Montessori Education

My perception on Montessori Preschool

This piece of advice from Dr Maria Montessori has always been my guide when working with children. Montessori encourage children to take ownership of their own learning. 

There are 5 big ideas in Montessori Method:

i) The absorbent mind - 

Children's mind is like a sponge, It absorbed information and sensations from the surroundings effortlessly, continuously and indiscriminately. 

ii) Sensitive period

From birth to age 7, a child is more responsive to certain stimuli and learn effectively through hands-on and physical sensation. 

iii) Prepared environment

Children develop vast in an environment that are calm, orderly and supported of their needs. Child-height shelves and furniture to maximize self regulated activity. 

iv) Control of Error

Children prefer to correct by themselves rather than being corrected by adult. The sensorial materials in the school are made for "self correcting" purpose. 

v) Practical life skills

This exercises help the child to gain control of his movements and adapt to his own society as a full functional member. 

In view of the above, I imagine a Montessori classroom is like room with the right tools at the right place where a group of little children moving freely, working on their own quietly with the self corrected sensorial materials. No unnecessary aid is given by the teacher. 

Montessori advocate outdoor learning too. "Garden was a natural extension of indoor environment". I am very interested in the concept of free flowing Montessori environment where we can take the indoor environment out and the outdoor environment in. 

What I have learnt from a local Montessori School

Prepared enviroment: 

We can see child-height shelves and furniture in the classroom so that minimal assistance is needed from teacher. Children appreciate an order in the surrounding. Thus, the sensorial and other materials are arranged in an orderly manner so that children can work independently in the classroom. Freedom also carries responsibility in which the children need to work on a mat that identifies their work space and return items to where it belongs after working with it.  

The school has a very spacious compound which can be use to maximize their outdoor activities. 

3 Period Lesson: 

Introduction (This is...)

Recognition (Show me...)

Recall (What is this...?)

The teacher will show how to WORK (not PLAY) with the sensorial materials in SILENCE. Children were trained to observe (self directed engagement) before practise the skills on their own. 

Materials:

All Montessori materials were carefully designed with purpose. For example, 

• Red Rods (length) 
• Brown Stairs (weight and height)
• The Pink Tower (size and dimension)
• Sound cylinder (soft and loud)

Challenges : Fidelity of Implementation 

It is difficult to find a high fidelity classic Montessori Program in Malaysia. The implementation of the approach have to compromise with the "market demand" and parents expectation. It is always due to the reason of "adaptation" to the national curriculum. 

Montessori Education is an appealing approach to train a child to be an independent learner who has the desire to learn. Isn't this an important trait for a student? Educators understand that but unable to convince the parent and the community to believe in it. 

We lost the attributes of mixed-age classroom and uninterrupted work time concept. The children were divided by age group and conventional school activities were added into the time table. Children are unable to work on a same material at the same place uninterrupted for 3 hour.