The Montessori Method

1. The Montessori Method By: Jeromy Nelson And Emily Glick

2. Maria Montessori • Born in Ancona, Italy 1870 • Began teaching in a mental retardation school • She established a school in Rome called the Casa dei Bambini, which housed over 50 poor children • Had Mario, her son, out of wedlock • Developed her theory of Independent learning around the concept of “Sensitive Periods”. • Died 1952

3. What are . . . Spontaneous Activity Normalization Independent Mastery Control of Error

4. What will these look like? Montessori Vs. Traditional

5. Spontaneous Activity • “When the instruments have been constructed with great precision, they provoke spontaneous exercise . . . [the child] begins spontaneously to make a series of careful and logical comparisons which represent a veritable spontaneous acquisition of “knowledge.” (Montessori, 1917 ,p.77)

6. Spontaneous Activity • In a Montessori school, the ability for a child to move from one activity to another at will is a basic display of spontaneous activity. With the ability to choose freely between a range of activities at their disposal, a child may move freely or spontaneously from one to another of their own volition. • In a traditional school, spontaneous activity is not a common method engaging in a set of activities. Typically a teacher will direct the children in their completion and movement from one activity to another without consideration of the child's learning experience.

7. Normalization • "All normalized children acting in a uniform manner, i.e. they continued to work concentrated on something, serene and tranquil. This, at the time, was surprising, because it had never before been seen in small children. They also showed a special characteristic not seen in adults and not before seen in children: they worked with the maximum effort, and continued their activity till the task was completely finished and with exactitude.” (Montessori, 1949, p.302)

8. Normalization • In a Montessori school, normalization is dependent upon the ability of the child to work on an activity best suited for their sensitive period. Not all children are equally advanced in any given sensitive period. • In a traditional school, the potential for normalization is less likely. Children work on the same activities as their peers, regardless of whether it suits them or not.

9. Independent Mastery • "When, therefore, the child has increased his independence by the acquisition of new powers, he can only develop normally if left free to function. When the child has acquired independence, it is by exercising this independence that he will develop.” (Montessori, 1949, p. 130)

10. Independent Mastery • In a Montessori school, independent mastery is the ability of every child to choose which activity they engage in, thereby assuring that they are participating in an activity suited to their sensitive periods. Children will choose which activities they like best and will repeat them over and over. They gain knowledge through their own merits and not those of the teacher. • In traditional schools, the teacher is much more involved, preventing independent mastery.

11. Control of Error • "To make the process one of self-education, it is not enough that the stimulus should call forth activity, it must also direct it. The child should not only persist for a long time in an exercise; he must persist without making mistakes. All the physical or intrinsic qualities of the objects should be determined, not only by the immediate reaction of attention provoked by the child, but also by their possession of this fundamental characteristic, the control of error..." (Montessori, 1917, p.75)

12. Control of Error • In Montessori school, activities with built in control of error contain within their design a means of preventing an erroneous learning experience without the intervention of a teacher or parent. • In a Traditional school, the teacher corrects a child’s mistakes. Therefore, a child will be dependent on the teacher to correct them every time they make a mistake. This will not give the child the opportunity to recognize a mistake and correct it on their own.

13. The Study: Is predetermined order in the learning experience more or less efficient than the self-determining order in a Montessori experience?

14. Questions: • Is one hour spent with children more productive in a self-determining order or a predetermined order learning experience? • How is retention affected by the learning experience?

15. Pre-assessment Limitations • One hour time limit undermined the Montessori principles of Normalization, Independent Mastery, and Spontaneous Activity. • We only went to a Traditional school • We only have data from 9 test subjects.

16. Hypothesis: The children who participated in the Montessori learning environment will learn and understand the material with more efficiency than the children participating in the traditional environment.

17. Activities: Trace the K Sand Letter K Trace a sand paper K that was glued on a contrasting piece of construction paper. Trace the letter K with their finger in a pan of sand.

18. Activities continued: Color the K Picture Identification Color a K on a white piece of computer paper. Identify pictures with the name of objects starting with the letter K.

19. Montessori Allowed children to pick the activities. Children could continue activity until he/she felt like moving to another activity. Teacher, Jeromy, was only there to assist children if they needed help. Children had unlimited time on each activity.

20. Traditional Children were taught how to do each activity. Children were given a set amount of time on each activity. Children were told to show the Teacher, Emily, that they could do the activity before moving on to another activity.

21. Rubric

22. Assessment

23. Results

24. Conclusion of Results • There seems to be a higher percentage of children that mastered the activities if given the choice and independence. • The data shows that the children were more engaged in the activity if given the choice and Independency. • Given the choice, the children frequently moved from activity to activity. • The data shows that some of the children were not engaged in some of the activities for very long. • Engagement and Mastery was far greater in Montessori than in Traditional.

25. Post Assessment Limitations • The number of activities and the level of difficulty were insufficient. • The grouping was accidentally divided by gender. • The process of monitoring the kids and taking notes were too much for one person for each group.

26. Works Citied Montessori, M. (1917). The Advanced Montessori Method: Vol. 1. Spontaneous Activity in Education. (F. Simmons trans.). Robert Bentley, 1964.  Montessori, M. (1949). The Absorbent Mind. (C.A. Claremont, trans.). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1967.  Crain, W. (2011). Theories of Development: Concepts and Applications. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.