What is the Montessori Method?
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Exploration, self-direction, discovery, practice, collaboration, play, concentration are elements that characterize the Montessori method. It seeks to move away from traditional educational practices in which the teacher directs learning.
This method was created by María Montessori, doctor and pedagogue, (1870-1952) who throughout her life was interested in finding new ways to promote learning, especially in children with learning disabilities. In his intense search inside and outside the classroom, he acknowledged that many of the problems existing in the teaching and learning process derive precisely from the pedagogical practices up to that moment in place. Over time this educational method transcended its application in the teaching of any child.
Highlights of this method:
Among the highlights of this method include the following:
The discovery:
According to this method, the best learning is what allows the child to observe and explore it as a means to develop their knowledge.
Classroom:
This element is of vital importance within the proposal of this method, since the spaces to teach classes to students are generally not adapted to the needs of children, for this reason, the environment must be prepared in an appropriate manner for the student. same. This should be attractive and provide the child with opportunities for exploration and discovery. At the same time, it must provide the child with order and neatness and, necessarily, it must be an environment that catches the attention of the child.
The materials and resources:
The materials used must respond to the needs of the child. These should allow the child to appropriate their cognitive processes, interact and use them as tools and pose situations that lead them to have cognitive conflicts that allow them to recognize their weaknesses and manage failure. These materials were created by Montessori after a detailed analysis of his observations and experiences within the classroom.
The boy:
María Montessori proposes, from her observations, four stages or plans of the child's development. These levels of development are absorbing mind (0 to 6 years), reasoning mind (6 to 12 years), humanistic mind (12 to 18 years) and specialist mind (18 to 24 years). In the absorbing plane, the child is in a stage where he enters an environment of constant learning and from there absorbs his first knowledge of the world (culture, language, good or bad habits). On the reasoning plane, the child acquires skills to explore his environment and learn from it. In the humanistic plane, the child passes into adolescence, stage in which he begins to discover himself and within his environment or community. Finally, on the humanistic plane, the adult, through exploration, creates his possible worlds and appropriates him.
The teacher:
If we understand that this is a method that seeks to move away from a teaching practice away from memorization and repetition, necessarily, we must rethink the figure of the teacher. In this sense, it is no longer a teacher who teaches classes, but a teacher who is attentive to the progress of students and helps foster situations that lead the child to explore and discover for himself as he learns and develops his own cognitive corpus.
Curriculum:
The Montessori method proposes a curricular structure centered on, by and for the child, for this reason, he conceives it in the following way: a first stage in which the child just begins its vital transit (0 to 3 years), since in these years the child is immersed in his family nucleus, that's where he acquires his first knowledge about the world: custom, culture, language, habits. The adult, then, must provide tools that allow him to discover his potentialities. In Venezuela, the master program is carried out at home, which consists in giving pedagogical help to mothers in cognitive, affective and social development in children. However, there is still much to be done in this field in terms of teacher training in charge of carrying out these processes.
For the age between 3 to 6 years, Montessori proposes a curriculum centered on four aspects: practical life or daily life, sensory, language, mathematics. The first, focuses on assigning tasks of daily life with the intention of testing their ability to follow instructions, interrelate with others ... the sensory, however, seeks that through the senses and their relationship with materials and resources, this can learn at your own pace.
As for language, it means learning, to put it in a natural way. He comes to school with the knowledge of his language and the interaction with others strengthens him. There the adult plays a fundamental role, since it must guide the process of language appropriation. With respect to mathematics, these allow the child to reach a more abstract level of knowledge.
Finally, from 6 to 12 years, the contents are deepened and expanded to achieve the formation of a being consubstantial with their world and society. Six areas are proposed with novel lessons that lead the child to imagine different situations to direct their learning.
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In short, this method raises the beginnings of a constructivist way of teaching in which the child explores, discovers and appropriates his experiences and then creates his own knowledge of the world and himself. Thus, the child ceases to be an empty vessel that must be filled, to become a being with traits that make it unique and diverse at the same time.