Montessori Education

Maria Montessori was born in Italy in 1870. Montessori was the first Italian woman to qualify as a physician. She became interested in children's learning disabilities and studied the topic in great detail. In 1906 she began to work with 60 young children who belonged to working parents on the renowned slum of San Lorenzo. Maria Montessori was given one room in a large run-down building, with no equipment or food. It was in this building she founded the first Children's House (Casa dei Bambini). All of Montessori's ideas on children's learning came from her observations on these children, and what they were able to achieve without any assistance from adults (St.Andrew's Montessori, 2014).

Maria Montessori
Picture Reference: http://www.noteablebiographies.com/Mo-Ni/Montessori-Maria.html

The main purpose of a Montessori school is to allow children to be in a stimulating environment. It allows children to develop an excellent ability to learn creatively. The learning programme of a Montessori school is based on the children having independence in their education and being thoroughly involved in their own learning (montessoriconnections.com, 2014) . The Montessori education system consists of six areas of learning. These are; 

• Practical Life
• Refinement of the senses
• Communication, Language and Literacy 
• Mathematics
• Cultural aspects/ Knowledge and understanding of the world
• Creativity

(www.montessori-icme.com, 2014)

Practical life involves the children of the Montessori school developing fine motor skills and a very good standard of hand-eye co-ordination and balance through participating in practical life activities. They also participate in outdoor activities, dance and gymnastics, creative activities, health awareness and any activities that promote the flow and movement of a child through diverse and challenging environments.(www.montessori.org.uk, 2008)

Communication, Language and literacy allows the children of Montessori school have more opportunities for dialogue compared to those in community schools. Involves story-telling and literacy activities, which eventually leads to the ability to write. An important factor in this area is pre-literacy skills with strong emphasis on phonics. Phonics are the pronunciations of letters individually and sometimes two letters together.(www.montessori.org.uk, 2008) My placement is not in a Montessori school although this idea is included in the Foundation Phase. When learning the phonics which the children refer to as "the jolly phonics" they are incorporated into songs, in order for the children to remember how to pronounce the letter/s correctly. For example when learning the letter "A" they sing about ants on their arm. The song uses three different words beginning with the letter "A" in the song so that the children have an idea of how to pronounce the letter. The children also have an action associated with each song which makes it more fun for them as well as making it easier for them to remember the sound of the letter. Below is a video of "the jolly phonics" that I spoke about.

These are just two of the areas of learning that Montessori developed. From the two I have described and from my research I believe that learning through the Montessori approach it prepares children for the skills and challenges of practical life. It is also effective in stimulating their senses. The positives of learning through play are that the children develop their own understanding of the things around them. They are not influenced by the beliefs of the teachers or practitioners. They are more engaged with their learning and therefore are more comfortable and less pressured into learning. They can learn and enjoy learning in this setting. 

Although I believe some children may need more motivation than others. Some children might find learning easier when told what to do, and learn better through instruction. I find this one of only a few downfalls to Montessori education. The other negative of Montessori education is that if for any reason a child had to move location to somewhere where there was not a Montessori school I believe they would struggle to adjust to the education system of the majority of schools of the UK, as it does not involve the child in their own education, especially at Secondary education level.

Below is a video of a animated description of how Montessori Education differs from a convention Community school.