understands. And no child suffers through a group lesson that is way above their head. Children are excited, motivated, interested. Self-esteem is high.
Why are Montessori classrooms multi age?
Maria Montessori had many reasons for wanting children to be educated in blended, multi-age groupings. Children are divided into mixed age groupings in order to foster peer-teaching and spontaneous group interaction. The teacher focuses on helping the children discover and fulfil their maximum potential, acting as a catalyst as they learn academic skills and to use their time effectively and wisely. This blended grouping nurtures the feeling of a community consisting of teachers, students and parents. Here, students are able to grow not only academically but also
emotionally, socially and spiritually. Another advantage of the multi-age classroom is that it reinforces the individuality of each child’s learning rate. In a multi-age classroom there simply is no such thing as the typical student. Therefore everyone is accepted and feels welcome.