What is the Montessori method of education

Maria Montessori was the first female doctor of medicine in Italian history. Maria Montessori was the first female doctor of medicine in Italian history, and her unique approach to early childhood education has taken the Western world by storm, profoundly influencing countries around the world. As a globally recognized early childhood educator in the 20th century, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) also recognized her special contribution to early childhood education and world peace.

The aim of Montessori's theory of education is to be "child-centered" and to give "children absolute autonomy, allowing them to decide for themselves what they want to play and what they want to learn. According to the natural characteristics and growth needs of young children, in a free and happy learning environment, we cultivate the spirit of self-conscious and active learning and exploration in order to develop children's wisdom, explore their potential, stimulate their memory power, and achieve independence of body, will, and mind, as well as the perfection of personality, psychology, and spirituality.

Montessori believes that as soon as a child is born, the sensory organs begin to perceive and absorb information from the surrounding environment. Early education should focus on sensory training, including vision, touch, hearing, taste, smell, etc., to cultivate the child's sharp senses, exercise the child's discrimination and hand-eye coordination, and at the same time, cultivate the child's ability to observe, compare and judge. Capture the sensitive period of your child's development. Before the age of 3, it is mainly the period of order, language, movement, sensation and sensitivity to small things. Discovering and pioneering early childhood education based on the sensitive periods of a child's development. Under the guidance of this theory, Montessori teaching method, Montessori school, Montessori teaching aids were produced.

Montessori education focuses on the environment (classroom and teaching aids) and early childhood teachers. Montessori's requirements for the environment are: "It consists of supplies made according to the child, a bright, fresh room, a low window for flowers, small-sized furniture in the room, a small desk, beautiful curtains, and a small cupboard. This little cupboard is easy to open and is filled with a variety of items that the child can access at will." The classroom environment provided for children must be authentic, natural, and aesthetically pleasing, where children enjoy full freedom, ensuring that young children have the opportunity to move about freely. At the same time, according to the different developmental sensitivities of young children, we have created a variety of teaching aids with specific teaching roles in different areas of young children's development, which enable them to recognize size, height, weight and order, sequence, and so on. These teaching aids include five main parts: daily life teaching aids, sensory teaching aids, math teaching aids, language teaching aids, natural and humanities teaching aids (astronomy, geography, humanities, history, science, art, etc.), etc. Each part is intertwined with the other. Each part is interlocked and inseparable.

In Montessori education, teachers and parents are referred to as "teachers", i.e. those who inspire and guide the children. Instead of designing the learning content for the child and teaching the child what he or she needs to learn, as is the function of the teacher in traditional education, the instructor assists, guides, and is an observer, modeler, and facilitator. The child is the master here. The early childhood teacher needs to prepare the environment for the child, ensure that the child has the opportunity to move freely, and at the same time provide the child with suitable and orderly teaching aids, assist the child's work, guide the operation of the teaching aids and the demonstration and explanation of the unfolding of activities.

Montessori called the learning and playing of children here "work", and "work" has the positive effect of constructing oneself and the social order, through which children gradually improve themselves and complete themselves. Children in this free environment to stimulate the interest of learning, the teacher should be full of love for the child, as an observer of the child's needs, timely detection of children in all aspects of the spontaneous tendency of intellectual potential, timely capture and induction, according to the child's development of the sensitive period of the child to provide children with appropriate Montessori teaching aids and activities, so that it will be strengthened and developed, if ignored may be lost and then the opportunity to appear again. Opportunities. The teacher appears as a facilitator, always surrounding the child's activities, giving help and guidance, stimulating the child to learn spontaneously rather than forcing the child to learn. The child is trained in all aspects of ability through self-repeated manipulation of the Montessori teaching aids and in free manipulation. Thus, the child's potential is maximized through free and spontaneous learning, which leads to the enhancement of intelligence. In the Montessori classroom, the child completes his "work" independently, and when mistakes occur during the work, the teacher does not help the child to correct the mistakes, but lets them find the mistakes and correct them themselves. Through this repeated training, the child is able to recognize nature and develop the ability to transform it, as well as improve the child's ability to recognize himself and transform himself.

In Montessori activities, because the child is the master here, the child is given the greatest freedom and the child feels the greatest joy. Although the child is given enough freedom, this freedom is not indulgence, but must also be disciplined, learn to follow order and become a self-disciplined person.

It is important to note here that the teacher who conducts Montessori education needs to be professionally trained. You should pay attention to whether the environment of the classroom where your child learns and the teaching aids (which may be expensive) are qualified, and whether this early childhood class can correctly carry out the educational ideas of Montessori, which is very important.