{"id":2147,"date":"2017-06-11T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2017-06-11T08:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=2147"},"modified":"2017-06-03T15:12:19","modified_gmt":"2017-06-03T15:12:19","slug":"montessori-the-new-science-behind-a-century-old-methodology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/montessori-the-new-science-behind-a-century-old-methodology\/","title":{"rendered":"Montessori: The New Science behind a Century-Old Methodology (part I)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Maria Montessori described observing children in a traditional classroom as being tantamount to an entomologist observing dead insects pinned to a board, \u201cwhere the spontaneous expression of a child\u2019s personality is so suppressed that he is almost like a corpse, and where he is so fixed to his place at a desk that he resembles a butterfly mounted to a pin\u201d (Montessori, 1967b).<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite her observations taking place around the turn of the 20th century, they sound eerily familiar. Even over a century ago, she acknowledged that in order to best learn, children need a certain freedom in order to explore their interests and take ownership over what they are doing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Presumably motivated by the discrepancy between reality and practice, she developed an approach to education. Initially working with children with learning difficulties, and later with children between the ages of 3 and 6, Maria Montessori–who first studied medicine–developed her approach almost completely through careful observation of the way in which children interacted with their environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Montessori\u2019s insights about the way children learn and develop were not confirmed by science until many years later. In a book, <\/span>Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius<\/span><\/i>, Angeline Stoll Lillard (2005) outlines the eight principles incorporated into Montessori Education and provides the evidence base supporting each one. The principles are:<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. movement and cognition are intertwined<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. students should have a sense of control<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. interest improves learning<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. extrinsic rewards hinder intrinsic motivation<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. learning from and with peers<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. learning should be contextualized<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. optimal adult-child interactions<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. order in the environment<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    While there are many examples of each of these embedded in the Montessori classroom, and separately each one of these concepts now brings with it an immense amount of research, for each principle I cherry-pick just one or two examples from the classroom.<\/span><\/p>\n

    I also provide a brief mention of some supporting research to help give you a sense of the science that now reinforces the Montessori approach to education, developed over a century ago. <\/span><\/p>\n

    This blog post will address the first four principles listed above, part 2 will be posted at a later date and will address the latter four.<\/span><\/p>\n

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    1. Movement and Cognition are Intertwined<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Montessori activities and materials purposefully incorporate movement into learning activities. Let\u2019s take the Sandpaper Letters, for example, used to introduce preschool-aged children to letter sounds. (Children are not taught the names of the letters nor the order of the alphabet at this point). The Sandpaper Letters are lowercase letters, about five inches in height, made out of sandpaper and affixed to thin piece of painted wood.<\/span><\/p>\n

      When introduced, children are simultaneously shown how to trace the letter and produce the sound that the letter makes. The child is then free to use the Sandpaper letters to practice producing the letter sounds and tracing the letters. <\/span><\/p>\n

      Research has since underscored many instances of the interconnected nature of movement and cognition, including the improvement of memory when movement is involved at the moment when something is learned. For example, students who acted out actions described by sentences remembered the sentences better than students who did not act them out (*Cohen, 1989; *Engelkamp, Zimmer, Mohr & Sellen, 1994). <\/span><\/p>\n

      In the same way, when children simultaneously trace a letter and produce its sound, they are better able to remember it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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      1. Students should have a sense of control<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        In the Montessori classroom, this sense of control is brought about by giving children the choice of activities they wish to pursue, from among the options that have been laid out by the teacher; the Montessori m.o. is freedom within limits.<\/span><\/p>\n

        So if Thomas wants to pick up where he left off on a mathematics activity, he may do so. Or, if he wishes to take out the Knobbed Cylinder work from the Sensorial area (which, unbeknownst to him, will help him to develop his pincer grip necessary to later begin writing), he may do that as well. Thomas has a choice over what activity he wants to do, and how long he wants to do it for.<\/span><\/p>\n

        Researchers carried out a simple experiment which highlighted the importance of choice in activities. Children aged seven to nine years were presented with six categories of anagrams to work on. While all of the children in reality had the same choices, one group was told to choose from among the six categories, a second group was told that the experimenter chose the categories for them, and a third group was told that their mothers had made the choice of categories for them.<\/span><\/p>\n

        Children in the first group who \u201cchose their own work\u201d solved <\/span>twice <\/span><\/i>as many anagrams as the other two groups in the same amount of time. Additionally, during an optional free-play period after the time allotted to work on the anagrams, children in the first group elected to spend more time continuing to solve anagrams (*Iyengar & Lepper, 1999). <\/span><\/p>\n

        When children in a Montessori classroom have the freedom to choose, they have a sense of control, they take ownership over what they are doing, and their performance and their persistence improve. The freedom to choose also fosters independence in young children.<\/span><\/p>\n

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        1. Interest improves learning<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          In a <\/span>previous post<\/span><\/a>, I talk about the importance of emotion in learning. The Montessori method is yet another approach to learning which capitalizes on this notion. <\/span><\/p>\n

          Making the most of student interest can be seen from many different levels in the Montessori approach: <\/span><\/p>\n