Lesson

Background of Montessori Education

1
Lesson
2 Principle & Philosophy of Montessori Education

Lesson
3
Curriculum in
Montessori Education

Lesson
4
Role of Montessori
teacher
 Upon completion of
this chapter, you
should be able to:

Describe briefly the background of Maria

Montessori’s life

Explain Montessori’s principle and philosophy

in education

Details the types of curriculum use in

Montessori education

Discuss the advantage and disadvantage of

Montessori education

Apply some of Montessori approach in your

setting
 education was well recognized worldwide but do you know exactly what
it is? There are thousands of Montessori schools in the world and Malaysia is among it. Basically
Montessori education was taken from the name of its founder, known as Maria Montessori 100
years back.

This approach are the combination of

freedom and self-development for
children with a practical approach. Its
aims is to develop the whole child.
There are many well-known and
respected people all over the world who
get this type of approach. Some of these famous people were Larry Page & Sergey Brin, founders
of Google and Jeff Bezosf founder of Amazon.

Intellectual
Physical

Emotional
Social
 1st lady
Maria Montessori was born in Italy on 31st August 1870 to an
doctor in the
educated middle class family in Ancona, Italy. She was the first
history of
woman to practice medicine in Italy after graduated from Medical
Italy
School of the University of Rome in 1896. Four years later Montessori
was appointed director of the new Orthoprenic School attached to the
University of Rome, formerly a municipal asylum for the ‘deficient and insane (special) children of
the city. She started a wave of reform in that school and dismissed the nurses and caretakers
who treated those children with hatred and contempt.

Inspired from the work of Itard and Seguin, two almost forgotten
Purposeful
French doctors, Montessori took the idea of scientific activities that will
approach to education based on observation and stimulate senses
experimentation. She studied her mentally disabled patients and mind, provide
with outmost zeal. After two years, her mentally disabled self-esteem and
children passed the standardized exams given by the Italian achievement
public schools. Gradually the children also learned to perform most of
the everyday tasks involved in preparing the meals and maintaining the environment of the
residential school. She challenged that if she could attain such results with children who were
disabled, schools should be able to get dramatically better results with normal children.

In 1907 she was offered the position of medical director for a day-care center that was being
organized for working-class children who were too young to attend public schools named Casa
dei Bambini (Children’s House) in the slums of San Lorenzo. Most of the children were aggressive,
impatient and cranky. She began by teaching the older children how to help out with the everyday
tasks that needed to be done, introduced hands-on materials of perceptual discrimination and
puzzles and eye hand manipulative exercises that she had used with mentally disabled children.
The materials seemed to be working miraculously. The aimless street wanderers began to settle
down. They began to show longer and longer periods of constructive activity. They were
fascinated with the puzzles and perceptual training devices.
 Montessori
Principle &
Philosophy
Natural Spirituality
Order and structure
Sensitive periods
Learn through senses
Freedom Absorb culture
Big Teachers Little teachers
Natural learners
Processes not Results
Prepared environment
Absorbent mind
 Montessori saw that children held within
them something wonderful, something so
.
special that it could be the key to change the
world. She saw that they were inherently
good and if allowed to develop freely, they
felt connected to everything and were
naturally caring to each other and the world
around them. The more that she worked
with the children, the more convinced she
was that they had precise inner guides and
that the work of adults was to help them to
be all that they could be. She felt that it was
the spiritual nature of children that had been
forgotten and denied and that children could Order plays a very important part in the lives
therefore show adults the way to return to a of young children. Order consists in
more meaningful, holistic way of living. recognising the place for each object in
relation to its environment and in
remembering where each thing should be.
Such an awareness is essential for a child to
Montessori saw freedom as the single most
feel secure within its environment and to
important factor in allowing children to develop
build on existing experiences. Order in the
as spontaneous, creative individuals. She saw
environment makes children feel safe and
the role of education as providing environments
that they know how things should be. Great
in which the children could be set free to follow
emphasis is therefore put on order within the
their natural impulses to become the wonderfully
Montessori classroom. By ensuring that
dynamic, natural learners, they were designed to
everything has its place, and that the
be.
environment is designed to be as accessible
Providing environments in which the children as possible for children to work in, they can
could be set free to follow their natural impulses then be given the maximum freedom to
to become the wonderfully dynamic, natural move and develop.
learners they were designed to be.

Freedom of choice within clear, firm

and reasonable boundaries
Montessori noticed that there were certain
periods of particular sensitivity that kept
occurring in the children. During these
Learning through senses
periods the child could learn the activity
that she was focused on at a particularly 75% visual

intense rate and that such learning 13% Hearing

appeared to come very easily. They &touching
included a sensitive period for order,
12% Smell &
refinement of the senses, language taste
acquisition, walking and movement,
small objects and involvement in social
life.
Montessori saw that children built on their
Montessori teachers therefore watch out physical experiences of the world through their
for these very creative periods and make senses and that by carefully designing
sure that the children have the freedom to interesting materials which the children were
follow their interests. drawn to experiment with, she could help them
extend this understanding. She did so by
taking each of the senses in turn and
What is a sensitive period? developing materials that isolated certain
A sensitive period is a block of time in the child’s aspects that could then be increasingly
life when they are absorbed with one explored by the children. She believed that
characteristic of their environment to the children loved working with beautiful objects
exclusion of all others. Once a sensitive
so all the materials were prepared with the
period has passed, it will never return in the
same way. The child is still able to learn the greatest care. Rather than proving to be
skill, but with greater difficulty. outdated in the modern world, these
beautifully designed items have gone on to
Key identifiers show how accurate Montessori’s initial
observations were. Many are now reproduced
Easily repeat Joy & pleasure in schools of all types throughout the world.

Focus & interest Energy & Intense interest

Montessori saw that children underwent
extraordinary transformations in overall
happiness, self-confidence and self-
discipline when they were allowed to follow
their innate needs. She saw that the work of
a child, therefore, was fundamentally
different to that of the adult: that the child Montessori's emphasis on children being
worked for the joy of the process rather than allowed the freedom to work alone and to
for the end result, that the child had a need develop concentration, did not mean that she
to repeat activities over and over until an underestimated the importance of social
inner need was fulfilled, and that the child development. Instead what she saw was that
was excited and energised through work, it was precisely because the children were
rather than burdened and fatigued by it. She allowed to work in such freedom that they
felt that children only stopped loving learning could display such love and care towards
when they were forced to go against their others. She saw that children literally
natural impulses. absorbed the world around them and that true
discipline and harmony was something that
came from within and was not something that
could be enforced.

Montessori schools believe that children are at their happiest when they are busily involved in
processes. Children are natural learners who, if left to follow their instincts, will want to constantly
explore the world. All too often what stops children enjoying this natural curiosity are external
demands that don't fit with their needs. The only results young children are interested in are the
ones that end up making them feel good about themselves and their abilities. When they learn,
instead, that there are unacceptable results that make them feel bad about themselves they start to
fear the processes. And that fear can cut them off from the joy of learning forever.

Montessori schools therefore believe that each child is an individual and should be encouraged to
work at the pace that is right for him or her. There are no grades or tests. Children are never in
competition with each other.

Important – “the process” RESULTS are not the most important thing
Montessori called her teachers Directresses
because she felt that they sensitively
guided, rather than controlled, the children’s
activities. She asked that they be more
psychologists than teachers and considered
that success lay in the ongoing nature of the
teachers own personal development as well
as on the sensitivity of the observations of As she watched the children busily going
individual children. Ultimately she saw their about their work, Montessori realized that it
role as not so much to teach the children as was natural and very easy for the younger
to direct the natural energies that they saw children to learn by watching and listening to
emerging. the older children. In fact she saw that
children learn best this way and that
Show, not tell. Use the fewest something wonderful happened when a
number of words possible community of children could actively support
during presentations. The and help each other. Montessori schools
child’s focus should be on the therefore encourage children of all ages to
materials and the presentation, work together as a social group and do not
not on your words. normally split children by sex or age.
 From 0-6 is what Montessori called the all-around
formative period of the Absorbent Mind. It is the period
in the child’s development that forms the foundation for
later intellectual and psychological development.
Montessori believed that it is of utmost importance for
us to take full advantage of this unique “mind” so that
we can most fully enrich the formation of the child’s
mind and body.

The unconscious (0-3 years) the child is

unconsciously absorbing what is around him and is
more reactive than purposeful in his actions

The conscious (3 – 6 years) begins to explore the

outer environment through more purposeful movement
and exercise

Source :
The physical environment of a Montessori classroom
http://www.montessori.org.uk/what_is_mont
is essori/the_philosophy
designed with children in mind. All furniture is
appropriately sized, and materials are placed to be
accessible by the children in the room. The
environment is prepared with developmentally
appropriate materials designed to stimulate multiple
senses and stimulate learning. Self-correcting
materials are available so that students may work on
them independently. These materials can be cross-
curricular, including blocks, letters, and other types of
manipulatives.

The environment is prepared in every way for optimal

development: physically, cognitively, socially and
emotionally.
 The practical and

1
sensorial skills learned in
the first two areas have
laid the groundwork for
academic

2 3

Academic

Cultural Art &

Mathematics Language
Studies Creativity

Reading History

Writing Geography

Speaking Science
 Montessori believed that children have mathematical minds
and she revolutionized the way in which mathematics is
taught. She developed a wonderful set of materials. The
mathematical concept is presented from concrete to abstract,
simple to complex. Montessori math materials are grouped
into 5 categories.

Introduces sets of 1-10 which prepares the child for

counting and teaches the value of quantity. Children begin
to associate numeral and quantity with number rods and
number cards. A child will gain a growing understanding of
sequence. Spindle boxes, cards and counters, the short

Group 1
bead stair, and other 1- 10 additional counting activities
may reinforce the one through ten numeral concept.

Group 2
Involves the decimal system using the golden bead material. The child will become familiar with

the names of the decimal categories; UNITS, TENS, HUNDREDS and THOUSANDS. A

concrete experience with each category is represented by beads. Quantity will be followed by
symbol and association.
 Deals with the operations using the
Introduce concept and
golden bead material. Children work
process of
with each other and benefit from
these exercises using the bank game. ADDITION

Progression then continues using SUBTRACTION

operations with the stamp game.
MULTIPLICATION
Group 3 &

DIVISION

Learning Activity
Find what is Golden Bead Bank game and Stamp game.

Group 4
Consists of linear counting. Quantity is presented using the teen and
ten boards followed by symbol and association. The one-hundred
board and bead chains develop number concepts and recognition of
numbers one through one-hundred. The bead chains also introduce
the child to skip counting; five, ten, fifteen, twenty, etc.

Group 5
Contains activities such as strip boards,
snake game, and memorization of facts.
Fractions are also a part of this group.
Fraction skittles and insets serve this
purpose.
Language
Language development in Montessori 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. According to Montessori, for the child to
learn to write, he or she must first acquire the mechanics of writing. This is accomplished through
use of metal insets that allow for a large number of different tracing and drawing activities.

Keys to the doorway of literacy Montessori Writing

are:
Using these ‘keys’ children learn how to:
Sandpaper letters
Form letters
Movable alphabets
Match sounds to letters
Metal insets
Analyse the stream of spoken
language for individual sounds
Compose written language
Control a pencil
 Word reading activities include;
 Labelling objects in the environment
 Labelling the qualities of the sensorial materials
 Labelling the picture card sets used to enrich vocabulary.
 Reading cards and booklets for learning all the ways of spelling each of the key digraph
sounds.
 Learning sight words
 Acting out action words written on red cards
 Using beautiful charts and two movable alphabets in different colours to explore words
and their parts (compound words, plurals, word families, prefixes, suffixes)

Spoken language
The Montessori classroom provides a rich context for oral language development. Children learn
the language or languages, they hear spoken around them during an extended sensitive period,
which spans the first stage of development from 0-6 years. From a Montessori point of view, the
adult’s task is not to work on children’s language, but to help children develop themselves, in
particular, to help children develop:

 Know-how and independence, and therefore confidence in their own abilities

 Knowledge about the world

 The ability to organize what is in the mind

Additional activities ; nomenclature cards, rhyming objects and pictures, sequence story cards,
go-togethers, boxes of objects grouped by phonetic commonality, picture-label matching sets,
dictation games, command games, grammar games.
 Montessori saw that
young children were full
of curiosity and loved
exploring new things for
themselves. She also
saw that they wanted to
explore things in
increasingly complex
ways. When she
experimented with what
they might be interested
in she was astonished
just how much they
wanted to know and how
much they were able to
remember. She therefore
tried to find ways to help
them understand the
world beyond their own
environments. She
developed a wide range
of beautiful materials that
allowed the children to
gain an appreciation of;
 Geography History
follows from the puzzle map
The study work. More envelopes are
begins with small globes that prepared with images relating
children love to touch. Then they to the child’s own continent
move onto the puzzle maps. such as things and events from
There is a set of colour-coded earlier times. One continent or
envelopes, one for each continent country and its history might
contain set of people pictures, become the focus of activities
plants and animals that live including art projects, writing,
there. food preparation, displays,
model-making or plays.

Science
Activities in Montessori share many of
the features of practical life exercises.
There is usually a nature table displayed
items of interest such as rocks, shells,
feathers, leaves, etc. Ideally the items
should invite sensory exploration. In the
outdoors children observe living creatures
in their habitat. The teacher models of
observation techniques that show respect
and concern for our environment. Small
field trips might be organized for
example a nature walk to the local park.
 Art
Creativity
Montessori felt that it is very important for
children to be allowed to express themselves
Visual art activities are an extension of the
freely. She was aware, however, that they
exercises of the senses. Free work with
are very often frustrated by the fine motor
media such as clay, paint or crayons is
skills they need for such things as cutting and
always available. In any week there is limited
gluing. She therefore developed many
selection of activities drawn from a larger
indirect activities that help children develop
repertoire, for example sewing, weaving,
the necessary abilities. The Montessori
printing or collage. Many Montessori
environment is full of opportunities to
classrooms include set of art appreciation
experiment with different and exciting
cards. The pictures on these cards are
materials. Whether involved in painting,
artworks that are highly valued by people in
singing, playing instruments or dancing,
the culture. Children use these pictures in
children are allowed to be individuals, free to
matching and sorting
express their feelings and emotions and free
to enjoy the rich worlds of movement, sound,
colour and sensation.

Playing Singing
instrument Sewing
Collage
Printing
Painting
s Weaving
Dancing

Drawing
The Montessori Sensorial curriculum promotes the development and refinement of the 5 senses.
Children learn through their senses and all materials in a Montessori environment provide learning

through touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing or hands-on manipulation.

“Nothing comes to the intellect that is not first in the senses”

(Montessori, Secret of Childhood, p.100).

Purposes;

 Focus on some obvious, particular quality. For example red rods the
quality of length, pink tower cubes, size and bells, musical pitch.

 Help children more aware of the capacity of their bodies to

receive, interpret and make use of stimuli.

 Help sharpen children’s powers of observation and visual

discrimination.

 Increase children’s ability to think, a process that depends on the

ability to distinguish, classify and organize.

 Prepare children for the onset of the sensitive periods for writing
and reading.
Types of sense exercises
The colour tablets belong to the group of materials that train the visual
sense. Other materials in this group train children to perceive finer and
finer differences in, for example thickness, volume, length and shape.
Many of these materials prepare children for the study of mathematics.

Visual
Colour Tablet Broad stairs Knobless Cylinder
Knobless Knobless Knobless
cylinders cylinders cylinders
Taste Pink tower– Train children Pink
and smell tower
to discriminate Pink tower
between different tastes
and smells in the environment.
Broad stair Broad stair Broad stair
Baric - prepare children for measuring mass
Long rod Long rod Long rod
Thermic - measuring temperature

Stereognostic- the term stereognostic was coined by Montessori to

Tactile describe the way we use our senses to differentiate between 3-D shapes.
Sorting games and mystery bags train this ability.

Sound boxes, listening games and the Montessori bells. Sound boxes
train children to perceive differences in sound quality.

Audio
The philosophy of Practical Life is to develop the child’s concentration,
independence & coordination.

Practical Life exercises help children find

Activities their place in their home by becoming
pouring, sorting, food preparation involved in how their home works and
how they can best function in their home.
care of self (hand washing &
When children become involved in the
dressing)
workings of their home, it creates a great
care of the environment (table sense of pride and builds self-confidence.
setting, sweeping), This sense of self-confidence will be
imprinted in their being for future success.
Social relations (saying excuse
me, introducing oneself.

Practical Life

Analysis &
Caree of the Care of the Social
Control of
person environment Relations
Movement

Learning Activity
List as much as possible the activities for each different types of practical life.
 Respect
children and
their learning

Introduce learning Make children

materials and the center of
demonstrate lessons learning

Role of Montessori teacher

Prepare Encourage
learning children's
environments learning

Observe The Montessori teacher

Children demonstrate certain behaviors
to implement the principles
of this approach. 6 essential
roles in a Montessori program
are as shown.

Discussion

1. From your point of view, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Montessori
program.

2. Base on the point given, elaborate the role of teacher in Montessori program.

References
Fundamentals of Early Childhood Education. 3rd edition. George S. Morrison. (2003). Upper
saddle River.