TürkçeWhat are the differences between the Montessori Method and the traditional methods of education?
Especially at the first six years of age the transmission information using a verbal method is very hard or almost impossible. First of all, the language remains incapable because the child is still at the language learning phase; secondly, the way of getting and processing information of the brain occurs only by the concrete experiences particularly at this first six years of age. In other words, the child should handle the concept that he/she will learn, this is so for mathematics and also for reading and writing. The mathematics or reading and writing are quite abstract concepts. For example writing is the activity of marking with certain symbols for the sounds that we utter during speaking, it is obvious that creating concrete activities for those abstract concepts is extremely difficult. Maria Montessori designed materials that can transfer the abstract information in a concrete form. So that the children can grasp the abstract concepts successfully at a very early age. However the traditional method presents an inefficient learning process for the child, because it is mainly composed of transfering the knowledge verbally therefore in an abstract from. As a result, the major difference between the two methods is the technique they choose while presenting the necessary information to the child.
Why does the Montessori Method attract more preference among the other choices for today’s families?
The first school following the Montessori Method is opened in 1907. Since then the Montessori Method became a research subject of numerous different disciplines like education, psychology and moreover child neurology which examines the child’s brain development. Under careful scrutiny the Montessori Method completed a century with both its theory and its application. Besides, in opposition to its contemporaries it continues to be practiced all around the world. The reason of this is obvious, the first six years of human life in which a very important part of the brain and personality is structured, is not a period that will be wasted and the sole way to reach the child is to present the knowledge in a concrete form. Compared with the others it is seen that only the Montessori Method presents the very rich information content in a concrete form.
Furthermore when we look at the statistics today, it is observed that both the academic achievements and the skills of having and managing social relations are remarkable for whom brought up with the Montessori Method. This is an important property in today’s world because the bussiness is not performed by academic grades but by people. Human relations are always the most part of success. Besides the happiness and satisfaction of a person are not only in his/her bussiness life but also in the private life which totally depends on his/her social relations.
In the direction of this information the Montessori Method is a suitable method not only for today but also for the future, because the cognitive development of human beings will follow the same route for the next thousands of years and human relations will always be important. Therefore, the Montessor Method attract more preference among the other choices for today’s families.
Is Montessori education for one year effective?
It has been observed that when the Montessori Education completes at least a span of three years, the method reaches the desired result and the properties acquired are transferred to the later years,. Therefore, the families, who think that they should place a particular importance to the first six ages, can make their plans according to, at least, a span of three years in the Montessori school.
Do you think starting to school at the age of two is early, he/she still seems to be a baby?
The power and speed of information acquisition and development process decrease with time. This shows that time should be valued ideally. Seeing the early childhood schools as the places in which the children carelessly spend their time woud be a huge mistake. So, if you delay your child’s education to primary school, it will result in the under-development or disappearance of the child’s possible skills without compensation.
A Montessori school supports the child’s unlimited progress without leaving his/her development to the random stimuli. But the starting age of school is a distinctive factor, the power and speed of information acquisition and development process of a child starting school at the age of two will be different from a child starting school at the age of four.
Can’t a child starting school at the age of four learn ultimately like a child starting school at the age of two?
You cannot have a single constant opinion that is valid for every child. But, it is obvious that the power and speed of information acquisition and development process of a child is triggered by environmental stimuli. So, starting school at the age of two rather than four means that the child’s brain is properly stimulated from an early age, therefore his/her development process will be more efficient. In conclusion, the age of starting school is advised as two.
Does the Montessori Method put together the children at different ages in the same class?
The generally accepted implementation in the world is deemed suitable that the children between 24 – 36 months and the children between 36 – 72 months can be in different classes due to the pratical needs of their ages. Classes with different ages are novel for child education practices which is introduced by the Montessori Method. During the years of practice it is observed that children in multi aged classes learn better from peer interaction about various subjects.
What is the reason of combining the children of different ages in the same class?
When children are in multi age classes, they have a richer variety of social interaction and they learn to communicate with others effectively. The elder children develop self confidence while leading the younger ones and besides they strengthen the concept which they have already learned by teaching or helping the younger children. When the younger children work with others who are one or two years elder than themselves, the interaction is totally different from working with an adult, because the communication between children is unlike the communication between an adult and a child. When the children feel that the other has a difficulty to understand, they try to express the concept with a language more suitable for those ages, their acts are always natural and they never force the other to learn as an adut may do.
As a matter of fact, the traditional practice of piling up same aged children in the same classroom does not satisfy the aimed purpose, because development of the intelligence does not go along with age. Besides, in the real life, people at different ages come together and they eventually communicate. In the traditional education we spend many years in the same age classrooms till university, but this practice is not suitable with the real life circumstances. In summary, due to these reasons, combining children of different ages in one class always ends with a successful result.
When the different ages are in one classroom, how do you overcome the differences in cognitive levels?
The traditional education method assumes that children at the same age have same cognitive levels, so if you group the same ages into one classroom there won’t be a problem of varying cognitive capacities. However, this is not true; there will be cognitive level differences also in the classroom of the same aged children and there is no solution to this problem in traditional education practices. Evidently, the traditional method appeals to the average child; the child who can get more and the child whose knowledge is in need of many reviewing will be ignored. Those are the children who are in the upper and lower periphery of cognitive level and only the Montessori Method can reach them effectively. In brief, puting children of same age one classroom doesn’t mean that there is one cognitive level in this classroom. The main concern must be to present the suitable education for every different level. The Montessori Method is a method that achieves this. In each classroom the children of different ages work with materials suitable for various cognitive levels, thus everybody works with the material which suits best to their level.
What is the daily practice in a Montessori school?
The concept of prepared environment is the main principle of education in the Montessori Method. We, as the Montessori instructors arrange the place according to the child. It is aimed that inside this place the children will experience the rich content on mathematics, literacy, history, geography, biology, art and music. The tools are arranged in such a manner that will appeal to a child at every level. The children do their works in an indivisible period of time completing three hours.
The supplementary lessons like swimming, gym, English, drama and art or the activities like going out to the garden and watching theatre are arranged so that children’s work with the Montessori Materials won’t be interrupted.
How do we assess the children’s development in a Montessori school?
In the early years of life it is very difficult to assess the children’s development. It is not possible to apply exams which is the most used assessment tool in traditional education at early ages. There are two reasons for this; the first reason is the inapplicability of the exams to evaluate the development of a child and the second reason is that exam techniques unquestionably affect the personal and mental developments negatively.
Besides, the daily evaluations applied in the traditional education such as he/she slept, he/she ate, he/she was happy or he/she was calm are far beyond assessing the child’s development.
We observe the child in his/her natural flow of life; for example we can observe the child when he/she is working with the Montessori Materials or while he/she is playing with his/her friends or during physical education and music lessons. The Montessori teachers receive detailed trainings on observation methods and he/she records his/her observations in various forms and analyse them in order to assess the child’s development process. So, based on those detailed analyses, we can determine the child’s stage of progress. And each child is followed and assessed individualy according to his/her own progression. As a result, since the child is absolutely followed in his/her development process, the next step for his improvement an be decided with a perfect accuracy and the child is introduced to the proper Montessori Material. This assessment process is highly novel for the traditional education system but it gives the best results.
Is there a prize system in the Montessori Method?
In the Montessori Method the achievements or good behaviors of a child is never offered a prize. In life, every work leaded to success or failure and every positive or negative behavior is followed by its own inescapable result. Actually, noone did a work or a definite behavior for a prize which is unrelated with the performed action. If the purpose of an activity is the driving force, the motive to do and repeat it, we cannot accept the prize as the purpose. As Montessori observed, the child acts to reach the end resut which is the pleasure of learning and development. In addition, a positive behavior exhibited among the friends will bring the social acknowledgement and being preferred which is the factual end result of the behavior.
If children and, of course, adults don’t think that the primary target is learning and progression itself, they evaluate the achievement only as a highest degree obtained at the university exam or the money earned. This attitude is the source of many incorrect, traditional approaches that are rejected by Maria Montessori. Therefore, a prize system does not exist in the Montessori Method of Education.
Is there a punishment system in the Montessori Method?
Punishment is known as a negative reinforcer for a behavior or an action. As we have stated, any behavior or action is followed by its natural inescapable resut. This same principle is valid for positive and also negative behaviors and actions. In life, anyone meets with the inescabaple result of what he/she has done, so, if we want the child to experience the real world, we must apply this powerful principle. The children experience the natural, inescapable (in other words logical) result of the negative behavior in a Montessori classroom. But, the concept of punishment is the evaluation of a behavior or an action of the child by an adult. In this case, mostly, the negative behavior and action is resulted in giving a punishment that is more or less inadequate due to over or undervaluation. This is not the natural end result of the negative behavior or action, therefore punishment as a discipline method is always ineffective. The child cannot understand the effect of his/her behavior and he/she cannot get a valuable life experience. Moreover, every sort of punishment is a way of demeaning the personality, therefore, it is very damaging for the child’s development and dissapproved by Montessori.
What kind of a discipline method is applied in Sihirli Bahçe Montessori School?
“Discipline must come through liberty . . . We do not consider an individual disciplined only when he has been rendered as artificially silent as a mute and as immovable as a paralytic. He is an individual annihilated, not disciplined.”
Maria Montessori
In the presence of a negative behavior, Maria Montessori was directing the child to sit down at a table in the same classroom avoiding to abstract him/her from the social environment and explaining that he/she could return after thinking about his/her behavior. With this powerful strategy, she was ceasing the negative behavior immediately and was taking the child apart from the cause of this negative behavior. She was preventing the behavior from strengthening. But, she was very careful for not taking the child apart from his/her community in such a manner that could hurt him/her. Besides, she was leaving the decision of rejoining the classroom activities to the child, as a result the freedom to decide improves his/her will. Every Montessori school arranges their discipline implementations fundamentally according to this example.
“Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.”
Maria Montessori believed that peace could only be possible by education. Therefore, she had introduced the Education of Peace in a very detailed manner in her method. No matter what the source of the problem is, but the negative behavior of the child is immediatly ended, however giving discipline doesn’t only consist of this. We must talk about the behavior that has caused a problem, how it affected us and most importantly, its solution. These discussions mustn’t be absolutely incriminating, the focus isn’t the whole personality of the child, but it is only his/her behavior related to this single case. After he/she resolves the problem, his/her friends should congratulate him/her, hug him/her or shake hands, this is an indicator of the agreement and association built in the community.
For furthermore information about the discipline, you can read our essay entitled “Discipline in Montessori Method”.
Discipline in Montessori Method
After the Montessori Education do the children have any adaptation difficulty in the elementary school?
This is the question that every Montessori school comes across almost rutinely. And its answer is absolutely no. The children brought up at the Montessori schools are the children who can resolve their problems by themselves; due to their self-reliance they successfully adapt to their environment. They are accepted quickly because they know how to behave in a community and they obey the rules. Montessori Children learn how to support each other instead of competing, as a result, they are enthusiastically accepted to the community and be a part of it instantly. Montessori Children are known as social individuals who can establish strong and long lasting social relations in every layer of the community.
The Montessori Method is a way of personality education and doesn’t constitute an impediment for future educations and suits with the real life conditions.
Is there a research which says that Montessori Children become more successful individuals in their future life?
Yes, definitely they do. The researches have shown that children educated with the Montessori Method in their early childhood have better academic results and desirable social relations. If we would like to itemize the skills of the Montessori Children, they are as follows: their achievements at the general academic exams are high, their compliance to the social rules is appropriate, their work discipline is already developed and their interest for learning is unlimited. They are eager for taking responsibility. They have a mental structure that asks questions which leads the subject to advanced levels; in other words, they have the critical thinking capacity. They show advanced skills in terms of their adaptation to different and new conditions. Eventually, by having all of these properties they begin their academic life in leading positions in comparison to others. Interestingly, many people can have academic skills enough to be an engineer or a doctor; however, that does not make all of them to be successful in life. The reason of this is clear, because the academic success is insufficient to have true success in life. Montessori Children are known with their extraordinary social skills, as a result, they can adapt to their work environment and built desirable social relations. Consequently, it is important to learn about human relations at an early age and to have a unique individual position. The Montessori Method not only develops the child’s academic skills but also develops social interaction abilities. This knowledge makes Montessori Children exceptional. In conclusion, Montessori Children achieve both socially and academically wanted results at any school they attend.
How do you register your child for our school?
We work by pre-registration and we have a waiting list. You can register by e-mail or you can visit us at the scheduled hours.