The Montessori Method

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.