English
Pedagogy of Montessori
"Whoever touches the life of the child touches the most sensitive point of a whole which has roots in the most distant past and climbs toward the infinite future."
Maria Montessori
The Duhovka international preschool’s concept of child care is based on the lifelong work and heritage of the exceptionally gifted and educated Italian doctor, Maria Montessori, who had degrees in medicine, philosophy, and psychology and took an active interest in pedagogy, anthropology, and biology. The bulk of her work in pedagogy consisted of observing and interpreting child behavior and conducting and analyzing pedagogical experiments. She was the first to develop and use materials for sense-based child education.
Main Principles of Montessori Education
Help me to do it myself
This request, addressed to Maria Montessori by a child, became the primary creed of her learning method. In Montessori education, the role of adults is to help children use their own energy to gain new knowledge and skills relating to the world around them, at their own pace.
Children construct their own personalities
Although children are in contact with their surroundings, and are stimulated by them, it is the child him/herself who is best qualified to decide exactly how and when to integrate stimuli into his/her actions.
The hand is the instrument of the soul
The child uses his/her hands to exert control over the surroundings. A child wants to touch, feel and manipulate everything. A child’s hands explore, gather information, and also imitate the motions of adult hands. Hand work is the foundation for understanding things and phenomena, as well as for developing thinking and speech.
Respect for sensitive periods
Sensitive phases are discrete periods of time in which the child exhibits increased sensitivity and perceptiveness. It is up to the teacher to recognize these sensitive phases, when the child is especially sensitive and receptive to learning certain skills, and make maximum use of them. If such a period goes unutilized, the sensitivity is lost.
Free choice of work
At Montessori preschool, children themselves choose what they will do, with whom they will work, and how long they will work. However, even free choice has its limitations. Freedom and discipline complement one another: they are “two sides of the same coin.” During activities, children get to know not only their possibilities, but also their limits – i.e. the current limits of their skills and intellect, the limits of objects, the limits of time, and limits set by parents and teachers.
Prepared environment – development of sensory discrimination
The work area, learning aids, and objects for manipulation must be prepared and arranged appropriately to enable the child to gain new experiences independently, without outside help. Objects are seen as “food for thought” – i.e., nourishment for intellectual development. Their role is to support the child’s independence and activity. Teachers ensure that children can develop in this prepared environment, and themselves become a part of it. The teacher forces nothing on the children, but instead becomes their more experienced friend.
Total Concentration
Total concentration is an important principle that Maria Montessori arrived at by observing children at work with materials. Total concentration, or absorption, occurs during periods when a child is maximally concentrated on one activity. The child becomes calmer, more thoughtful, and more observant. When a child becomes absorbed in some work, he or she is capable of concentrating on it intensively, over a long period. Absorption is the foundation of learning.
