Montessori

First set up in 1906 by Maria Montessori , the Montessori education system has been running for over hundred years with schools scattered all around the world. Known for their unique way of teaching, Montessori aim is develop the whole child by working with them through their discovering.

 

Theory 

Maria Montessori spent many years observing and studying children in an school environment   Here she gained many unique beliefs and ideas on a child's development, the way children learn and should be taught. She split a child's learning stages into three categories: the absorbent minded 0-6, childhood 6-12 and adolescent 12-18. Each of these stages contained three learning periods and stress periods.

Aims

Maria Montessori had many beliefs about a way a child learns, these are now the goals of the Montessori education system. One big belief is a child needs a prepared environment to learn in. This is put in action by filling the classroom full of child size furniture, having a light and spacious room and decorating the room with children’s work.  Montessori even made her own toys for the children to learn with, mostly made of wood as she wanted them to last. Another is independence, it is important to let a child be “lone scientists”(jean piaget) to build on their confidence and self belief. Correcting a child when wrong is not necessarily telling them off it’s letting them know the right way so they can put it into practice. 

Differences

There are lots of similarities between the Montessori school and the foundation phase and stage, however Montessori have different aspects to main stream school. Teachers at Montessori  have a more relaxed role,  they don’t have much involvement, rather than tell the children what to do they guide and observe their activity. Maria Montessori believed you should "Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed." She believed the staffs role was to observe each child and to correct any mistakes made to send the child in the right direction. Every class were made up of numerous staff members and of students at a mixed age.

Overall, I believe that the Montessori way of teaching and learning is very effective and has been proved to work well. Unlike most schooling, they put every child's needs first by nurturing and guiding them through their learning and development stages. 

References

Issac.B(2012)Understanding The Montessori Approach, London : Routledge

Lillemyr, O. F. (2009). Taking Play Seriously: Children and Play in Early Childhood Education-- an Exciting Challenge. United States of America: IAP.

http://www.dailymontessori.com/

Image 1: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/montessori-toys-61459