Critically Evaluate Montessori’s Ideas For The Education Of Young Children

Theories on Childhood Education

The base of a child’s education starts from the very moment when the child is put into the formal process of acquiring education. The process of acquiring educations in its very first stage begins when basic understanding of language, expressing one’s mind, and starting the process of writing alphabets or numbers begin. The informal education of a child begins when the parents and close relatives starts to speak with the child and he or she hears and starts to understand very basic aspects of communication. There are various theories, ideas and models developed by various scholars around the world to supplement the process of childhood education. The Developmental Interaction Approach reflects the process of learning through discovering the surrounding. The developmental process in childhood takes place in five ways “Physical, social, emotional, linguistic and cognitive.” 

The “social cultural learning theory” was developed by the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky in which he has emphasized on the learning process of an individual child through the help of his social surroundings. Another theory that aimed at explaining the learning process of the children is the constructivist theory developed by Jean Piaget, who stated that the process of learning happens from inside and the child develops the process within himself (Ültanir 2012). David Kolb has developed the experimental learning theory that has put forward the view that in order to learn the children needs to go through experience and learning, experimenting as they learn. Throughout the world it is seen that different scholars, activists and researchers who have worked in the field of childhood education has taken heavily from these theories. They have endeavored in developing a concise process of advancing the learning process of the children in a way that it can help them with the most efficient system of imbibing knowledge (Kirkham and Kidd 2017). The “Montessori Process of Education” is one of the most popular process of educating the toddlers throughout the world. It has become so popular that the word Montessori education has now become synonymous with toddler education in most of the part of the world today (Lillard 2013). This system of education was developed by Maria Montessori who observed the children from their birth to the end of their childhood age, and then developed the learning process in the most efficient way possible in order to make childhood education effective and stable in the mind of the children (Montessori 2013). The person who developed this particular theory of educating and training the children her name was Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori and she was from Italy. She developed the scientific system of pedagogy and devised the philosophy and process of childhood education that is now known as the Montessori education throughout the globe and most of the schools around the world have developed this process where they have the separate class for Montessori teaching of the toddlers (Kramer 2017).
 

Montessori’s Philosophy and Process of Childhood Education

Montessori herself drew a lot from the philosophies of “Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, Édouard Séguin, Friedrich Fröbel, and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi”. These scholars had all emphatically stated the importance of sensory induction of learning, which denotes the manipulation of the sense organs of the children to induce the process of learning. Montessori herself in the first phase of her career worked with disabled children whom she imparted training by inducing sensory method such as perceiving light, vision, smell or sound to communicate and learn (Kramer 2017). She has further indulged in various psychological researches on the subject and has done research works about various elementary schools and called the process as “scientific pedagogy”. She was quoted as saying “The new methods if they were run on scientific lines, ought to change completely both the school and its methods, ought to give rise to a new form of education.” She started developing her new system of pedagogy when she was working in “Casa dei Bambini”. The two books that very lucidly described the pedagogy that she developed are “The Montessori Method” published in 1912 and the “Discovery of the Child” published in 1948. These two books describe her process of imparting early education to the children. She had emphatically observed that the children learn in the most efficient way when the impediments to their learning is removed and they are given education through mediums and learning methods which they like the most. The ideal teacher would endeavor in removing the obstacles in the way of the child’s education rather than developing methods that will make the learning process complicated for the children.  Throughout the world there are various methods and practices that are continued under the banner of Montessori education. However, the Association Montessori Internationale and the American Montessori Society are the two associations that have stated some minimum requirements that are essential for imparting Montessori education in the best possible way. The first requirement is the establishment of “mixed age classrooms” in which various age groups of children will be put into various class rooms, the most common age group found in this regards is the 3 to 6 years’ age group. The second requirement is the choice of activities that lie with the students, they must be able to choose from a various range of activities. The third requirement is the uninterrupted training session of ideally three hours. The fourth requirement is the constructivist or discovery model of learning wherein the children will have the possibility of learning through experimenting and experiencing and not being instructed directly or rigidly. The fifth requirement is the principle of using aesthetic and natural ingredients like wood, stone or similar ingredients in making the articles to be used for training purpose. 
 

Requirements for Imparting Montessori Education

The sixth requirement is the process of thoughtfully, and aesthetically designing the area of learning so that children develop interest in learning. The seventh requirement is freedom of the children in moving around the classroom and using the training materials as they wish to (Wood 2012). The eighth and final requirement is a very experienced Montessori teacher who can understand the character of the children very well and guide them according to their tendencies and abilities. In spite of the success of the Montessori system of education there have been criticisms about it from various scholars and thinkers. The way communication between individual children is handled in the Montessori schools are according to some thinkers not adequate for the best development of the children as the interaction is structured and happens in the supervision of the teacher. The presence of the teacher may be resulting in caution from the children’s part to interact and communicate freely (Certini 2012). On the other hand, there are scholars who believe that Montessori schools actually help the students in inducting the best possible method of communicating because of the availability of all kinds of educational resources and the guidance of an experienced teacher.  The children who are put into Montessori schools are admitted at a very early age, as early as 3 years (Donahoe 2013). 

This may hamper the independence and free thinking that develops at this age. This is because the children go through structured training and there are reasons to believe that the structured learning at a very early age may hamper the natural growth of the child’s cognitive abilities as intervention alters the way the human cognition grows naturally (McKenzie and Zascavage 2012). However, on the other hand as the opposite view of this idea it is said that the children do not lose the freedom of their cognition rather in the process of learning in their peer group among similar minded children, and the aesthetic and interactive atmosphere also helps them in the process.  The Montessori theory of education is mainly surrounded around the concept of human development model and the education is imparted to the children according to the human nature of acquiring knowledge. Some tendencies are identified as driving factors that influence human learning are “Abstraction, Activity, Communication, Exactness, Exploration, Manipulation (of the environment), Order, Orientation, Repetition, Self-Perfection, Work (also described as “purposeful activity”).
 

Criticism of the Montessori System of Education

The theory advocates “freedom of activity” in “prepared environment”. Now there is doubt among many thinkers about how much “freedom” can be actually achieved in a “prepared environment”. Importance is given to cleanliness, aesthetics, movement friendly settings, so that the children can move around freely as much as they like and they get interested in coming to the school (Baligadoo 2014). However ultimately the fact is that the place is designed to impart some structured education to the children, and there are some rules and regulations that are followed. Hence the impediment to the freedom of growth of the cognitive perceptions of the children remain as a problem and a question in the Montessori form of education. The Guardian reports “Psychologists in the US found that across a range of abilities, children at Montessori schools out-performed those given a traditional education. Five-year-old Montessori pupils were better prepared for reading and math’s, and 12-year-olds wrote “significantly more creative” essays using more sophisticated sentence structures. Some of the biggest differences were seen in social skills and behavior. Montessori children displayed a greater sense of “justice and fairness”, interacted in an “emotionally positive” way, and were less likely to engage in “rough play” during break times. The method discourages traditional competitive measurements of achievement, such as grades and tests, and instead focuses on the individual progress and development of each child.” (Theguardian.com 2006) Therefore, apprehension from different sections of researchers who believe that there is no substantial evidence about the advantages of the process, can be to some extent answered by the findings of the above research. The above paragraphs can be understood and it can be safely concluded that though there are various apprehensions about the methods of Montessori education, however in most of the schools and education systems worldwide the Montessori method of education is applied. Without any basis of substantial evidence of advantage such popularity of the system could not have been achieved. Various researches worldwide also suggest that the children who are put through the Montessori system of education are more capable in various aspects than their counterparts who have been taught in traditional method of education. The Montessori system is very intelligently designed to support the children in the stage when the critical stage of brain growth takes place. The children are provided with all kinds of resources which supplement the process of their learning and makes the process interesting for them. The children voluntarily take part in the process and the cognitive development is superior and more stable than their counterparts who are learning in the traditional methods. 

References

Baligadoo, P.D., 2014. Peace profile: Maria Montessori—peace through education. Peace Review, 26(3), pp.427-433.

Certini, R., 2012. The intelligent search: Some considerations on the Montessori method. Studi sulla formazione, 15(2), p.7.

Donahoe, M., 2013. Best Practices in Montessori Secondary Programs. Montessori Life: A Publication of the American Montessori Society, 25(2), pp.16-24.

Isaacs, B., 2018. Understanding the Montessori approach: Early years education in practice. Routledge.

Kirkham, J.A. and Kidd, E., 2017. The effect of Steiner, Montessori, and national curriculum education upon children’s pretence and creativity. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 51(1), pp.20-34.
Kramer, R., 2017. Maria Montessori: a biography. Diversion Books.

Lillard, A.S., 2013. Playful learning and Montessori education. American journal of play, 5(2), p.157.

McKenzie, G.K. and Zascavage, V.S., 2012. Montessori Instruction: A Model for Inclusion in Early Childhood Classrooms and beyond. Montessori Life: A Publication of the American Montessori Society, 24(1), pp.32-38.

Montessori, M., 2013. The montessori method. Transaction publishers.

Theguardian.com., 2006. Research shows benefits of Montessori education. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2006/sep/29/schools.uk [Accessed 26 Mar. 2018].

Ültanir, E., 2012. An Epistemologic Glance at the Constructivist Approach: Constructivist Learning in Dewey, Piaget, and Montessori.

Wood, W.D.B., 2012. Children’s play and its place in education: with an appendix on the Montessori method. Routledge.Assignment1template.pptx