N6 Educational Psychology
• Focus is on the child in totality and that is why schools and classrooms differ. Her first school was called the “cassa del bambini” or “the house of children”. The classroom is the children’s environment and they are allowed to move around freely. When they are hungry, they prepare food for themselves. They go to the toilet without supervision. If somebody messes, they help each other to tidy up.
• The children are therefore free to move around in the classroom and outside. Montessori described the outside environment as an open-air space, which is to be in direct communication with the schoolroom so that children may be free to go and come as they like, throughout the entire day.
• Because of this freedom of movement, a Montessori day is not divided between work periods and rest of play. The children are free to choose their own activities in the classroom, again keeping in mind that here we do not speak of “useless” or “dangerous” acts.
• Each classroom is uniquely suited to the needs of its students. Pre-school rooms feature low sinks, chairs, and tables; a reading corner with a small couch (or comfy floor cushions); reachable shelves; and child-sized kitchen tools – elements that allow independence and help develop small motor skills.
• A Montessori class is composed of students (referring to children) whose ages typically span 3 years. Ideally, members stay with the class, and teacher, for the entire cycle, forging a stable community and meaningful bonds (multi-age groupings).
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It is common to see students of different ages working together. Older students enjoy mentoring their younger classmates – sometimes the best teacher is someone who has recently mastered the task at hand. Younger students look up to their big “brothers” and “sisters,” and get a preview of the alluring work to come.
8.2 Montessori learning materials
• A characteristic of Montessori education is its hands-on approach to learning.
• Students work with specially designed materials, manipulating and investigating until they master the lesson inside.
• Beautifully crafted learning materials are displayed on open, easily accessible shelves.
• They are arranged (left to right, as we read inWestern languages) in order of their sequence in the curriculum, from the simplest to the most complex.
• Each material teaches a single skill or concept at a time – for example: + various “dressing frames” help toddlers learn to button, zip, and tie. + 3-dimensional grammar symbols help elementary students analyse sentence structure and style.
+ And, built into many of the materials is a mechanism (“control of error”) for providing the student with some way of assessing her progress and correcting her mistakes, independent of the teacher.
+ The concrete materials provide passages to abstraction, and introduce concepts that become increasingly complex.
+ As the children progress, the teacher replaces some materials with others, ensuring that the level of challenge continues to meets their needs.
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