The Montessori Method, named after its founder Maria Montessori, is an approach to classroom learning that emphasizes independence and choice. This theory of teaching understands that children have an innate interest in learning and will be able to do so in an appropriate environment. It strives to create a classroom full of order, cleanliness, beauty and harmony. Maria Montessori was an Italian doctor, educator and innovator, acclaimed for her educational method that is based on the way children learn naturally.Montessori was profoundly influenced by Friedrich Froebel, the inventor of kindergarten, and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who believed that children learned through activity.
It was also inspired by Itard, Seguin and Rousseau. She improved her approaches by adding her own belief that we should follow the child. However, as the Montessori Method gained popularity, it also inspired detractors.In 1914, educational reformer William Heard Kilpatrick published The Montessori System Examined, which criticized Maria Montessori for her focus on individualism and the use of the senses to help children learn. A student of educational reformer John Dewey, he subscribed to Dewey's theory of progressive education and described the Montessori method as obsolete.In Montessori education, the teacher's role is to guide children in their learning without becoming an obstacle and without becoming too involved in the natural learning process.
Therefore, Professor Montessori is a facilitator, not a lecturer.Montessori teachers encourage children to learn by placing students, rather than the teacher, at the center of the experience. Provide appropriate learning materials for each child after close observation in the specially prepared learning environment. Teachers also demonstrate and model learning activities, while giving students freedom to learn their way. Montessori teachers manage classroom behaviors by modeling ongoing respect for all children and their work, observing and using sensitive periods, interests and skills to plan activities, and diverting inappropriate behavior to meaningful tasks.One of the best-known characteristics of Montessori education is that of the multiage classroom.
Rejecting the idea that all children of the same age develop and progress on the same page, Montessori schools believe that multi-age classrooms allow children to work more productively at their natural pace. Montessori classrooms are usually set in 3-year age ranges. Advocates believe that this allows children to learn better social skills and develop academically, in a cooperative and non-competitive learning environment.The Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) was founded by Maria Montessori in 1929 to protect the integrity of its work. Entitled The Montessori Education in English, his book captured the attention of educators around the world and, over the next two decades, Montessori schools emerged on six continents.None of the studies discussed so far have attempted to isolate individual elements of the Montessori method that could be explaining any of the positive effects they encounter.
The Montessori Method arrived in the United States in 1912 and has enjoyed great success for more than a century.My goal is to provide a review of the scientific evidence base for Montessori education, with the dual aspiration of stimulating future research and helping teachers better understand if Montessori education could be effective and why. The American Montessori Society is the world's largest organization dedicated to the Montessori method, with more than 1,300 affiliated schools and nearly 100 teacher training programs.In short, there are many methodological challenges to conducting good quality educational research, including good quality research on the Montessori method. The Montessori method of education strives to provide students with the support and materials they need to thrive.However, advocates of the method point to research that suggests that children with a Montessori background may thrive in a more traditional educational environment when they reach high school, due to their abilities in independent learning. Your AMI Montessori teaching certificate gives you the opportunity to teach at AMI Montessori schools around the world, as these schools recognize AMI training as a mark of excellence in teacher training, regardless of the country in which you are trained.Montessori Research and DevelopmentBy Tara Peris, Article Insider: A Brief Introduction to the History and Current State of Montessori Research.
As Montessori quickly spread around the world, many secondary trainings emerged that offered faster, cheaper, and shortened versions of Montessori teacher trainings.In one of the studies discussed above, social and cognitive benefits emerged for children who had previously attended Montessori preschool centers and then moved to mainstream schools, but these benefits did not arise until adolescence, while a follow-up study26 found benefits cognitive in Montessori only men, again in adolescence. As important as learning materials are,8 they do not constitute, in isolation, the Montessori method because you have to commit to them in a particular way.
