Maria Montessori and the ISD Model: Development of the Montessori Method
Summary
The paper I prepared begins with a description of the Montessori Method and a historical narration of the professional career of Dr. Maria Montessori. I also included some biographical information as to her origins and the identity of her parents. I then drew a comparison of her methods for developing the Montessori Method and her career to the ISD model. I compared significant events in her career to the analysis phase. Explaining that her experience with children lead her to develop her programs. Then I drew a comparison to her work with the design and development phases, citing her materials that she uses in her classrooms and the classrooms themselves. Finally I compared her implementation and subsequent discoveries to the implementation and evaluation phases in ISD. I concluded with my own personal opinion, that Maria Montessori was an innovator and mostly responsible for modern education. I used four directly quoted sources, one solely paraphrased, and one merely for research and background information.
Since the late Nineteenth Century, educators and medical professionals have been concerned with the physical and mental development of children between the ages of two and seven years. During the first part of the Industrial Revolution and through the beginning of the Twentieth Century, conditions in the cities and industrial centers were deplorable. Adult workers were forced to work long hours and under extreme conditions, likewise children were made to endure arduous working environments with little or no concern for their well being, short of their ability to contribute to the work force. In Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle, he des...
... middle of paper ...
...ontessori, there is a distinct pattern to her development that is remarkably similar to those proposed by the ISD model.
References Works Cited
Gettman, D. (1987). Basic Montessori : learning activities for under-fives. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Montessori, M. (1964). Dr. Montessori's own handbook. Boston: Robert Bentley, Inc.
Pines, M. (1967). Revolution in learning: the years from birth to six. New York: Harper and Row Publishers.
Sinclair, U. (1960). The Jungle. New York: The New American Library of World Literature.
Standing, E.M. (1962). Maria Montessori: her life and work. New York: The New American Library of World Literature. Other Sources
Braun, S. J. (1974). Nursery education for disadvantages children: an historical review. In Montessori in perspective. (pp. 7-24). National Association for the Education of Young Children: New York.
Tejada, E. (2010). The Promise of Preschool: From Head Start to Universal Pre-kindergarten. Education Review (10945296), 1-6.
Most children who worked; suffered health related issues. “Many of the industries that employ large numbers of young workers in the United States have higher-than-average injury rates for workers of all ages, such as grocery stores, hospitals, nursing homes, and agriculture.”Because of their physical differences from adults, kids had rapid skeletal growth, greater risk of hearing loss, greater need for food, higher chemical absorption rate and lower heat tolerance. Also they weren’t able to receive education.
Sroufe, Alan L., Cooper, Robert G., DeHart, Ganie B. (1992). Child Development, Its Nature and Course (2nd edt.). New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
The Child Development Center of College of San Mateo provides early care and educational programs for children between the ages of 3 to 5 years old. Children are divided into classrooms with a “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two or three “associate” teachers. Klara attended Classroom, “A,” a stimulating and well-resourced classroom. Klara was observed for two hours on Monday from 9 am to 11 am and for two hours on Wednesday from 9 am to 11 am. During these two hours, classroom activities consisted of “free time,” “story time,” and an outside “play time.” A “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two “associate” teachers were present during observations. Additionally, a total of eighteen children were in attendance during the observed days.
Haskins, C. (2011). The gift of silence. Montessori Life: A Publication of the American Montessori Society, 23(2), 34-39.
Early childhood education, although constantly evolving, was actually established and practiced as early on as the times of Ancient Greece and Rome. The foundation that early childhood education is based upon is to instill in children the skills needed to succeed later on in life, while making sure young children enjoy their time in schooling. Throughout chapter 3 in the textbook Who Am I in the Lives of Children, the reader is capable of evaluating just how greatly the methods for teaching today’s youth have evolved and changed for the better.
Going back to our text, it is mentioned that in 1920s, the emphasis was on physical and intellectual development, and the early education programs were based on the works and studies of Froebel, Montessori, and McMillan. But as education improved in late 1940s, the attention was to focus on physical, social, and emotional growth (Eliason, et al., 2008 p.5). So the creative curriculum has been based on the theories and researches that inform decision making in the early childhood field. We can find these theories in the works of Piaget, Maslow, Erikson, Vygotsky, Smilansky, and Gardner. (Colker)
This is where Piaget, Vygotsky and Montessori come in to illustrate to us, the need for children to express themselves to facilitate growth and development as was intended by nature. While Maria Montessori
She found remarkable improvements in the student’s development. She began spreading her finding in speeches throughout Europe also she began advocating for the lack of support schools gave to the mentally and developmentally disabled children. Maria’s success with developmental children spurred her to begin teaching “normal” children. (Michael Loaf, Maria Mon Bio). In 1907 the Italian government put her in charge of sixty student from the “slums” or poorer neighborhoods age range from one to six years old. This school was called Casa dei Bambibi, created for the “prepared learning” which the concept why certain children are more readily than others. Also, in 1908 she was appointed to lecture Pedegogic University, her famous lecture were printed in a book in 1910 titled, Pedagogical Anthropology. In 1912 Maria’s mother died at the age of seventy-two, so her and her son moved back to Rome where she home-schooled him until college. By mid-1913 Maria opened schools in Paris and many other European cities, she also held the first international training course in Rome. (Northwest, Montessori 2015). In 1915 she travelled to the United States and taught a three month training course on her theory to teachers, but the US didn’t put her theory in full affect until 1952. (Wonder
Maria Montessori was born in 1870 in the town of Chiaravalle, Italy. Her dream was to become an engineer but luckily for us she ended up being the first woman to graduate from the University of Rome La Sapienza Medical School, becoming the first female doctor in Italy. Montessori became intrigued with trying to educate the “special needs” or “unhappy little ones” [Michael Olaf’s Essential Montessori: School Edition for ages 3-12+] Dr. Maria Montessori was a great child theorist.
Morrison, G. S. (1976). Chapter 6: Early Childhood Programs APPLYING THEORIES TO PRACTICE. In Early childhood education today (10th ed., pp. 5-31). Columbus, Ohio: Merrill.
Maria Montessori was the founder of the Montessori educational method. Maria Montessori graduated from the University of Rome Medical School and was working with “mentally deficient” children (Scotty, 2009). She always had a great aspiration to help children. The Montessori methods came about from her observations while working at the Casa dei Bambini (a daycare center in Rome). She saw how children learn naturally by things around them. Maria Montessori believed that children learned best by doing things individually and teaching themselves (Lewis, 1992). In Montessori schools children learn to deal with real life problems and how to overcome life’s obstacles. The teachers provide the children with freedom and independence.
Linda, M. & Linda, P. (2011). Theories and approaches to learning in the early years.
... such a manner that its curriculum framework is open to interpretation enough to be adapted to most if not all child-centered early years educational approaches. Montessori has a structured curriculum, which while not as flexible as High/Scope can still adapt to Aistear’s framework into their own set curriculum using already established Montessori exercises. In addition, Montessori and High/scope both share an emphasis on the importance of the prepared environment for the children, which is in accordance of Síolta, without which the Aistear framework cannot be successfully undertaken.
Senge, P., Cambron-McCabe, N., Lucas, T., Smith, B., Dutton, J. & Kleiner, A. (2012). Schools that Learn (pp. 32-69). Boston: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.