Playful Learning and

Playful Learning and
Montessori Education
by Angeline S. Lillard
Although Montessori education is often considered a form of playful learn-
ing, Maria Montessori herself spoke negatively about a major component
of playful learning—pretend play, or fantasy—for young children. In
this essay, the author discusses this apparent contradiction: how and why
Montessori education includes elements of playful learning while simul-
taneously eschewing fantasy. She concludes with a discussion of research
on the outcomes of Montessori education and on pretend-play research,
clarifying how Montessori education relates to playful learning.
In recent years, educators have begun using the didactic teaching

methods appropriate for older children in preschool settings (Zigler
and Bishop-Josef 2004). Increasingly, we see children ages three to
five expected to sit and listen to lessons without interacting (Hamre
and Pianta 2007). Such an approach to learning belies the principles
of constructivism that much research on human learning shows to
be effective. In fact, many educators now call for one constructivist
approach in particular, playful learning, as a developmentally ap-
propriate alternative to didactic instruction (Fisher et al. 2011)—as
a way to help preschoolers learn in the ways they naturally learn.
Along a line running from free play (in which children play indepen-
dently), through guided play (where an adult oversees and gently
directs—or scaffolds—their play), to didactic instruction (where a
teacher directly instructs children), playful learning occupies the
span between free play and guided play.
Dr. Angeline Lillard, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia,

has been studying Montessori’s methods for more than two decades. In
her best-selling book Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius, and
through articles, an educational DVD, and speaking engagements, Dr.
Lillard presents Montessori’s theoretical principles, the science research
that has followed them, and how they are implemented in a Montessori
classroom.
Reprinted from the American Journal of Play 5,2 (2013, Winter): 157-
186. Reprinted by permission from The Strong.
Lillard • Playful Learning and Montessori Education 137

As described by Fisher et al., free play includes object play, pre-
tend and sociodramatic play, and rough-and-tumble play, in all of
which children engage without close adult oversight or control. Free
play is fun, flexible, active, and voluntary (i.e., without extrinsic
reward). Free play also often includes elements of make-believe and
also often involves peers. Guided play occurs when an adult aims
a child towards specific knowledge in a playful, fun, and relaxed
way. Guided play often involves specific toys with which a child
can interact to gain knowledge. A supervising adult observes the
child closely and asks questions to help the child learn but, as with
free play, respects the child’s own interests and pacing. In contrast,
didactic instruction is teacher centered and teacher paced and more
likely to involve listening to words rather than working with objects.
We commonly associate didactic instruction with school, although
today’s teacher education courses seldom extol its methods.
Again, playful learning spans both free play and guided play.
Playful learning is child centered, constructivist, affectively positive,
and hands-on. It can involve fantasy but does not necessarily do so.
At the guided-play end of the playful-learning span, “teachers might
enhance children’s exploration and learning by commenting on their
discoveries, co-playing along with the children, asking open-ended
questions about what children are finding, or exploring the materi-
als in ways that children might not have thought to do” (Weisberg,
Hirsch-Pasek, and Golinkoff, in press). Recent meta-analyses sug-
gests that more directed forms of “discovery learning” are optimal
(relative to pure discovery learning and didactic instruction) and
consistent with the idea that playful learning is an excellent ap-
proach for helping children (Alfieri et al. 2010).
Although some researchers cite Montessori education as a prime

example of playful learning (Diamond and Lee 2011; Elkind 2007;
Hirsh-Pasek et al. 2009), others have noted that founder Maria Mon-
tessori thought play “developmentally irrelevant” (Rubin, Fein, and
Vandenberg 1983, 694). This article, focusing particularly on Maria
Montessori’s views about pretend play, discusses how Montessori
education resembles and does not resemble playful learning. The
article then reviews the research on the results of the Montessori
style of playful learning.
138 The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 38, No. 2 • Spring 2013

W hat I s M ontessori ?
Montessori education began in the early 1900s (Montessori

[1912] 1964). The first House of Children (Casa dei Bambini) opened
in 1907 and served preschool-aged children in a housing project
in Rome. Montessori’s method quickly spread to serve different
populations of children. In just five years, Montessori classrooms
had opened round the world, including an outdoor “classroom” at
the University of Virginia (Holsinger, Hebich, and Walters 1976).
So impressed was Montessori by the transformation of the children
in her schools, that despite having expended enormous efforts to
become one of the first women in Italy with a medical degree (Povell
2009), she abandoned her career as a doctor and professor. She spent
the rest of her life—almost fifty years—developing and refining the
Montessori system, extending it for children from birth through age
twelve. When she died in 1952, she was developing Montessori
methods for adolescents (Montessori [1948] 1976).
Montessori classrooms ideally contain age groupings spanning

three years: infant to three years old, three to six, six to nine, and nine
to twelve. Working materials, kept on shelves and freely available to
the children, are organized into topics such as language, math, and
so on. The materials are designed so that if children make mistakes,
they can see and correct them without close teacher supervision or
intervention. Areas of the curriculum are tightly interconnected. I
discuss Montessori education in this article, but the reader can easily
find full depictions of the method (Humphryes 1998; Lillard 2005;
and Montessori 1967a, 1967b, 1972). For a comparison with other
teaching methods like Waldorf and Reggio Emilia, I advise the reader
to investigate Carolyn Edwards’s excellent “Three Approaches from
Europe” (2002). But, before I discuss how Montessori resembles and
does not resemble playful learning, I offer three caveats.
First, the descriptions here are of authentic Montessori pro-

grams, meaning ones that correspond closely to those Montessori
herself described in lectures and those appearing in the training
courses of the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), the
organization she founded to carry on her work. Because “Montes-
sori” is not a trademarked term, a variety of schools call themselves
Montessori, including ones where children rarely use Montessori

materials and some featuring computer-topped desks set in rows.
Unfortunately, many visitors to such schools do not realize how far
afield these settings are from those Maria Montessori developed
or would have endorsed.
Second, some assume Montessori education is expensive and

exclusive and therefore unworthy of consideration in discussions
about public education. But Montessori education was initially
developed for poor children in the slums of Rome, and public
schools have implemented Montessori education successfully at
lower-than-average costs in low-income districts in such cities as
Hartford, Connecticut, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In Hartford,
Connecticut, public schools in 2010, the average cost per pupil was
about $13,000, whereas the cost at the city’s Capitol Region Educa-
tion Council’s Montessori Magnet school was $10,500 (Tim Nee,
personal communication). Thus, although most Montessori schools
in the United States are private and mainly serve children whose
parents can afford preschool tuition, there is nothing inherent in
the system or its costs that restricts it to the well-to-do.
Third, many assume Montessori education is good only for par-

ticular (and sometimes contradictory) populations—boys or girls,
children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) or
children high in executive function (involving prefrontal activities
like working memory, planning, and self-control), gifted children
or children with learning disabilities, and so on. I discuss research
outcomes at the end of this article, but no research available today
indicates that Montessori education suits any one type of child in
particular (but see Yen and Ispa 2000). With these considerations in
mind, let us move on to Montessori and playful learning.
H ow D oes M ontessori R esemble P layful L earning ?
Montessori resembles playful learning in several ways (see figure

1), and I discuss each of them.
Overall Structure
In a classroom, a daily schedule—with its expectations about

what happens when—constitutes one aspect of an overall structure.
Another aspect is the level of structure within any given activity. For

example, at art time, is drawing free and unstructured or is there a
structured assignment with a prescribed set of steps?
Conventional education tends to be less structured in preschool

and more tightly structured thereafter, although in recent years,
preschools have become more structured in response to the 2001
federal law called No Child Left Behind (Hamre and Pianta 2007;
Zigler and Bishop-Josef 2004). The conventional change in education
methods for children at age six from looser to more rigid structures
Playful Learning and Montessori Education 161
Like playful Not like

Element of comparison
learning playful learning
Provides overall structure x
Involves objects x
Involves lessons x
Freely chosen/ child directed x x
Peer involvement possible x
Intrinsic, not extrinsic, rewards x
Fun x
Structured materials x
Specific ways to interact x

with materials
Description of activity x
Pretend play x
Figure
Figure1.1.
How thethe
How Montessori method
Montessori is and
method is is
andnotislike
notplayful learning
like playful learning
Lillard
as the teacher guides • Playfultowards
the children Learning and Montessori
established goals. Education 141
In terms of overall structure, Montessori education appears to some observ-
ers loose and amorphous and to others, rigid. Montessori education actually falls
corresponds to an uptick in a child’s responsibilities and adult ex-
pectations at this age across many cultures (Rogoff et al. 1975).
In an educational program that follows the principles of playful

learning, the teacher provides structure by guiding the children’s
learning towards established goals. Children often freely choose their
activities, conferring a sense of freedom, but the teacher, however
subtly, still leads them. This is true at the level of materials as well:
there is some guidance but considerable freedom of choice as the
teacher guides the children towards established goals.
In terms of over-
all structure, Montes- Whether one sees Montessori education
sori education appears as loose or rigid depends on the level
to some observers loose at which one focuses. If one focuses on
and amorphous and to the microlevel of table washing, it might
others, rigid. Montes- seem excessively rigid. If one focuses
sori education actually on the higher level of the freedom
falls midway between children have to choose what they do
these characterizations: when and with whom, it seems loose.
it embeds freedom within And, if one focuses on the (at least,
structure and structure in some senses) even higher levels of
within freedom. The over-
the curriculum and its expectations for
arching principle calls for
behavior, it seems structured again.
the child’s behavior to be
constructive for his or her
development—and for the community, too. Well-trained Montessori
teachers require children to behave in constructive ways. They often
ask children who misbehave to stay at their sides, where they can
monitor the miscreants closely and, in effect, externally control the
misbehavior. Teachers gradually allow the children to move away as
the youngsters learn to control themselves and can therefore function
more independently. Most children do not need to stand by like this,
and those who do rarely need to do so for long. In this sense, then,
Montessori education is very structured.
The curriculum presents another structured element of Montes-

sori education. Montessori has a set of lessons and materials for
each classroom level, and in any given subject (math or music, for
example), the teachers present the materials in a fairly ordered se-

quence. In Montessori teacher-training courses, teachers walk through
the presentation of the materials and the theory underlying them.
Within this sequencing of precise lessons with specific materials,
children in Montessori programs can choose freely what to do, so
it is at this level that Montessori education seems so unstructured.
But embedded even here, within that free choice, the work itself
remains tightly structured. One can opt to wash a table, but there
are specific steps one must follow in doing so. One must carry a mat
to a table, lift the table onto the mat, fill a bucket to a specific level
with water and add a specific amount of soap, carry the bucket and
washing materials to the mat, put a sponge in the water, squeeze
out the water with a taught squeezing motion, wipe the table from
left to right (replicating the direction needed for writing), dry the
table with a towel (from left to right), and so on—all, again, very
tightly structured.
Thus, whether one sees Montessori education as loose or rigid

depends on the level at which one focuses. If one focuses on the
microlevel of table washing, it might seem excessively rigid. If one
focuses on the higher level of the freedom children have to choose
what they do when and with whom, it seems loose. And, if one focuses
on the (at least, in some senses) even higher levels of the curriculum
and its expectations for behavior, it seems structured again.
Playful learning, too, is structured in some ways but not in oth-

ers. Teachers guide learning within structures but do so playfully
and loosely, with particular focus on the goals they have in mind. By
adhering in some ways but not others to a tight, overall structure,
Montessori education resembles playful learning.
The Use of Objects
Conventional direct instruction typically lacks any materials that

children manipulate to learn. Teachers might illustrate a triangle on
a blackboard, for example, but not employ a physical triangle. Such
instruction is designed for learning through the eyes and ears, not
through the hands.
In contrast, playful learning typically involves objects with which

children play to learn. Children learning shapes, for example, handle
objects of different forms, perhaps tracing the forms with their fingers

in addition to seeing them. In this way, playful learning embodies
cognition. A wealth of evidence suggests that learning is enhanced
when it is embodied across modalities (Barsalou et al. 2003; Lil-
lard, 2005); and there are specific benefits when hands are involved
(Beilock and Goldin-Meadow 2010; Lagnado and Sloman 2002; Sobel
and Kushnir 2006; Wagner Cook, Kuangyi Yip, and Goldin-Meadow
2010). Using objects to engage children in learning ensures manual
involvement. In addition, object based learning is active rather than
passive, and activity is also associated with better learning (Glenberg
et al. 2004). Research on preschool programs in seven countries found
that learning involving a variety of manipulable objects fosters cogni-
tive development (Montie, Xiang, and Schweinhart 2006).
Montessori education abounds with objects suited to manipula-

tion in the course of learning. Montessori teacher trainers strongly
agree on eighty-three sets of materials a Montessori primary class-
room (for three- to six-year-olds) should contain (Lillard 2011a),
covering curriculum areas of sensorial (including beginning music
instruction), math, language, science and geography, practical life,
and art. Montessori teacher trainers have further identified materials
suited to classrooms for children in the other age groupings (infants
to three-year-olds, for example). Teachers in a Montessori classroom
learn during their teacher training how to present the materials used
for a particular semiscripted lesson to their students. The Montes-
sori training intends the repeated use of these materials to convey
specific learning.
For example, the Wooden Cylinders (see figure 2) involve plac-

ing a set of ten graduated cylinders into their appropriate slots in a
long wooden base. There are four sets of Wooden Cylinders, varying
in width, height, and opposing combinations of height and width.
Children play with the set of cylinders varying only in width first
because it is most simple both dimensionally and because the pieces
are easiest for a young child to pull out. The teacher first gives
children a lesson in how to take out all the cylinders, mix them up,
and place them into their proper holes. After the teacher presents
the task, children are free to play with the Wooden Cylinders on
their own. Through this work, three-year-olds focus on dimensional
concepts they will later apply in formal mathematics (width, height,
volume). They also learn to judge, reason, and act on their own

decisions (Montessori [1912] 1964). They receive feedback on the
adequacy of their decisions from the materials themselves rather
164 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF P L AY sWINTER 2013
than from the teacher: If there is a cylinder-hole mismatch at the
end, children know that they mistakenly put too small a cylinder
in their
on too large a hole;(Montessori
own decisions they need[1912]
to figure
1964).out which
They receiveone; and on
feedback they
the
correct the
adequacy error.
of their decisions from the materials themselves rather than from the
teacher: If there is a cylinder-hole mismatch at the end, children know that they
Thus like playful learning, Montessori education involves objects.
mistakenly put too small a cylinder in too large a hole; they need to figure out
In Montessori education, those objects are carefully constructed and
which one; and they correct the error.
presented to confer specific learning. The materials in Montessori
Thus like playful learning, Montessori education involves objects. In Mon-
also typically are self-correcting; in playful learning these latter
tessori education, those objects are carefully constructed and presented to confer
aspects are not a given.
specific learning. The materials in Montessori also typically are self-correcting;
in playful learning
Interactive Lessonsthese latter aspects are not a given.
Michelene
Interactive Chi suggests that the best learning comes from contexts
Lessons
that are not
Michelene Chi just active
suggests thator
theconstructive (2009),
best learning comes butcontexts
from also interactive.
that are not
Conventional
just school lessons
active or constructive arealso
(2009), but sometimes interactive,
interactive. Conventionalsometimes
school les-
not, are
sons depending
sometimeshow many questions
interactive, a teacher
sometimes not, asks.how
depending Playful
manylearning
questions
often proves interactive when it is more guided and less interactive as
it becomes freer. In guided play, the teacher tells or shows the children
Figure 2. A Montessori student plays with the Wooden Cylinders to learn dimensional
concepts she will later apply to studying mathematics. (Photograph by An Vu)
Figure 2. A Montessori student plays with the Wooden Cylinders to
learn dimensional concepts she will later apply to studying mathematics.
(Photograph by An Vu)
how to handle learning materials. In the lesson dealing with shapes,
for example, a teacher extends the initial lesson by asking children
to consider the ways in which all the triangles are alike, and through
such questions, helps the children arrive at a definition of triangles.
All the while, the children interact with the materials.
Montessori lessons are also interactive. Most Montessori lessons

involve individuals or groups of two to six children, depending on the
age of the children and how many in a class are ready for a particular
lesson. Younger children are more apt to get one-on-one lessons. The
teacher typically determines the children’s readiness by watching
their interactions with materials they learned about in prior lessons.
When the teacher sees that children have mastered one lesson in the
sequence, the teacher considers them ready to move on to the next.
For most lessons, the teacher sits at a table or on a rug on the

floor and shows children how to use the materials. The children take
turns. A teacher might show children a sandpaper “b,” for example,
and demonstrate how to trace the letter while saying “Buh. Buh. Can
you think of a word that starts with buh?” The children trace the
letter, often first using the teacher ’s hand as a guide. Thus, Montes-
sori lessons involve a great deal of interaction, as does more guided
playful learning.
Freely Chosen
In conventional school programs, teachers typically choose ac-

tivities for children. The children have little say, although in some
preschool settings “free choice” occurs during “stations” time,
when children spend a set amount of time (e.g., seven minutes) at
a “station” or table offering a particular activity and then move on
to another station.
With playful learning, children’s own interests drive the agenda.

An adult provides the activities and objects and guides the chil-
dren’s engagement with the materials, but an aura of free choice
pervades. Important to this aura in playful learning, no one forces
children to engage if they choose not to do so. If children choose
to engage in some way other than expected, the adult follows the
children’s lead and tries imperceptibly to return the youngsters to
the learning agenda.

Choice in Montessori education varies by level (Lillard 2005).
Free choice exists at the macrolevel of classroom environment: most
of the time, most Montessori students choose what they work on. A
child might decide to iron napkins, cut carrots and offer them around
the classroom, wash a table, or take apart and put back together
a puzzle map of Europe. As I discuss later, at the more microlevel
of exercises within the environment, Montessori education offers
less freedom.
The best learning takes place when individuals choose to study

what interests them (Cordova and Lepper 1996; Deci, Koestner,
and Ryan 2001; Renninger, Hidi, and Krapp 1992; Ryan and Deci
2000). But when possibilities are too openended (as in pure discov-
ery), learning can fail to occur (Honomichl and Chen 2012; Klahr
and Nigam 2004; Mayer 2004). The guidance offered by adults in
Montessori education and playful learning appears to provide
the structure that ensures that learning happens within contexts
of free choice.
Peers
Conventional education calls for children to learn by sitting

alone at desks and listening to a teacher. Although some conven-
tional educational activities are social (like peer tutoring or group
work), these tend to be exceptions.
Playful learning can occur one-on-one with an adult or involve

one or more peers. This is inherent in the definition of playful
learning proposed by Hirsh-Pasek and her colleagues, a definition
which includes two types of social free play—sociodramatic and
rough and tumble. Montessori lessons can involve individuals or
small groups. Apart from these lessons—which might typically take
twenty minutes for each child—children usually may choose whether
to work alone or with peers. At younger ages, many children prefer
to work alone, but as they grow older (especially as they reach the
elementary-school level), they often choose to work with peers, just
as children do at different ages in natural settings (Hartup 1983).
Both Montessori education and playful learning, then, accom-

modate peer interaction. Although in free play, playful learning

might occur only with peers, in both the guided play and Montessori
classes it occurs initially with a teacher and later with individuals
or in small groups. In a Montessori classroom, for example, you
will find long chains of glass beads that can be linked together to
stretch across the entire floor space. The children use these bead
chains for counting and then for skip counting (counting by fives,
for example). A child might work with these chains alone, stretch-
ing the beads along the floor and then placing a numbered arrow
every five beads. Or a child could work collaboratively with one
or more other children. The point here is that playful learning and
Montessori education resemble one another in allowing as much
peer interaction as a child chooses.
No Extrinsic Rewards
In conventional didactic instruction, teachers often use gold stars

and grades to inspire children to behave well and to learn material.
Behind these rewards lies a behaviorist model of children and learn-
ing, perhaps because public schools became widely established in
the early 1900s when behaviorism was popular among educators.
In contrast, playful learning occurs for its own sake. Children

are intrinsically motivated to play. In Montessori education as
well, the intrinsic reward of learning is an end in itself. It was
not always so: Montessori originally thought children needed
rewards, and she offered them nice toys to play with after they
successfully read words (Montessori [1912] 1965). But when she
saw children cast aside the toys and request more words to read
instead, Montessori came to believe that, under conditions of free
choice, learning was its own reward. She then eliminated extrinsic
rewards from the program.
It sometimes amazes observers that a classroom of twenty-five to

thirty children can busily engage in twenty to thirty different activi-
ties peacefully without any rewards, especially at the elementary-
school level when the children are clearly doing academic work like
writing reports. Why do it, one wonders, if not for a grade? A wealth
of research shows that rewards can disrupt interest in a previously
attractive activity (Deci, Koestner, and Ryan 2001; Warneken and
Tomasello 2008). In one classic study, some children who frequently

used markers for drawing were offered a reward for drawing with
markers. Afterwards they used markers less than they had before
and less than other children who were not offered rewards for using
them (Lepper, Greene, and Nisbett 1973). Other studies have also
found that extrinsic rewards lower creativity (Amabile, Hennessey,
and Grossman 1986). Perhaps never receiving grades or rewards for
doing schoolwork allows children in Montessori programs to retain
an intrinsic interest in such work (Lepper and Henderlong, 2000). In
both playful learning and Montessori education, the activities are
intrinsically rewarding, and extrinsic rewards are not offered.
Fun
Many of us assume conventional school is no fun. Hence, people

who see children out and about during school hours frequently
say, “Aren’t you lucky you are not in school!” It is a time-honored
reaction. As William Blake wrote in 1794: “But to go to school on a
summer morn/Oh it drives all joy away/Under a cruel eye outworn/
The little ones spend the day/In sighing and dismay.”
In contrast, playful learning is, by definition, fun and enjoyable.

Montessori education also has an enjoyable sense of “flow” (Csik-
szentmihalyi 1997). A well-functioning Montessori classroom is full
of deeply engaged children enjoying themselves, though the fact
that they look like they are concentrating rather than, say, laughing
while dancing sometimes gives the impression they are not having
fun. Yet (as I describe later) children in Montessori programs seem
to like school, even in middle school, when conventionally schooled
children often come to strongly dislike classwork (Lillard and Else-
Quest 2006; Rathunde and Csikszentmihalyi 2005a).
Summary
In short, Montessori education resembles playful learning in

many ways, ways in which both contrast with conventional schooling.
Both enjoy a blend of freedom and structure using didactic objects,
interactive teacher lessons, freely chosen activities, and engagement
with peers—all activities that are intrinsically motivating rather
than extrinsically rewarded, and all enjoyable. However, Montessori
education also differs from playful learning in key ways.

H ow D oes M ontessori E ducation D iffer from P layful L earning ?
There are four ways in which Montessori education differs from

playful learning: the deep structure of the materials, the limits on
choice, the description of school activities, and the lack of pretend
play (see figure 1).
Structure of the Materials
The kinds of materials used in playful learning generally do

not have the depth of structure that Montessori materials have. For
example, in preschool classrooms, we often see sets of commercially
produced wooden or plastic blocks for construction play. These
typically contain four or more shapes of blocks with as many as
a dozen of each shape. Children use the blocks to construct from
their imaginations an infinite variety of castles, farms, railroads,
and other structures. In free play, children engage at will with the
blocks; in guided play, a teacher might suggest different construc-
tions, pointing out how the shapes contrast.
Montessori classrooms do not typically use such blocks; indeed,

over 70 percent of teacher trainers believe they should not be used
in a Montessori classroom (Lillard 2011a). Instead, Montessori
primary classrooms use the three sets of blocks Maria Montessori
developed to teach the concepts of dimension: the Pink Tower, the
Brown (or Broad) Stair, and the Red Rods. Like most Montessori
materials, these blocks are both intrinsically logical and relate to
other materials in the primary classroom. For example, each set
consists of ten blocks, echoing the decimal system, and they vary
in size systematically. Pink Tower blocks vary in three dimensions
from a 1 cm cube to a 10 cm cube, increasing by 1 cm on each side
in each successive block. Blocks of the Brown Stair are all 20 cm
long but vary systematically from 1 cm in width and height to 10
cm. Red Rods are all 2.5 cm in height and width, but vary from 10
cm to 100 cm (1 meter) in length.
Children learn to use these materials in sequence, beginning

with the Pink Tower because variation in three dimensions seems
easiest to perceive. Next, using the Brown Stair, they learn to per-
ceive variation in two dimensions. Finally, they move on to the Red
Rods, which vary in only one dimension. From there, children take

up the Red and Blue Rods, the first of the Montessori mathematics
materials. Essentially, the Red and Blue Rods are the Red Rods with
alternating 10 cm sections painted blue. Children learn to number
the sections “1,” “2,” and so on, which leads to counting by naming
lengths. Montessori also developed materials for a later learning
sequence in which the lengths are broken apart so children learn
to count items.
In short, Montessori’s sets of blocks vary systematically in size

and progression of complexity and cede naturally into math materi-
als. Such logical progressions rule the entire collection of Montessori
materials and distinguish them from the more free-form materials
often used in play. The Montessori materials are each carefully
structured to impart specific information in a specific place in a
sequenced curriculum. Thus Montessori education differs from play-
ful learning by providing a large set of highly structured materials
from which to learn.
Limits on Choice
Even free play involves some limits. A child pretending to be a

fierce dog cannot actually bite his playmates without crossing the
line from play to aggression
(Bateson 1972). Thus playful
learning has its restrictions. …Recent research suggests
But Montessori education is that our tendency to think young
more restrictive. For example, c h i l d r e n p r e fe r fa n t a s y m ay
in Montessori schools, chil- be misguided. Given a choice
dren cannot choose to play between a fantasy stor y and
with materials teachers have a real one, children show no
not yet shown them how to preference…. when books are
use. Before children can take embellished with engaging pop-
materials from the shelves,
up features, children are less apt
they receive a lesson on how
to learn from them. Thus, fantasy
to use the materials in a way
elements, which adults add to
that is believed to extract
children’s lives with the idea that
the intended benefits from
youngsters prefer fantasy or find
the items. A playful-learning
it more fun and more engaging,
classroom is unlikely to have
can backfire.
such a restriction. More gener-

ally, in a Montessori classroom, children cannot choose to engage
in unconstructive activities. A teacher must decide whether activi-
ties are constructive and stop those that are not, and they usually
consider using materials for purposes other than intended to be
unconstructive. In other words, children can’t take the Brown Stair
blocks and build houses with them.
There are at least three reasons for such restrictions. Playing

freely with materials that have a symbolic purpose can interfere
with children learning the specific purpose. For example, in De-
Loache’s research (2000), a model room serves as a symbol for an
actual, bigger room. When children play with the model room as
if it were a dollhouse, they are less likely to see it as a model of an
actual, bigger room. Thus, if a set of blocks is intended to convey
dimensional change, using them to explore dimension systematically
would serve their intended purpose and be beneficial, but using
them to build a house might not.
The second reason for restricting the use of Montessori materi-

als involves classroom order. Ample research suggests that children
thrive when their environments are more orderly, so this limitation
on choice could be positive (Lillard 2005). That the Montessori
method calls for a specific orderly way in which to interact with
the materials probably in itself contributes a sense of order in a
classroom. If children used the materials in myriad ways, this sense
of order could be disrupted.
A third reason for limiting the use of materials involves self-

discipline. Children in classic Montessori classrooms excel in execu-
tive function compared to children in looser Montessori classrooms
and in conventional classrooms (Lillard 2012; Lillard and Else-Quest
2006). Perhaps the requirement that children use each material
specifically as they have been shown may explain this enhanced
executive capacity, since the children must inhibit all the other ways
in which they might interact with the objects.
For all this concern with restrictions, some variance exists in the
Montessori method in the way children can use the materials. If a
teacher judges that a child’s alternative use of a material engenders
important learning (and hence is constructive), the teacher allows

it. For example, a child might realize independently that two sides
of the blocks of the Brown Stair are equal in dimensions to the sides
of the cubes of the Pink Tower and might line the two materials up
side by side to explore this realization. A Montessori teacher would
likely view this as a wonderful discovery. The fact that Montessori
teachers sometimes embrace variation in use can complicate teach-
ing. They must decide on the spot if a child’s alternative use of the
material is constructive. If the variation seems constructive, the
teacher will not interfere; if the teacher decides the child’s varied
use is not constructive, she re-presents the material’s proper use
to the child.
In general, relative to pure playful learning, a Montessori pro-

gram will more likely restrict children’s use of classroom materials.
Whether this limitation benefits children might make an interesting
topic for empirical study. For example, if children can build houses
with the Brown Stair, does it impede their progress in the activities—
say, math—that eventually follow?
Description of Activity
A third difference between Montessori education and playful

learning involves their semantic designation or how activities are
described. Educators engaged in playful learning label the chil-
dren’s activities as play; in Montessori classrooms, we call it work.
Maria Montessori believed that in her method, children engaged
in self-construction and, they enjoyed the work that helped in their
self-construction (Montessori 1972). She spoke of “the delight that
children find in working” (Montessori 1970, 67). Advocates of
playful learning, however, view play as the opposite of didactic
schoolwork involving sitting in desks and listening to instruction
(Hirsh-Pasek et al. 2009).
Pretend Play
Besides the structured learning materials, perhaps the greatest

contrast between Montessori education and playful learning con-
cerns their respective approaches to make-believe or pretend play.
Pretending has no place in Montessori education, and this strikes
many educators as odd given the popular belief that pretending helps
children’s development (Ginsburg 2007). In addition, children love

to pretend, and they do it even in cultures that restrict it (Carlson,
Taylor, and Levin 1998; Gaskins and Goncu 1992; Lillard, Pinkham,
and Smith 2011). Children in a Montessori classroom might want
desperately to play house with the little broom and mop set (as I did
as a child), but the teachers gently direct them to other, real work,
like actually mopping the floor. Why this resistance to an activity
that comes so naturally for children?
First, Maria Montessori was essentially an empiricist. Initially,

she offered traditional toys in her classrooms (Montessori 1972), but
the children did not use them, preferring the learning materials she
had developed. Because Montessori classrooms are kept simple and
uncluttered, anything not used gets removed. However, I know of
no indications that Montessori was adverse to play. In fact, she de-
scribed the home as a place for a child to work and play (Montessori
1970). She contended that play might well be something children
enjoy in their leisure time but not all the time, as adults might enjoy
a good game of bridge but would probably tire of the game if they
played it constantly (Montessori 1972).
On the other hand, Montessori clearly opposed adults impos-

ing fantasies like Santa Claus on children, which she saw as adult
amusement: “We alone imagine, not they; they merely believe”
(Montessori 1997, 43). Credulity is a feature of children’s minds,
and she thought for adults to give children incorrect information
was to abuse their trust. Montessori’s ideas about fantasy should
be interpreted against the historical backdrop of Victorian culture,
in which fairy tales flourished (Mario Montessori 1976; Schacker
2003). Although she claimed to enjoy fairy tales herself, Montessori
described young children in her schools who left the room when
adults told fairy tales (Montessori 1989). Such behavior led her to
believe that children under age six, in an environment truly serving
their needs, had no interest in fairy tales.
And she took it a step further. Montessori even disliked adults

engaging in basic object-substitution pretense with children, as when,
for example, they gave a child a Froebel block and called it a horse
(Montessori 1997). She strove to develop her educational system to
help children move towards independence (Montessori [1949] 1974),
and she found adult-imposed fantasy unhelpful to that end.

Some child-development specialists maintained that pretend-
ing paves the way for later acceptance of religious ideas (Cadman
1926). In response to this idea, Montessori wrote, “religious persons
well know that . . . myth must cease to be real as soon as the child’s
mind matures, whereas faith must accompany a human being until
the end of his life” (Montessori 1997, 46). One recent relevant study
found that children who accepted a new fantasy creature, a “Candy
Witch” that replaces candy with a toy after Halloween, associated the
figure with other fantasy characters like Santa Claus and the Tooth
Fairy (Boerger, Tullos, and Woolley 2009). This finding suggests that
some children create a category of entities that do not conform to
physical laws; once they have such a category, they add new entities
to it. Perhaps this suggestion supports Cadman’s views (1926) on
the role of fantasy characters with respect to religious belief rather
than Montessori’s outlook.
Despite concern about adults imposing fantasy on young children,

Montessori clearly valued imagination highly—indeed imagina-
tion is the basis of the Montessori curriculum for the elementary
classroom (Montessori [1948] 1976). However, she maintained that
truth underpins all great acts of imagination and, thus, that young
children should be told the truth.
Although many of Montessori’s books discuss her views on pre-

tense and fantasy in general, I know of no discussion in her works
about pretending in the classroom other than her reference to children
appearing uninterested in the toys she initially supplied. My guess
is that she would not have stopped children from pretending in the
classroom had special materials been provided for that purpose and
that she would have expected the pretending to cease naturally when
the children became engaged with other materials. However, there
are no Montessori materials intended for pretend play. The closest
might be the miniature farm animals provided for The Farm, but they
are part of a nomenclature exercise, not a pretend-play diorama. Like
Jean Piaget, who was for many years president of the Swiss Montes-
sori Society (Kramer 1976), Montessori saw children’s pretense as a
manifestation of their unsatisfied desires (Montessori 1997), and she
believed that if there were real mops to use, children would not want
to play house. Thus for her, children’s pretense seems a key to learn-
ing about children (as in play therapy), but it does not appear as a

means to development. In this sense, Montessori’s views of pretense
are very much at odds with playful learning.
Which view has more merit: pretending is important to develop-

ment, or it is not? And if it is important, how much pretense is needed
and when? Should children be allowed to pretend with materials in
a Montessori classroom? Some believe that Montessori education
would be improved by some pretense (Adele Diamond, personal
communication, 2010; Soundy 2009). Evidence that pretend play is
key to development—that the more there is of it, the better—is thin
at best (Lillard et al. 2013), and much of this evidence comes from
correlational studies showing that children who pretend more are
more advanced in other ways (Bates et al. 1980; Kavanaugh 2006).
But, of course, correlation is not causation. Other studies are prob-
lematic, and a hard look at the literature shows little support for
the idea that pretending causes positive development. It might, but
the evidence for this position, despite a forty-year effort to find it,
remains elusive.
Consider the Tools of the Mind program (Bodrova and Leong

2007), a preschool program emphasizing pretend play inspired by
the work of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky. In two randomized
controlled trials, this program has shown pretend play led to bet-
ter executive function (Diamond et al. 2007) although not to better
math or language skills (Barnett et al. 2008). Specialists usually at-
tribute the executive function boost to its pretend-play component,
yet the tools program also contains a strong planning component:
participants’ pretend play must be planned in advance, and they
must adhere to the plan. At first blush, this actually seems counter
to the aspects of pretend play most valued in playful learning. And,
indeed, to take the finding that Tools of the Mind assists executive
function as evidence that pretend play assists executive function
would be wrong. One would need to study systematically different
aspects of the tools program to learn which aspect helped children.
Until some researcher does this, we cannot know if the planning
or the pretend play or some other aspect is the important element
in the tools program assisting executive function. In addition, the
three most recent large, randomized, and controlled trials with the
tools program have not replicated the original results (Clements et
al. 2012; Lonigan and Phillips 2012; Wilson et al. 2012).

Regarding children’s love
of and need for fantasy, recent …Adults pretending with young
research suggests that our ten- children seems innocuous,
dency to think young children and children might even learn
prefer fantasy may be misguided. from it. But Montessori did
Given a choice between a fantasy not endorse adults pretending
story and a real one, children with children because her
show no preference (Guillot, preference was for adults
Olson, and Bloom 2011). Given to give children information
a choice of how to end a story, grounded in reality.
young children prefer realistic
endings to fantasy ones (Weis-
berg and Bloom 2009). Children are also misled by fantasy. When
read a story about fantasy trains that had mothers and fathers and
that experienced feelings, young children evidence misconceptions
about trains that aligned with the stories (Ganea et al. 2004). When
shown letters in the shapes of animals, children do not learn letters
as well as they do when shown plain letters, and children do not
learn new words as well from cartoon pictures as from line draw-
ings (Simcock and DeLoache 2006). Children are also less likely to
draw analogies from fantasy characters to the real world (Richert et
al. 2009; Richert and Smith 2011). And when books are embellished
with engaging pop-up features, children are less apt to learn from
them (Tare et al. 2010). Thus, fantasy elements, which adults add
to children’s lives with the idea that youngsters prefer fantasy or
find it more fun and more engaging, can backfire.
Regarding adult engagement with children in live pretending,

I know of no research suggesting it is harmful to children when
adults pretend with them. For example, when adults pretend to have
a snack with children, although there might be temporary confu-
sion (Lillard and Witherington 2004), we have no evidence of any
lasting or important disruption to children’s sense of a real snack.
There is evidence that children whose parents pretend with them
themselves pretend at a more advanced level, for example, using
object substitutions and animating characters earlier (Haight and
Miller 1992). Even within a pretend episode, children’s play proves
more advanced when a parent or an older sibling gets involved
(Lillard 2011b). Adults usually give specific signs of pretense that
children appear to interpret correctly (Lillard et al. 2007; Lillard and

Witherington 2004; Ma and Lillard 2006; Nishida and Lillard 2007).
And at least in some cases, children even appear to learn things in
pretend that they then apply in real domains (Hopkins, Dore, and
Lillard 2012; Sutherland and Friedman 2012a, 2012b). Thus adults
pretending with young children seems innocuous, and children
might even learn from it. But Montessori did not endorse adults
pretending with children because her preference was for adults to
give children information grounded in reality (Montessori 1970).
Summary
Although Montessori education shares some important similari-

ties with playful learning, there are also key differences. Montessori
education involves specific materials developed by Maria Montessori
and her colleagues designed to work together to convey specific
understandings. Although much free choice exists in Montessori
education, the choices are more limited in some ways than in playful
learning. In Montessori classrooms, children’s activities are dubbed
“work”—the work of self-construction—whereas in playful learning
these activities are called “play”. And finally, Montessori education
differs widely from playful learning in its attitudes about pretend
play and fantasy.
E vidence of M ontessori ’ s E fficacy
Playful learning would appear to be a more positive approach to

early-childhood education than didactic instruction. Is there evidence
that playful learning Montessori-style is helpful to children’s learn-
ing and development? The results of existing studies are not consis-
tent. However, if one considers them in light of program fidelity or
adherence to the Montessori method (O’Donnell 2008), a consistent
picture emerges supporting the efficacy of high-fidelity Montessori
programs for social and cognitive development. Here I review stud-
ies concerning academics and self-regulation (self-control), then I
examine studies of social and personality outcomes.
Cognitive Outcomes
Some of the earliest research on Montessori education occurred

in Head Start programs in the 1960s (Karnes, Shwedel, and Williams
1983; Miller and Bizzell 1983; Miller and Bizzell 1984; Miller and

Dyer 1975). Montessori was one of several programs compared in
two studies—one in Louisville, Kentucky, that followed children
through tenth grade and the other in Urbana, Illinois, that followed
children through high school. In the Miller study of the Louisville
students, the Montessori program did not at first outshine the
other programs, but there were sleeper effects. By second grade,
Montessori boys had better outcomes than any other group. They
sustained this superiority through ninth and tenth grades, though
by then attrition had made for a very small sample. In the Karnes
study of the students in Urbana, there were few notable outcomes
initially, but the Montessori children had the highest high school
graduation rate and scored highest on a composite rating of their
success in school.
In terms of fidelity, however, these Montessori Head Start pro-

grams left much to be desired. The Louisville study included just
two Montessori classrooms, with a total of thirty-three children, so
roughly sixteen students per group; Montessori classrooms are ex-
pected to have thirty to thirty-five children and traditionally often
have fifty. Each Head Start classroom included only four-year-olds,
not the full three-year age grouping. Each was in its first year of
existence during the period of study. Each also had teachers with
minimal training of just eight weeks. In contrast, the AMI training
course for primary teachers lasts nine months. In the Miller study, a
consultant rated programs for fidelity, and the Montessori classrooms
scored 6.5 on a 10.0-point scale (with 10.0 being very high). In the
Karnes study, the Montessori program showed the same problems
regarding limited ages and teacher training, and children worked
for just thirty minutes per day with the Montessori materials rather
than working the expected three hours for three- and four-year-olds
and twice that for five-year-olds. In sum, both Head Start Montes-
sori studies involved lower fidelity programs and did not show
immediate effects. Still, both showed some Montessori program
advantage over time.
Lillard and Else-Quest (2006) studied children’s outcomes at

age five and again at age twelve, after three and nine years in a
high-fidelity Montessori public school serving low-income children.
Importantly, admission to the Montessori school was by lottery

(parents had applied to send their children to the school). Chil-
dren who were not admitted to the school and who went to other
schools became the control group. Most of the students in the control
group were in the same school district, and some of the schools in
this district also admitted students by lottery. Such schools ranged
from language-immersion schools (in which much of the instruc-
tion occurs in a foreign language—these schools often have high
test results) to traditional public schools. The Montessori programs
were associated with AMI, which sends consultants to the schools
every three years to ensure that programs maintain AMI standards
of program fidelity.
In this study, my coauthor and I found that Montessori five-

year-olds scored higher on many cognitive and academic mea-
sures, including reading, math, executive function, and social
understanding; these youngsters scored lower that the control
group on none of the measures. At age twelve, Montessori children
scored higher on writing (sentence complexity and story creativ-
ity). Interestingly, on academic measures, we found significant
differences at age twelve for boys but not for girls (unpublished
data). The girls scored about the same across school programs on
the academic achievement measures. The boys in the Montessori
program scored significantly better than boys in the entire sample,
and boys in the more traditional public school programs scored
worse. The sample size was small, and the findings await replica-
tion; but coupled with the Miller and Dyer findings, there is the
suggestion that low-income boys in particular might benefit from
Montessori programs over time.
In a closer look at the impact of program fidelity on outcomes,

Lillard (2012) tested middle-income children ages three to six in classic
Montessori classrooms (those providing only standard Montessori
materials), supplemented Montessori classrooms (those supplementing
the standard set with typical preschool activities like LEGO sets and
workbooks), and more traditional classrooms. In my study, I found no
differences in scores across the three types of classrooms at the begin-
ning of the school year. By the end of the school year, however, the
students in the classic Montessori programs had shown the greatest
increases in executive function, reading, vocabulary, math, and theory
of mind. These results suggest that fidelity of implementation is an

important consideration in Montessori research and might explain
contradictory findings across studies.
In other studies of older children, differences in the fidelity with

which the Montessori program was implemented might also explain
contradictory findings. One study of high school students showed
significantly better math and science scores for children who had
attended Montessori schools from ages three to eleven, as compared
to demographically matched classmates who had previously attended
other schools (Dohrmann et al. 2007). In this case the Montessori
schools were also associated with AMI. In contrast, another study
found worse reading scores in eighth grade (but not fourth grade)
for Montessori students as compared with matched controls, but here
there was no consideration of Montessori program fidelity (Lopata,
Wallace, and Finn 2005). An investigation of the school that was most
likely the subject of this study—the sole public Montessori school in
the author ’s home city at the time of the study—showed significant
deviations from Montessori practice, like homework, grades, and
special teachers for different topics. Low fidelity of implementation
thus could explain the pattern of results.
Another study compared children in Montessori and conventional

classrooms for the occurrence of private speech (internal dialogue),
a behavior that has been correlated with developing self-regulation
(Krafft and Berk 1998). It found less private speech in the Montes-
sori classroom but did not test for self-regulation. Yet, here again,
there were clear deviations from program fidelity.
For example, free-choice periods lasted for just forty-five min-

utes in the morning and one hour in the afternoon, whereas high-
fidelity Montessori programs include a three-hour work period
in both the morning and the afternoon (AMI Standards 2010). In
addition, teachers arranged materials in work stations on the floor
and tables. In high-fidelity Montessori programs, as described in
the founder ’s works, children pull their activities off the shelves
and return them to the shelves; there are no work stations. A third
study found better reading outcomes from second-grade children
in a Montessori curriculum compared to traditional programs; the
descriptions of the Montessori program here also suggested higher
fidelity (Rodriguez et al. 2005).

Social and Personality Outcomes
The study reported earlier by Lillard and Else-Quest (2006)

also looked at social outcomes for students aged five and twelve
years. It found that, at five, Montessori children were significantly
less likely to be engaged in ambiguous rough-and-tumble play
on the playground and significantly more likely to be engaged in
positive, shared peer play than were children in the control group.
The study also showed higher levels of perspective taking when
children were asked how they would resolve social conflicts. It
found that, at age twelve, Montessori children were significantly
more likely to choose a positive, assertive response to a difficult
social situation, by directly and without aggression addressing
a social problem. An example of a positive, assertive response
to someone taking one’s chair would be to say, “Excuse me, but
that’s my seat. Would you please take another one.” Children in
the control group were more likely to opt for passive avoidance,
for example, just finding another seat without saying anything. In
keeping with this comparison, the twelve-year-olds in the Mon-
tessori program gave higher ratings to their school social climate
than did those in other programs.
Also studying high-fidelity Montessori programs, Rathunde

and Csikszentmihalyi (2005a, 2005b) compared children attending
Montessori middle schools with children at conventional schools
matched for socioeconomic status. They found a more positive social
climate at the Montessori schools. For example, Montessori middle
school students were more likely to report that their classmates
were also their friends. They also found that Montessori students
reported feeling more “flow” and intense engagement when doing
schoolwork than did the students of the control group. Outside of
school, the two groups were equal on this variable.
In sum, children in high-fidelity Montessori programs do well

in academic and cognitive as well as social domains compared to
those in conventional programs. Thus there is good support for
Montessori education’s style of playful learning for assisting hu-
man development.

S ummary
Montessori shares many elements of playful learning, including

overall structure, the use of small objects for learning, individualized
lessons, free choice, peer involvement, fun, and lack of extrinsic re-
wards. It differs by having a specific set of materials, less free choice
in interacting with materials, in calling children’s activity “work,”
and, especially, in its lacking any pretend play. The requirement
of specific materials makes Montessori education more restrictive
than playful learning. On the other hand, having a specified set of
lessons and materials can be helpful to teachers and might promote
program longevity. The popularity of Montessori education today
relative to strict Dewey programs (Zilversmit 1993), for example,
might in part grow from the guidance offered by the set of materi-
als and lessons (Lillard 2005). Maria Montessori’s reasons for not
including pretend play in the educational program derived from
her empirical observations. Our current cultural view that pre-
tending is important to development might not have a particularly
solid empirical foundation; we need more compelling research to
substantiate this claim. Whether adding pretend play to Montessori
classrooms would help, hurt, or make no difference to development
is an empirical question. Finally, evidence reviewed here shows that
when Montessori programs are of high fidelity, outcomes in social
and cognitive realms have been superior to those of conventional
and of less authentic Montessori programs.
When it comes to how guided play helps development, it might

be the case that the important elements concern not pretend play,
but rather, other aspects of playful learning like freedom to choose
activities, interactive hands-on lessons, and the ability to involve
peers in learning activities.
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Playful Learning and

In recent years, educators have begun using the didactic teaching

Dr. Angeline Lillard, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia,

Lillard • Playful Learning and Montessori Education 137

Although some researchers cite Montessori education as a prime

138 The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 38, No. 2 • Spring 2013

Montessori education began in the early 1900s (Montessori

Montessori classrooms ideally contain age groupings spanning

First, the descriptions here are of authentic Montessori pro-

Lillard • Playful Learning and Montessori Education 139

Second, some assume Montessori education is expensive and

Third, many assume Montessori education is good only for par-

H ow D oes M ontessori R esemble P layful L earning ?

Montessori resembles playful learning in several ways (see figure

In a classroom, a daily schedule—with its expectations about

140 The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 38, No. 2 • Spring 2013

Conventional education tends to be less structured in preschool

Like playful Not like

Provides overall structure x

Freely chosen/ child directed x x

Peer involvement possible x

Intrinsic, not extrinsic, rewards x

Specific ways to interact x

In an educational program that follows the principles of playful

The curriculum presents another structured element of Montes-

142 The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 38, No. 2 • Spring 2013

Thus, whether one sees Montessori education as loose or rigid

Playful learning, too, is structured in some ways but not in oth-

The Use of Objects

Conventional direct instruction typically lacks any materials that

In contrast, playful learning typically involves objects with which

Lillard • Playful Learning and Montessori Education 143

Montessori education abounds with objects suited to manipula-

For example, the Wooden Cylinders (see figure 2) involve plac-

144 The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 38, No. 2 • Spring 2013

Montessori lessons are also interactive. Most Montessori lessons

For most lessons, the teacher sits at a table or on a rug on the

In conventional school programs, teachers typically choose ac-

With playful learning, children’s own interests drive the agenda.

146 The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 38, No. 2 • Spring 2013

The best learning takes place when individuals choose to study

Conventional education calls for children to learn by sitting

Playful learning can occur one-on-one with an adult or involve

Both Montessori education and playful learning, then, accom-

Lillard • Playful Learning and Montessori Education 147

In conventional didactic instruction, teachers often use gold stars

In contrast, playful learning occurs for its own sake. Children

It sometimes amazes observers that a classroom of twenty-five to

148 The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 38, No. 2 • Spring 2013

Many of us assume conventional school is no fun. Hence, people

In contrast, playful learning is, by definition, fun and enjoyable.

In short, Montessori education resembles playful learning in

Lillard • Playful Learning and Montessori Education 149

There are four ways in which Montessori education differs from

Structure of the Materials

The kinds of materials used in playful learning generally do

Montessori classrooms do not typically use such blocks; indeed,

Children learn to use these materials in sequence, beginning

150 The NAMTA Journal • Vol. 38, No. 2 • Spring 2013

In short, Montessori’s sets of blocks vary systematically in size