The Montessori Method

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

The Montessori Method ( Base on American Montessori Society)

-  Its developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, is a child-centered educational approach based on scientific observations of children from birth to adulthood. 
- It is a view of the child as one who is naturally eager for knowledge and capable of initiating learning in a supportive, thoughtfully prepared learning environment. 
- It is an approach that values the human spirit and the development of the whole child—physical, social, emotional, cognitive. (Indonesia 6 areas of development) 

Components necessary for a Montessori program:  

- multi age groupings that foster peer learning, uninterrupted blocks of work time, and guided choice of work activity. 
- a full complement of designed Montessori learning materials are meticulously arranged and available for use in an aesthetically pleasing environment.
- the teacher, child, and environment create a learning triangle. 
-the classroom is  prepared by the teacher to encourage independence, freedom within limits, and a sense of order. 
- the child, through individual choice, makes use of what the environment offers to develop himself, interacting with the teacher when support and/or guidance is needed.

Multi age groupings are the special trademark of the Montessori Method: younger children learn from older children; older children reinforce their learning by teaching concepts they have already mastered. This arrangement also mirrors the real world, where individuals work and socialize with people of all ages and dispositions.

Dr. Montessori observed that children experience sensitive periods, or windows of opportunity, as they grow. As their students develop, Montessori teachers match appropriate lessons and materials to these sensitive periods when learning is most naturally absorbed and internalized.
In early childhood, Montessori students learn through sensory-motor activities, working with materials that develop their cognitive powers through direct experience: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching, and movement.
In the elementary years, the child continues to organize his thinking through work with the Montessori learning materials and an interdisciplinary curriculum as he passes from the concrete to the abstract.  He begins the application of his knowledge to real-world experiences.
This organization of information—facts and figures—prepares the child for the world of adolescence, when thought and emotion evolve into understanding more abstract, universal concepts such as equity, freedom, and justice.

The Montessori Absorbent Mind

Sunday, November 11, 2018

The "absorbent mind" refers to the mind's capacity to take in information and sensations from the world that surrounds it. Young children are a testament to the mind's awesome ability to absorb. A baby is born without language, and with few skills other than their survival instinct. From birth to three years they use their senses (hands, eyes, ears, nose, and tongue) to soak in everything that surrounds them. The child does this naturally, and without thought or choice. Maria Montessori referred to this period as the 'unconscious creation'. The information that the child unconsciously absorbs from his surroundings in the early years is used to construct and create himself. Within a few short years a child is walking, talking, and able to feed himself. It is this awesome ability to absorb information that allows children to acquire the language, physical skills (walking, control of his hands), and control over his bodily functions that are necessary for future independence. Around the age of three years, the child moves from the state of the unconscious absorbent mind, to the state of the conscious absorbent mind. It is during this conscious state of mind that the child begins to intentionally direct and focus his attention on experiences that will develop that which was created during the first three years. The fundamental task of the child during this phase of conscious absorption (3-6 years) is intellectual development and freedom. His mind compels him to sort through, order, and make sense of the information he unconsciously absorbed. It is through this order of his intelligence that the child gains the freedom to move purposely, to concentrate, and to choose his own direction. "The 'absorbent mind' welcomes everything, puts its hope in everything, accepts poverty equally with wealth, adopts any religion and the prejudices and habits of its countrymen, incarnating all in itself. This is the child!" Maria Montessori