Maria Montessori was an Italian educator who lived between 1870-1952. Maria Montessori had a passion for learning and her work began in San Lorenzo in 1907 where she set up her first Children's House. Maria Montessori chose to introduce new equipment and focused her work on play within the Children's House. Maria Montessori's principle aim was to support all aspects od the child's personal and social development. (Pound, 2006)Montessori believed children learn through their senses developing skills of understanding, observing and exploring. Activities in a Children's House include care of the environment, preparing food, washing dishes and also cleaning away. Through these such task the children are able to develop muscular co-ordination enabling movement and exploration of their surrounding. (The International Montessori Index, 2013)
Montessori schools have a rich language environment which allows children to express themselves through conversation skills, poetry and stories. These three are all vitally important to human development. The Montessori theory is that the child learns to read through the symbolic approach, building cognitive skills through touching, seeing, smelling, tasting, listening and exploring their environment providing rich, meaningful experiences to support their development. (Moyles, 2005).
The Foundation Phase supports the Montessori philosophy in that the teacher or facilitator only guides the child, they do not teach them. This allows the child to become an active learner. Children learn through being actively involved allowing them freedom to play and develop individually through child led activities which will give them confidence and empathy resulting in the child being able to socialise with their peers. (Montessori Society AMI UK, 2013)
Montessori quoted, "the child can only be free when the adult becomes an acute observer. Any action of the adult that is not a response to the children's observed behaviour limits the child's freedom." (Pound 2006, p.30) Montessori's principles in the way children grow are called the 'planes of development'. As a child progresses through these stages they are physically and psychologically different therefore will have different developmental needs. Adults need to support the natural development of the child at each plane and this will then optimise the development for the whole human being. It is vitally important that these opportunities are not missed. (Montessori Society AMI UK, 2013)
Montessori is a strong believer that education begins at birth and the parents are the first educators of the child. Therefore, Montessori believed that the environment must be designed to cater the child's needs an the parents must understand their natural stages of development.
Reference List
Montessori Society AMI UK (2013) Retrieved 22nd April 2013 from Infant Programmes http://www.montessorisociety.org.uk/montessori/infant-programmes
Montessori Society AMI UK (2013) Retrieved 22nd April 2013 from Montessori Principles http://www.montessorisociety.org.uk/montessori/montessori-principles
Moyles, J. (2010) The Excellence of Play Third Edition. England: Open University Press.
Pound, L. (2006) How Children Learn. London: Practical Pre-School Books.
The International Montessori Index (2013) Retrieved 22nd April 2013 from Montessori Materials and Learning Environments. http://www.montessori.edu/prod.html
