montessori-resources-ideas-and-more

Edouard Seguin

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:37:45 +0100

Edouard Seguin

Edouard Seguin.

Edouard Seguin (January 12, 1812 - October 28, 1880) was a physician and educationist who was born in Clamecy, Nièvre. He is remembered for his work with children having cognitive impairments in France and the United States.

He studied at the Collège d’Auxerre and the Lycée St Louis in Paris, and from 1837 studied and worked under Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, who was an educator of deaf-mute individuals, that included the celebrated case of Victor of Aveyron, also known as the "The Wild Child". It was Itard who persuaded Seguin to dedicate himself to study the causes, as well as the training of the mentally retarded. As a young man Seguin was also influenced by the ideas of utopian socialist Henri de Saint-Simon.

Around 1840 he established the first private school in Paris dedicated to the education of the mentally handicapped, and in 1846 published Traitement Moral, Hygiène, et Education des Idiots (The Moral Treatment, Hygiene, and Education of Idiots and Other Backward Children). This work is considered to be the earliest systematic textbook dealing with the special needs of children with mental disabilities.

Following the European revolutions of 1848, Seguin emigrated to the United States, where he eventually settled in Ohio as a medical practitioner. Later he relocated to New York State and set up a medical practice in Mount Vernon (1860). In 1863 he moved to the New York City, where he made efforts to improve conditions of handicapped children at the Randall's Island asylum.

In the United States he established a number of schools in various cities for treatment of the mentally handicapped. In 1866 he published "Idiocy: and its Treatment by the Physiological Method"; in which he described the methods used at the "Seguin Physiological School" in New York City. Programs used in Seguin's schools stressed the importance of developing self-reliance and independence in the mentally disabled by giving them a combination of physical and intellectual tasks.

Eduoard Seguin became the first president of the "Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiotic and Feebleminded Persons", which would later be known as the American Association on Mental Retardation. His work with the mentally handicapped was a major inspiration to Italian educator Maria Montessori.

In the 1870s Seguin published three works in the field of thermometry; Thermometres physiologiques (Paris, 1873); Tableaux de thermometrie mathematique (1873); and Medical Thermometry and Human Temperature (New York, 1876). He also devised a special "physiological thermometer" in which zero was the standard temperature of health. Also a medical symptom known as "Seguin's signal" is named after him, which is described as an involuntary muscle contraction prior to an epileptic attack.

Montessori Sensorial Materials

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:31:57 +0100

Montessori Sensorial Materials are materials used in the Montessori classroom that help the child develop his or her 5 senses. The materials are designed to help the child refine tactile, visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory senses. This is the next level of difficulty after those of practical life. This article is designed to explain several of the Montessori Sensorial materials used in the classroom environment.

Sensorial Materials, like many other materials in the Montessori classroom, have what is called a "control of error." This means that the child will work with the material, but will have a way for them to check their own work rather than seeking out the teacher. This is done to help promote independence on the part of the child.

The Cylinder Blocks

There are 4 cylinder blocks. The purpose of the cylinder blocks are to provide various size dimensions so the child can distinguish between large and small, tall and short, thick and thin, or a combination of the two.

The cylinder blocks are wooden blocks that contain 10 cylinders of various dimensions that can be removed by a knobbed handle. In order to remove the cylinders, the child tends to naturally use a 3 finger pincher grip used on pencils.

There are several activities that can be done with the cylinder blocks. The main activity involves removing the cylinders from the block and replacing them.

The control of error comes when the child is unable to replace a cylinder. The mistake is apparent and the child is unable to return it to the shelf uncompleted.

The Pink Tower

The pink tower work has 10 pink cubes. The smallest cube is 1 cubic centimeter and the largest cube is 10 cubic centimeters. The work is designed to provide the child with a concept of "big" and "small."

The child starts with the largest cube and puts the 2nd largest cube on top of it. The work continues until all 10 cubes are stacked on top of each other.

The control of error is visual. The child sees the cubes are in the wrong order. If the cubes are stacked on the corner, the smallest cube may be used to place on each level. The ledge of each level will be 1cm wide and the child will be able to see if the small cube fits on each ledge.

The Broad Stair

The broad stair is designed to teach the concepts of "thick" and "thin." The broad stairs are 10 sets of wooden prisms with a natural or brown stain finish. Each stair is 20 cm in length and varies in thickness from 1 square cm to 10 square cm.

When the broad stairs are put together from thickest to thinnest, the material makes stairs going down.

As an extension, the broad stairs are often used with the pink tower to allow the child to make many designs.

The Pink Tower and the Broad Stairs are shown here together in an extension activity. The child can make a variety of designs limited only by his or her imagination and the constraints of the material.

The Red Rods

The red rods are 10 red rods with equal diameter. They vary only in length. The smallest is 10 cm long and the largest is one meter long. Each rod is 1 square inch thick. By holding the ends of the rods with two hands, the material is designed to give the child a sense of long and short in a very concrete manner.

The Colored Cylinders

Also called the knobless cylinders, these are cylinders of the exact same size and dimensions as the cylinder blocks mentioned above.

There are 4 boxes of cylinders:

Yellow cylinders that vary in height and width. The shortest cylinder is the thinnest and the tallest cylinder is the thickest.
Red cylinders that are the same height, but vary in width.
Blue cylinders that have the same width, but vary in height.
Green cylinders that vary in height and width. The shortest cylinder is the thickest and the tallest cylinder is the thinnest.

The child can do a variety of exercises with these materials, including matching them with the cylinder blocks, stacking them on top of each other to form a tower, and arranging them in size or different patterns. When the yellow, red, and green cylinders are placed on top of each other, they all are the same height. ^[1]

Colored Cylinders laid out in a design.

The green, yellow, and red cylinders are stacked on top of each other.

Here, the knobless cylinders are used with the cylinders from the cylinder block.

The Binomial Cube

The binomial cube is a cube that has the following pieces: 1 red cube, 3 black and red prisms. 3 black and blue prisms, and 1 blue cube.

A box with 8 prisms represent the elements of $(a + b) 3$ or: $a 3 + 3 a 2 b + 3 a b 2 + b 3$

The pieces are stored in a box with two hinged opening sides. The color pattern of the cube is painted all around the outside of the box (except the bottom).

The material is not designed as a math material until the elementary years of Montessori Education. In the Primary levels (ages 3-6), it is used as a sensorial material.

The Binomial Cube

The Trinomial Cube

The trinomial cube is similar to the binomial cube, but has the following pieces: The trinomial cube is a cube that has the following pieces: 1 red cube, 6 black and red prisms (varying in size) 1 blue cube and 6 black and blue prisms (varying in size) 1 yellow cube and 6 black and yellow prisms (varying in size)

This is used similar to the binomial cube, but is a physical representation of the math formula:

$(a + b + c) 3 = a 3 + 3 a 2 b + 3 a 2 c + b 3 + 3 a b 2 + 3 b 2 c + c 3 + 3 a c 2 + 3 b c 2 + 6 a b c$

Other materials

There are many Montessori materials that deal with the Sensorial area and more are being investigated and developed by teachers. Other popular Montessori Sensorial materials include:

Monomial Cube: A cube similar to the binomial and trinomial cube. The child has a sensorial experience of the power of multiplying by 2 and developing that into a cube.

Geometric Cabinet: Several different shapes are inset into wood and placed in drawers. The child distinguishes the different shapes, learns their names, and learns how to discriminate from the shapes.

The Constructive Triangles: Different triangles are put together to form various shapes. Shapes made with the triangles include the parallelogram, hexagon, rhombus, and trapezoid.

Color Tablets: Boxes with tablets inside. The sides are usually made of wood or plastic. The middle is painted wood or plastic. The only difference with these are the colors in the middle. There are 3 color boxes. The first has the 3 basic colors of red, blue, and yellow. The 2nd has 12 different colors. The third box has 9 colors, but in different grades from light to dark.

The Geometric Solids: 10 Geometric 3-dimensional shapes made from wood and usually painted blue. The shapes are:
- Sphere
- Cone
- Ovoid
- Ellipsoid
- Triangle Based Pyramid
- Square Based Pyramid
- Cube
- Cylinder
- Rectangular Prism
- Triangular Prism

The Mystery Bag contains various object that the child feels and sorts without looking into the bag. The object is removed after the child has decided how to sort it and a visual check is done. (Though this may also be done blindfolded to add to the experience).

Rough And Smooth Boards: Sandpaper is glued onto a smooth wood board. Various grading of sandpaper are used later as an extension of this activity to help the child discriminate between them.

Fabric Box: Different fabric materials are used that the child must feel and match. A blindfold is usually used so the child cannot see the materials.

Thermic Bottles: Different temperature water is added to metal bottles. The child lines them up from "hottest" to "coldest."

Baric Tablets: Wooden tablets of various weight to help the child discriminate between weight.

The Sound Cylinders: 2 boxes, each containing 6 cylinders. One set has a red top and the other a blue top. When shaken, each cylinder of the same color gives off a different sound. The sound from the red cylinder is matched with the same exact sound from the blue cylinder.

The Bells: 26 bells are used in the Montessori classroom to enable the child to develop a strong sense of musical tones.

The Color Tablets: Box 3

The Geometric Solids

The Montessori Bells

Inclusion (Education)

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:27:38 +0100

Inclusion in the context of education is the practice, in which students with special educational needs spend most or all of their time with non-disabled students. Implementation of this practice varies; schools can use it for selected students with mild to severe special needs.^[1]^[2]

Description

Inclusive education differs from previously held notions of ‘integration’ and ‘mainstreaming’, which tended to be concerned principally with disability and ‘special educational needs’ and implied learners changing or becoming ‘ready for’ accommodation by the mainstream. By contrast, inclusion is about the child’s right to participate and the school’s duty to accept the child. Inclusion rejects the use of special schools or classrooms to separate students with disabilities from students without disabilities. A premium is placed upon full participation by students with disabilities and upon respect for their social, civil, and educational rights.

Inclusive schools no longer distinguish between "general education" and "special education" programs; instead, the school is restructured so that all students learn together.^[3]

Proponents want to maximize the participation of all learners in the community schools of their choice, make learning more meaningful and relevant for all, particularly those learners most vulnerable to exclusionary pressures, and to rethink and restructure policies, curricula, cultures and practices in schools and learning environments so that diverse learning needs can be met, whatever the origin or nature of those needs.^[4]

All students can learn and benefit from education.
Schools adapt to the needs of students, rather than students adapting to the needs of the school.
Individual differences between students are a source of richness and diversity, and not a problem.
The diversity of needs and pace of development of students are addressed through a wide and flexible range of responses (so long as those responses do not include removing a student with a disability from a general education classroom).

Inclusive education is a process of removing barriers and enabling all students, including previously excluded groups, to learn and participate effectively within general school systems.

Classification

Inclusion has two sub-types:^[5]: the first is sometimes called regular inclusion or partial inclusion, and the other is full inclusion.^[6]

In a "regular inclusion" setting, students with special needs are educated in regular classes for nearly all of the day, or at least for more than half of the day.^[6] Whenever possible, the students receive any additional help or special instruction in the general classroom. Most specialized services are provided outside a regular classroom, particularly if these services require special equipment or might be disruptive to the rest of the class (such as speech therapy), and students are pulled out for these services. In this case, the student occasionally leaves the regular classroom to attend smaller, more intensive instructional sessions in a resource room, or to receive other related services, such as speech and language therapy, occupational and/or physical therapy, and social work.^[6] This approach can be very similar to many mainstreaming practices.^[6]

Hands On Learning Australia takes disengaged students, as well as some students with special needs, out of class one day per week and put into an alternative cross-age peer group to develop strong relationships and enable them to better cope with general education classes. This is an example of a "regular" inclusion model.

Under full inclusion, by contrast, students classified as disabled remain in general classrooms virtually all the time.^[6] Related services are provided via "push in," meaning that professionals enter the classroom and deliver assistance there.^[6]

Full inclusion is the complete integration of the student with a special need into the general education classroom. The student receives all special services in the same general education classroom as all other students. This is very common with students whose needs are easily met in a classroom, such as a modification that allows the student more time to complete written assignments.

Schools that practice full inclusion for all students have no separate special education classes. However, full inclusion of all students, regardless of their particular needs, is a controversial practice, and it is not widely applied.^[7]^[8]^[9] It is more common for local educational agencies to provide a variety of settings, from special classrooms to mainstreaming to inclusion, and to assign students to the system that seems most likely to help the student achieve his or her individual educational goals.

Alternatives

Students with disabilities who are not included are typically either mainstreamed or segregated.

A mainstreamed student attends some general education classes, typically for less than half the day, and often for less rigorous classes. For example, a young student with significant intellectual disabilities might be mainstreamed for physical education classes, art classes and storybook time, but spend reading and mathematics classes with other students that have similar disabilities.

A segregated student attends no classes with non-disabled students. He or she might attend a special school that only enrolls other students with disabilities, or might be placed in a dedicated, self-contained classroom in a school that also enrolls general education students. Some students may be confined to a hospital due to a medical condition and are thus eligible for tutoring services provided by a school district.^[10]

Less common alternatives include homeschooling^[11] and, particularly in developing countries, exclusion from education.

Legal issues

The new anti-discriminatory climate has provided the basis for much change in policy and statute, nationally and internationally. Inclusion has been enshrined at the same time that segregation and discrimination have been rejected. Articulations of the new developments in ways of thinking, in policy and in law include:

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) which sets out children’s rights in respect of freedom from discrimination and in respect of the representation of their wishes and views.
The UNESCO Salamanca Statement (1994) which calls on all governments to give the highest priority to inclusive education.

For schools in the United States, the federal requirement that students be educated in the least restrictive environment that is reasonable encourages the implementation of inclusion for some students.

Frequency of use

The proportion of students with disabilities who are included varies by place and by type of disability, but it is relatively common for students with milder disabilities and less common with certain kinds of severe disabilities. In Denmark, 99% of students with learning disabilities are placed in general education classrooms full-time.^[12] In the United States, three out of five students with learning disabilities spend the overwhelming majority of their time in the general education classroom.^[13]

Necessary resources

Although once hailed as a way to increase achievement while decreasing costs, full inclusion does not save money, reduce students' needs, or improve academic outcomes; in most cases, it merely moves the special education professionals out of their own classrooms and into a corner of the general classroom. To avoid harm to the academic education of students with disabilities, a full panoply of services and resources is required, including:^[14]

Adequate supports and services for the student
Well-designed individualized education programs
Professional development for all teachers involved, general and special educators alike
Time for teachers to plan, meet, create, and evaluate the students together
Reduced class size based on the severity of the student needs
Professional skill development in the areas of cooperative learning, peer tutoring, adaptve curriculum
Collaboration between parents, teachers and administrators
Sufficient funding so that schools will be able to develop programs for students based on student need instead of the availability of funding.

In principle, several factors can determine the success of inclusive classrooms:

Family-school partnerships
Collaboration between general and special educators
Well-constructed plans that identify specific accommodations, modifications, and goals for each student
Coordinated planning and communication between "general" and "special needs" staff
Integrated service delivery
Ongoing training and staff development

Common practices

Students in an inclusive classroom are generally placed with their chronological age-mates, regardless of whether the students are working above or below the typical academic level for their age. Also, to encourage a sense of belonging, emphasis is placed on the value of friendships. Teachers often nurture a relationship between a student with special needs and a same-age student without a special educational need. Another common practice is the assignment of a buddy to accompany a student with special needs at all times (for example in the cafeteria, on the playground, on the bus and so on). This is used to show students that a diverse group of people make up a community, that no one type of student is better than another, and to remove any barriers to a friendship that may occur if a student is viewed as "helpless." Such practices reduce the chance for elitism among students in later grades and encourage cooperation among groups.^[15]

Teachers use a number of techniques to help build classroom communities:

Games designed to build community
Involving students in solving problems
Songs and books that teach community
Openly dealing with individual differences by discussion
Assigning classroom jobs that build community
Teaching students to look for ways to help each other
Utilizing physical therapy equipment such as standing frames, so students who typically use wheelchairs can stand when the other students are standing and more actively participate in activities
Encouraging students to take the role of teacher and deliver instruction (e.g. read a portion of a book to a student with severe disabilities)
Focus on the strength of a student with special needs

Selection of students for inclusion

Educators generally say that some students with special needs are not good candidates for inclusion.^[16] Many schools expect a fully included student to be working at or near grade level, but more fundamental requirements exist: First, being included requires that the student is able to attend school. Students that are entirely excluded from school (for example, due to long-term hospitalization), or who are educated outside of schools (for example, due to enrollment in a distance education program) cannot attempt inclusion.

Additionally, some students with special needs are poor candidates for inclusion because of their effect on other students. For example, students with severe behavioral problems, such that they represent a serious physical danger to others, are poor candidates for inclusion, because the school has a duty to provide a safe environment to all students and staff.

Finally, some students are not good candidates for inclusion because the normal activities in a general education classroom will prevent them from learning.^[6] For example, a student with severe attention difficulties or extreme sensory processing disorders might be highly distracted or distressed by the presence of other students working at their desks. Inclusion needs to be appropriate to the child's unique needs.

Most students with special needs do not fall into these extreme categories, as most students do attend school, are not violent, do not have severe sensory processing disorders, etc.

The students that are most commonly included are those with physical disabilities that have no or little effect on their academic work (diabetes mellitus, epilepsy, food allergies, paralysis), students with all types of mild disabilities, and students whose disabilities require relatively few specialized services.

Bowe says that regular inclusion, but not full inclusion, is a reasonable approach for a significant majority of students with special needs.^[6] He also says that for some students, notably those with severe autism spectrum disorders or mental retardation, as well as many who are deaf or have multiple disabilities, even regular inclusion may not offer an appropriate education.^[6]

Relationship to progressive education

Some advocates of inclusion promote the adoption of progressive education practices. In the progressive education or inclusive classroom, everyone is exposed to a "rich set of activities," and each student does what he or she can do, or what he or she wishes to do and learns whatever comes from that experience. Maria Montessori's schools sometimes named as an example of inclusive education.

Inclusion requires some changes in how teachers teach, as well as changes in how students with and without special needs interact with and relate to one another. Inclusive education practices frequently rely on active learning, authentic assessment practices, applied curriculum, multi-level instructional approaches, and increased attention to diverse student needs and individualization.

Arguments for full inclusion

Advocates say that even partial non-inclusion is morally unacceptable.^[17] Proponents believe that non-inclusion reduces the disabled students' social importance and that maintaining their social visibility is more important than their academic achievement. Proponents say that society accords disabled people less human dignity when they are less visible in general education classrooms. Advocates say that even if typical students are harmed academically by the full inclusion of certain special needs students, that the non-inclusion of these students would still be morally unacceptable, as advocates believe that the harm to typical students' education is always less important than the social harm caused by making people with disabilities less visible in society.^[17]

A second key argument is that everybody benefits from inclusion. Advocates say that there are many children and young people who don't fit in (or feel as though they don't), and that a school that fully includes all disabled students feels welcoming to all. Moreover, at least one author has studied the impact a diversified student body has on the general education population and has concluded that students with mental retardation who spend time among their peers show an increase in social skills and academic profeciency.^[18]

Advocates for inclusion say that the long-term effects of typical students who are included with special needs students at a very young age have a heightened sensitivity to the challenges that others face, increased empathy and compassion, and improved leadership skills, which benefits all of society.^[19]

A combination of inclusion and pull-out (partial inclusion) services has been shown to be beneficial to students with learning disabilities in the area of reading comprehension, and preferential for the special education teachers delivering the services.^[20]

Inclusive education can be beneficial to all students in a class, not just students with special needs. Some research show that inclusion helps students understand the importance of working together, and fosters a sense of tolerance and empathy among the student body.^[21]

Criticism

Critics of full and partial inclusion include both educators, administrators and parents. Full and partial inclusion approaches neglect to acknowledge the fact most students with significant special needs require individualized instruction or highly controlled environments. Thus, general education classroom teachers often are teaching a curriculum while the special education teacher is remediating instruction at the same time. Similarly, a child with serious inattention problems may be unable to focus in a classroom that contains twenty or more active children. Although with the increase of incidence of disabilities in the student population, this is a circumstance all teachers must contend with, and is not a direct result of inclusion as a concept.^[22]

Full inclusion may in fact be a way for schools to placate parents and the general public, using the word as a phrase to garner attention for what are in fact illusive efforts to education students with special needs in the general education envronment.^[23]

At least one study examined the lack of individualized services provided for students with IEPs when placed in an inclusive rather than mainstreamed environment.^[24]

Some researchers have maintained school districts neglect to prepare general education staff for students with special needs, thus preventing any achievement. Moreover, school districts often expound an inclusive philosphy for political reasons, and do away with any valuable pull-out services, all on behalf of the students who have no so say in the matter.^[25]

Inclusion is viewed by some as a practice philosophically attractive yet impractical, and studies have not corroborated the proposed advantages of full or partial inclusion. Moreover, "push in" servicing does not allow students with moderate to severe disabilities individualized instruction in a resource room, from which many show considerable benefit in both learning and emotional development.^[26]

Parents of disabled students may be cautious about placing their children in an inclusion program because of fears that the children will be ridiculed by other students, or be unable to develop regular life skills in an academic classroom.^[27]

Some argue that inclusive schools are not a cost-effective response when compared to cheaper or more effective interventions, such as special education. They argue that special education helps "fix" the special needs students by providing individualized and personalized instruction to meet their unique needs. This is to help students with special needs adjust as quickly as possible to the mainstream of the school and community. Proponents counter that students with special needs are not fully into the mainstream of student life because they are secluded to special education. Some argue that isolating students with special needs may lower their self-esteem and may reduce their ability to deal with other people. In keeping these students in separate classrooms they aren't going to see the struggles and achievements that they can make together. However, at least one study indicated mainstreaming in education has long-term benefits for students as indicated by increased test scores,^[28] where the benefit of inclusion has not yet been proved.

Dr. Maria Montessori

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:21:24 +0100

Maria Montessori

Born	August 31, 1870(1870-08-31) Chiaravalle (Ancona), Italy
Died	May 6, 1952 (aged 81) Noordwijk, Netherlands
Resting place	Noordwijk, Netherlands
Nationality	Italian
Education	University of Rome La Sapienza Medical School
Occupation	Physician and educator
Known for	Founder of the Montessori method of education
Religious beliefs	Catholic
Children	Mario Montessori Sr.

Maria Montessori (August 31, 1870 – May 6, 1952) was an Italian physician, educator, philosopher, humanitarian and devout Catholic; she is best known for her philosophy and the Montessori method of education of children from birth to adolescence. Her educational method is in use today in a number of public as well as private schools throughout the world.

Biography

Maria Montessori was born in 1870 in Chiaravalle (Ancona), Italy to Alessandro Montessori, and Renilde Stoppani (niece of Antonio Stoppani). At the age of thirteen she attended an all-boy technical school in preparation for her dreams of becoming an engineer. ^[1] Montessori was the first woman to graduate from the University of Rome La Sapienza Medical School, becoming the first female doctor in Italy. She was a member of the University's Psychiatric Clinic and became intrigued with trying to educate the "special needs or "unhappy little ones" ^[2] and the "uneducatable" in Rome. In 1896, she gave a lecture at the Educational Congress in Torino about the training of the disabled. The Italian Minister of Education was in attendance, and was impressed by her arguments sufficiently to appoint her the same year as director of the Scuola Ortofrenica, an institution devoted to the care and education of the mentally retarded. She accepted, in order to put her theories to proof. Her first notable success was to have several of her 8 year old students apply to take the State examinations for reading and writing. The "defective" children not only passed, but had above-average scores, an achievement described as "the first Montessori miracle."^[3] Montessori's response to their success was "if mentally disabled children could be brought to the level of normal children then (she) wanted to study the potential of 'normal' children". ^[4]

“Scientific observation has established that education is not what the teacher gives; education is a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words but by experiences upon the environment. The task of the teacher becomes that of preparing a series of motives of cultural activity, spread over a specially prepared environment, and then refraining from obtrusive interference. Human teachers can only help the great work that is being done, as servants help the master. Doing so, they will be witnesses to the unfolding of the human soul and to the rising of a New Man who will not be a victim of events, but will have the clarity of vision to direct and shape the future of human society”. ^[5]

Because of her success with these children, she was asked to start a school for children in a housing project in Rome, which opened on January 6, 1907, and which she called "Casa dei Bambini" or Children's House. Children's House was a child care center in an apartment building in the poor neighborhood of Rome. She was focused on teaching the students ways to develop their own skills at a pace they set, which was a principle Montessori called "spontaneous self-development".^[6] A wide variety of special equipment of increasing complexity is used to help direct the interests of the child and hasten development. When a child is ready to learn new and more difficult tasks, the teacher guides the child’s first endeavors in order to avoid wasted effort and the learning of wrong habits; otherwise the child learns alone. It has been reported that the Montessori method of teaching has enabled children to learn to read and write much more quickly and with greater facility than has otherwise been possible. ^[7] The Montessori Method of teaching concentrates on quality rather than quantity. ^[5] The success of this school sparked the opening of many more, and a worldwide interest in Montessori's methods of education.

After the 1907 establishment of Montessori's first school in Rome, by 1917 there was an intense interest in her method in North America, which later waned, in large part due to the publication of a small booklet entitled "The Montessori System Examined" by William Heard Kilpatrick - a follower of John Dewey. (Nancy McCormick Rambusch contributed to the revival of the method in America by establishing the American Montessori Society in 1960); at the same time Margaret Stephenson came to the US from Europe and began a long history of training Montessori teachers under the auspices of the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI). Montessori was exiled by Mussolini mostly because she refused to compromise her principles and make the children into soldiers. She moved to Spain and lived there until 1936 when the Spanish Civil War broke out. She then moved to the Netherlands until 1939.

In the year 1939, the Theosophical Society of India extended an invitation asking Maria Montessori to visit India. She accepted the invitation and reached India the very same year accompanied by her only son, Mario Montessori Sr. This heralded the beginning of her special relationship with India. She made the international Headquarters of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, Chennai, her home. However the war forced her to extend her stay in India. With the help of her son, Mario, she conducted sixteen batches of courses called the Indian Montessori Training Courses. These courses laid a strong foundation for the Montessori Movement in India. In 1949 when she left for The Netherlands she appointed Albert Max Joosten as her personal representative, and assigned him the responsibility of conducting the Indian Montessori Training Courses. Joosten along with Swamy S R, another disciple of Dr. Maria Montessori, continued the good work and ensured that the Montessori Movement in India was on a sound footing.

During a teachers conference in India she was interned by the authorities and lived there for the duration of the war. Montessori lived out the remainder of her life in the Netherlands, which now hosts the headquarters of the AMI, or Association Montessori Internationale. She died in Noordwijk aan Zee. Her son Mario headed the AMI until his death in 1982.

Maria Montessori died in the Netherlands in 1952, after a lifetime devoted to the study of child development. Her early work centered on women’s rights and social reform and evolved to encompass a totally innovative approach to education. Her success in Italy led to international recognition, and for over 40 years she traveled all over the world, lecturing, writing and establishing training programs. In later years, ‘Educate for Peace’ became a guiding principle, which underpinned her work.

Pedagogy

Aside from a new pedagogy, among the premier contributions to educational thought by Montessori are:

instruction of children in 3-year age groups, corresponding to sensitive periods of development (example: Birth-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12, 12-15 year olds with an Erdkinder (German for "Land Children") program for early teens
children as competent beings, encouraged to make maximal decisions
observation of the child in the prepared environment as the basis for ongoing curriculum development (presentation of subsequent exercises for skill development and information accumulation)
small, child-sized furniture and creation of a small, child-sized environment (microcosm) in which each can be competent to produce overall a self-running small children's world
creation of a scale of sensitive periods of development, which provides a focus for class work that is appropriate and uniquely stimulating and motivating to the child (including sensitive periods for language development, sensorial experimentation and refinement, and various levels of social interaction)
the importance of the "absorbent mind," the limitless motivation of the young child to achieve competence over his or her environment and to perfect his or her skills and understandings as they occur within each sensitive period. The phenomenon is characterized by the young child's capacity for repetition of activities within sensitive period categories (Example: exhaustive babbling as language practice leading to language competence).
self-correcting "auto-didactic" materials (some based on work of Jean Marc Gaspard Itard and Edouard Seguin)

Influence

A conference in Rome on 6/7th January 2007^[8] heralded the start of a year of celebrations for children and schools around the world. Dr. Maria Montessori’s innovative approach was that “Education should no longer be mostly imparting of knowledge, but must take a new path, seeking the release of human potentialities.”

What followed worldwide has been called the "discovery of the child" and the realization that: "...mankind can hope for a solution to its problems, among which the most urgent are those of peace and unity, only by turning its attention and energies to the discovery of the child and to the development of the great potentialities of the human personality in the course of its formation.”

The efficacy of Montessori teaching methods has most recently been demonstrated by the results of a study published in the US journal, Science (29 September 2006)^[9] which indicates that Montessori children have improved behavioral and academic skills compared with a control group from the mainstream system. The authors concluded that "when strictly implemented, Montessori education fosters social and academic skills that are equal or superior to those fostered by a pool of other types of schools."

The Montessori method of education that she derived from this experience has subsequently been applied successfully to children and is quite popular in many parts of the world. Despite much criticism of her method in the early 1930s-1940s, her method of education has been applied and has undergone a revival. It can now be found on six continents and throughout the United States, but is still subject to some criticism.

The Association Montessori Internationale is member of the International Coalition for the Decade for the Culture of Peace and Nonviolence.

Important events in Montessori's life

1894	Became Doctor of Medicine
1896	Represented the Women of Italy at a Conference at Berlin
1896-1906	Held a chair in Hygiene at a Women's' College in Rome
1898	Gave birth to Mario Montessori Sr. and sent him to a family in the countryside of Italy
1899	Addressed a Pedagogical Conference in Turin - stressed on the benefits of Education to defective children
1900	Represented at the Feminist Conference in London - attacked the exploitation of children in the mines of Sicily
1901	Enrollment in the University of Rome as a student of Psychology and Philosophy
1904 - 08	Professor of Anthropology in the University of Rome. Her first major publication -"Pedagogical Anthropology"
1909	Publication of "The Method of Scientific Pedagogy as applied to infant education in the Children's Houses"
1913	Conducted the First International Training Course
1914	She visited the United States of America. She was a guest of Thomas Alva Edison. The formation of American Montessori Society under the Presidentship of Mr. Alexander Graham Bell
1918	The Education Society of London sent Mrs. Hutchinson to take a course under Dr. Montessori. The course was considered a "Rhapsody" by the Department of Education
1919	The first official visit to London. She was given a royal reception.
1922	Dr. Montessori appointed the Inspector of schools by the Italian Government.
1925	International Montessori Congress at Helsinki
1929	Founded the Association Montessori Internationale in Amsterdam
1932	International Montessori Congress in Europe
1939-1947	Dr. Montessori makes India her home. She with the help of her son conducts 16 batches of the Indian Montessori Training Courses, thus laying a strong foundation for the Montessori Movement in India.
1947	Reestablishment of the Opera Montessori in Rome, Italy
1948	Dr. Montessori visits India again.
1949	Appoints Albert Max Joosten as her personal representative to conduct the Indian Montessori Training Courses. Conducts the First International training Course in Pakistan. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
1951	Conducts the International Montessori Course in London. Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the second time.
1952	Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the third time. All three occasions the Nobel Prize eludes her. Dr. Montessori passes away. Interred at Noordwijk-aan-Zee in Holland

References

^ Michael Olaf's Essential Montessori: School Edition for Ages 3-12+.
^ Michael Olaf's Essential Montessori: School Edition for Ages 3-12+.
^ Current Biography 1940, p. 591.
^ Michael Olaf's Essential Montessori: School Edition for Ages 3-12+.
^ ^a ^b http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=ED496081&site=ehost-live
^ Early Childhood Today, p. 74.
^ http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=funk&AN=MO140100&site=ehost-live
^ "Montessori Centenary". http://www.montessoricentenary.org.
^ "Evaluating Montessori Education". Science. 2006-09-29. http://www.montessori-science.org/montessori_science_journal.htm.

Montessori Method

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:10:23 +0100

Montessori method

The Montessori method is an educational approach to children based on the research and experiences of Italian physician and educator, Maria Montessori (1870–1952). It arose essentially from Dr. Montessori's discovery of what she referred to as "the child's true normal nature" in 1907 ^[1], which happened in the process of her experimental observation of young children given freedom in an environment prepared with materials designed for their self-directed learning activity.^[2] The method itself aims to duplicate this experimental observation of children to bring about, sustain and support their true natural way of being.^[3]

Applying this method involves the teacher in viewing the child as having an inner natural guidance for its own perfect self-directed development.^[4] The role of the teacher (sometimes called, director, directress, or guide) is therefore to watch over the environment to remove any obstacles that would interfere with this natural development. The teacher's role of observation also sometimes includes experimental interactions with children, commonly referred to as lessons, to resolve misbehavior or to show how to use the various self-teaching materials that are provided in the environment for the children's free use. ^[5]

The method is primarily applied with young children (2-6), due to the young child's unique instincts and sensitivity to conditions in the environment. ^[6] However, it is sometimes conducted with elementary (6-12) aged children and occasionally with infants and toddlers, as well as at the middle and high school level. ^[7]^[8]

Girls at The Druk White Lotus School learning with Montessori materials.

Although the Montessori name is recognized by many, it is not a trademark, and it is associated with more than one organization. Schools differ in their interpretation, practical application, and philosophy in using this method with children. ^[9] This article is about Dr. Maria Montessori’s research and discoveries and their practical application by adherents and practitioners with children.

History

The Montessori method developed from experimental research that Dr. Maria Montessori conducted with disabled and mentally challenged children in the early 1900's. ^[10] She began this research using the basic idea of scientific education that was developed and employed in the 1800's with special needs children by French physicians Jean Itard and Edouard Seguin.^[11]. A student and associate of Itard, Seguin extended Itard's initial idea of observing children in their natural, free activity by adding a series of exercises with specially designed self-teaching materials. Based on Dr. Montessori's success using this same approach in her initial research with disabled and physically challenged children, she began to look for an opportunity to study how it might be applied to benefit the education of more ordinary children as well. ^[12]

In 1906, the opportunity presented itself when Montessori was asked to establish a day-care center for young children (2-6) in a low-income housing area of Rome's San Lorenzo district.^[13] She opened the center in 1907, calling it a Children's House,and began observing the children in the scientific manner indicated before by Seguin.^[14] In this process, Dr. Montessori soon discovered that the children responded to the materials with a deep concentration that resulted in a fundamental shift in their way of being, changing from the ordinary behavior of fantasy, inattention, and disorder, to a state of profound peace, calm and order within their environment. Observing this change occurring with all the children in her environment, she concluded that she had discovered the child's true normal nature. Later, Dr. Montessori referred to this change as normalization and the new emerging children as normalized. ^[15]

After 1907, Dr. Montessori reported her discovery and experiences to educators and others who became increasingly interested in learning how these changes came about in children. This interest soon led her to write various books on the subject and conduct training programs to explain her approach, which eventually came to be known as the "Montessori method." ^[16]

Following her initial experiments with young children, Montessori extended her research by introducing new materials and studying the effects of her approach with children of different ages. For example, near the end of her life, in her book De L'Enfant à L'Adolescent ^[17] (From Childhood to Adolescence), Montessori contributed to the work of the International Bureau of Education and UNESCO, by relating how her method would apply to the secondary-school and university settings. Her writings, lectures, and research during some 40 years until her death in 1952 constituted the basic foundation of knowledge about the method, which is currently conducted according to various philosophies in schools and other institutions associated with the name Montessori throughout the world. ^[18]

Since Dr. Montessori's death in 1952, the method has developed along several different philosophical tracks. Each tract has evolved its own distinctive organizational affiliations, training and presentation of the method to the general public. ^[19]

Philosophy

The philosophy of the Montessori method has remained somewhat obscure and confused because Dr. Montessori's 1907 discovery of the child's true nature was entirely accidental. Throughout her life, Dr. Montessori never described the method that evolved from her discovery in great detail; speaking and writing instead more about the effects of the method on children, rather than the method itself.^[20] The question of its underlying philosophy was therefore left to others, which eventually led in several different directions. For some, the method was closely linked to Dr. Montessori's personality, so that when practiced outside her direct control and presence, it was diluted and misapplied, such as to conform to the needs and interests of the particular cultural context^[21]

Confusion and conflict about the method's philosophy emerged with particular intensity in the modern development of Montessori in the United States^[22] where, in 1967, the name "Montessori" was held to be a "generic term" that no organization could claim for its own exclusive use.^[23] Since then, the number and diversity of Montessori organizations and philosophies have expanded considerably.

One main philosophy of the Montessori method is attached to the personality of Dr. Montessori herself. This philosophy defines the Montessori method according to the pronouncements of Dr. Montessori's colleagues and successors who claim authority from Dr. Montessori herself or her biological son and heir, Mario Montessori. ^[24]

A second major philosophy developed around the idea that the method is controlled by the surrounding culture within which it is operating at the time. This culture-type philosophy defines the method to fit within the popular theories and ideas of conventional thinking of the day. For example, in this philosophy, the particular effects of the method as described by Dr. Montessori in 1907 would be explained as due to the unique Italian context of that day, which is not possible to replicate with children in a different place and time. ^[25]

A third main philosophy holds that the Montessori method reflects a way of being committed to infinite and eternal laws of nature, which is outside the context of either personality or culture. This philosophy has been described as a scientific way of following laws of nature to bring about true normal being. ^[26] In 2003, a new, comprehensive technology was announced for practicing this particular philosophy. ^[27]

In practice, the Montessori method is applied with varying degrees of adherence to these three main philosophies, although they all usually subscribe to at least part of the writings of Dr. Montessori on the subject. While some strictly adhere to one philosophy or another, others develop their own unique blend of philosophies and interpretation of her writings. Despite these differences, there are several concepts that are widely shared by many adherents and practitioners as consistent with the Montessori method.

Concepts

Inner guidance of nature. All children have inherent inner directives from nature which guide their true normal development. ^[28]
Freedom for self-directed learning. The Montessori method respects individual liberty of children to choose their own activities. This freedom allows children to follow their inner guidance for self-directed learning. ^[29]
Planes of development. The natural development of children proceeds through several distinct planes of development, each one having its own unique conditions and sensitive periods for acquiring basic faculties in the developmental process. The first plane (0-6) involves basic personality formation and learning through physical senses. During this plane, children experience sensitive periods for acquiring language and developing basic mental order. ^[30] The second plane of development (6-12) involves learning through abstract reasoning, developing through a sensitivity for imagination and social interaction with others. The third plane (12-18) is the period of adolescent growth, involving the significant biological changes of puberty, moving towards learning a valuation of the human personality, especially as related to experiences in the surrounding community. The Fourth plane (18+), involves a completion of all remaining development in the process of maturing in adult society. ^[31]
Prepared Environment. The right precise conditions around children allow for and support their true natural development. For young children, the environment must be prepared in this way by providing a range of physical objects that are organized and made available for free, independent use, to stimulate their natural instincts and interests for self-directed learning. ^[32]
Observation and indirect teaching. The teacher's role is to observe children engaged in activities that follow their own natural interests. This indirect teaching to control the environment, not the child, contrasts sharply with the ordinary teacher's role of implementing a pre-determined curriculum. For example, a Montessori method class has the teacher resolving misbehavior by refocusing the child to some positive activity, rather than engaging in the ordinary system of rewards and punishments. ^[33]
Normalization. During the 0-6 plane of development, children have the ability to shift their fundamental being from the ordinary condition of disorder, inattention, and attachment to fantasy to a state of perfect normal being, showing such external behavior as spontaneous self-discipline, independence, love of order, and complete harmony and peace with others in the social situation. This psychological shift to normal being occurs through deep concentration on some physical activity of the child's own free choice. ^[34]
Absorbent Mind. The young child (0-6) has an absorbent mind which naturally incorporates experiences in the environment directly into its whole basic character and personality for life. This mental faculty, which is unique to young children, allows them to learn many concepts in an effortless, spontaneous manner. It also allows them to undergo the key phenomenon of normalization to return to their true natural development. After the age of about six, this absorbent mental faculty disappears. ^[35]
Work, not play. Children have an instinctive tendency to develop through spontaneous experiences on the environment, which Dr. Montessori referred to as 'work'. ^[36] In this sense, the children's normal activity is attached to reality in the present moment, rather than idle play through such means as toys and fantasy. ^[37]^[38]
Multi-age grouping. Children learn from each other in a spontaneous manner that supports their independent self-directed activity. The ordinary Montessori classroom therefore consists of a mixed-aged group, such as 2-6 (primary level) or 6-12 (elementary level). ^[39]

Montessori Materials and Curriculum

The Montessori method involves a curriculum of learning which comes from the child's own natural inner guidance and expresses itself in outward behavior as the child's various individual interests are at work. Supporting this inner plan of nature, the method provides a range of materials to stimulate the child's interest through self-directed activity. In the first plane of development (0-6), these materials are generally organized into four basic categories; practical life, sensorial, math, and language.

Practical Life

Practical life materials and exercises respond to the young child's natural interests to develop physical coordination, care of self and care of the environment. Specific materials, for example, provide opportunities for self-help dressing activities, using various devices to practice buttoning, bow tying, and lacing. Other practical life materials include pouring, scooping and sorting activities, as well as washing a table and food preparation to develop hand-eye coordination. These activities also provide a useful opportunity for children to concentrate bringing about their normalization. Other practical life activities include lessons in polite manners, such as folding hands, sitting in a chair, walking on a line. ^[40]

Sensorial

The sensorial materials provide a range of activities and exercises for children to experience the natural order of the physical environment, including such attributes as size, color, shape and dimension. ^[41] Many of these materials were originally suggested and developed by Seguin in his prior research with scientific education. ^[42]Examples of these materials are: Pink tower (series of ten sequential cubes, varying in volume); knobbed cylinders (wooden blocks with 10 depressions to fit variable sized cylinders); broad stairs (ten wooden blocks, sequentially varying in two dimensions); color tablets (colored objects for matching pairs or grading shapes of color). ^[43]

Mathematics

In this area, materials are provided to show such basic concepts as numeration, place value, addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. For numeration, there is a set of ten rods, with segments colored red and blue and “spindle boxes”, which consist of placing sets of objects in groups, 1-10, into separate compartments. For learning the numeral symbols, there is a set of sandpaper numerals, 1-9. For learning addition, subtraction, and place value, materials provide decimal representation of 1, 10, 100, etc., in various shapes made of beads, plastic, or wood. Beyond the basic math materials, there are materials to show the concept of fraction, geometrical relationships and algebra, such as the binomial and trinomial theorems. ^[44]

Language

In the first plane of development (0-6), the Montessori language materials provide experiences to develop use of a writing instrument and the basic skills of reading a written language. For writing skill development, the metal insets provide essential exercises to guide the child's hand in following different outline shapes while using a pencil or pen. For reading, a set of individual letters, commonly known as sandpaper letters, provide the basic means for associating the individual letter symbols with their corresponding phonetic sounds. ^[45] Dispalying several letters, a lesson, known as the Seguin three-period lesson (see below), guides children to learn the letter sounds, which finally blend together to make certain simple phonetic words like “up” and “cat”. The aim of these nomenclature lessons is to show the child that letters make sounds, which can be blended together to make words. For children over six, Montessori language materials have been developed to help children learn grammar, including parts of speech, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, articles, prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, pronouns, and interjections. ^[46]

Cultural subjects

The Montessori classroom may also include other materials and resources to learn cultural subjects, such as geography (map puzzles, globes), and science, such as biology in naming and organizing plants and animals. Music and art are also commonly involved with children in various ways. After the age of approximately six, learning resources include reading books and more abstract materials for learning a broad range of advanced subject matter. ^[47]

Elementary (6-12) Curriculum

During the second plane (6-12) of development, the curriculum takes on a more conventional appearance of books and writing activities, since children now function more through abstract reasoning, and are no longer as sensitive to the physical environment. ^[48] The contextual format for this more advanced curriculum is described as cosmic education, a concept that was first explained in England in 1935. ^[49] Cosmic education is the total interrelated functioning of the whole universe, which allows elementary children to store and organize a great amount of knowledge from among a wide range of different subject matter areas and disciplines. ^[50]

Lessons

In the Montessori method, a lesson is an experimental interaction with children to support their true normal development. ^[51] With materials, these lessons primarily aim to present their basic use to children according to their own individual interests. These lessons are therefore given in such a way that the teacher's personal involvement is reduced to the least amount possible, so as not to interfere with the child's own free learning directly through the materials themselves. ^[52]

For many presentations, a 3 step process, described originally by Seguin, is used in the Montessori method for showing the relationship between objects and names. This is called the "3 period lesson."^[53] With this nomenclature lesson, 2 or 3 materials are selected from what the children are working with.

Period 1 consists of providing the child with the name of the material. In the case of letter sounds, the teacher will have the child trace the letter and say, "This is /u/. This is /p/." This provides the children with the name of what they are learning.
Period 2 is to help the child recognize the different objects. Most of the time with the three period lesson is in period 2. Some things the teacher might say are, "Show me the /u/. Show me the /p/” or "Point to the /u/. Point to the /p/.” After spending some time in the second period, the child may move on to period 3.
Period 3 involves checking to see if the child not only recognizes the name of the material, but is able to tell you what it is. The teacher will point to the "u" sandpaper letter and ask the student, "What is this?" If the child replies with, "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu", the child fully understands it. With letters, the lesson finally ends with the child blending the letters to make a simple word, such as “up.” ^[54]

Homeschooling

The Montessori method is readily employed with children at home. With young children, the practical life materials and exercises are provided through everyday household activities and chores, such as setting the table for meals, food preparation, and folding clothes for laundry. Parents follow the method by using slow, simple movements in showing how to do these chores, as well as by establishing routines for children to conduct their own activities with as much independence and self-direction as possible. ^[55]

Criticism of Montessori

Some critics claim that a flaw in the Montessori method is its close association with Dr. Montessori herself. In Maria Montessori: a Biography, Rita Kramer ^[56] reports that a New York Times writer interviewing Montessori in 1913 stated:

...the method is Montessori and Montessori is the method and one may well have grave doubts about how it will go with 'auto-education' when Maria Montessori's personality is removed.” (p 188)

This close association between the method and Dr. Montessori led to many conflicts and lack of collaboration to extend research into the method itself. ^[57] For example, despite new insight and greater knowledge available for applying the method in a scientific manner, the philosophical differences of personality and culture still exist to cloud and confuse its representation to the general public. ^[58]

Benefits

Angeline Stoll Lillard's award-winning 2005 book Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius (Oxford University Press) presents a recent overview evaluating Montessori versus conventional education in terms of research relevant to their underlying principles. Lillard cites research indicating that Montessori's basic methods are more suited to what psychology research reveals about human development, and argues the need for more research.

A 2006 study published in the journal "Science" concluded that Montessori students (at ages 5 and 12) performed better than control students who had lost a random computerized lottery to attend a Montessori school and instead went to a variety of different conventional schools. This improved performance was achieved in a variety of areas, including not only traditional academic areas such as language and math, but in social skills as well (though by age 12 academic benefits had largely disappeared).^[59]

On several dimensions, children at a public inner city Montessori school had superior outcomes relative to a sample of Montessori applicants who, because of a random lottery, attended other schools. By the end of kindergarten, the Montessori children performed better on standardized tests of reading and math, engaged in positive interaction on the playground more, and showed advanced social cognition and executive control more. They also showed more concern for fairness and justice. At the end of elementary school, Montessori children wrote more creative essays with more complex sentence structures, selected more positive responses to social dilemmas, and reported feeling more of a sense of community at their school.

The authors concluded that, "when strictly implemented, Montessori education fosters social and academic skills that are equal or superior to those fostered by a pool of other types of schools." Research by K. Dohrmann and colleagues ^[60] supplements this by showing superior math and science performance in high school by children who previously attended public Montessori (as compared to high school classmates, over half of whom were at the most selective city public high schools); and two studies by Rathunde and Csikszentmihalyi^[61]^[62] showing a higher level of interest and motivation while doing school work as well as more positive social relations among Montessori middle-schoolers as opposed to matched controls.

References

^ Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work, E.M. Standing, p. 174, Publ. Plume, 1998, http://www.penguinputnam.com
^ The Montessori Method, Maria Montessori, p.80-81, Publ. Random House, 1988, http://www.randomhouse.com
^ Discovery of the Child, Maria Montessori, p.46, Publ. Ballantine Books, 1972, http://www.randomhouse.com
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^ Dohrmann K R, Nishida T, Gartner A, Lipsky D, Grimm K (2007). "High school outcomes for students in a public Montessori program". Journal of Research in Childhood Education 22: 205–17.
^ Rathunde K, Csikszentmihalyi M (May 2005). "Middle School Students' Motivation and Quality of Experience: A Comparison of Montessori and Traditional School Environments". American Journal of Education 111 (3): 341–71. doi:10.1086/428885.
^ Rathunde K, Csikszentmihalyi M (September 2005). "The Social Context of Middle School: Teachers, Friends, and Activities in Montessori and Traditional School Environments". The Elementary School Journal 106 (1): 59–79. doi:10.1086/496907.

Beineke, J. (1998). And There Were Giants in the Land: The life of William Heard Kilpatrick. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc.
Kilpatrick, W. H. (1914). The Montessori System Examined. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company
Rand, Ayn. (1982). Philosophy: Who Needs It.

montessori-resources-ideas-and-more

Edouard Seguin

Edouard Seguin

Montessori Sensorial Materials

The Cylinder Blocks

The Pink Tower

The Broad Stair

The Red Rods

The Colored Cylinders

The Binomial Cube

The Trinomial Cube

Other materials

Inclusion (Education)

Description

Classification

Alternatives

Legal issues

Frequency of use

Necessary resources

Common practices

Selection of students for inclusion

Relationship to progressive education

Arguments for full inclusion

Criticism

Dr. Maria Montessori

Biography

Pedagogy

Influence

Important events in Montessori's life

References

Montessori Method

Montessori method

Contents

History

Philosophy

Concepts

Montessori Materials and Curriculum

Practical Life

Sensorial

Mathematics

Language

Cultural subjects

Elementary (6-12) Curriculum

Lessons

Homeschooling

Criticism of Montessori

Benefits

See also

References

Further reading