Lucy HellermanKate McFall

Maria Montessori

Background

Maria Montessori lived 1870-1952 in Italy

Degrees in engineering and medicine

Found her passion for education after working with institutionalized children

Founded Casa dei Bambini in early 1907

Started teaching others her method in 1909

Devout Catholic Had a son named Mario in 1898

Montessori Theory

“And so we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being.” - Maria Montessori

Montessori Theory of Child Centered Learning

Child-Centered Learning Vs.

Teacher-

Directed Learning

Montessori Theory of Child Centered Learning

Sensitive Periods Normalization Prepared Environment

Montessori Theory of Child Centered Learning

Perceived Control Free Choice

When a child is allowed to freely make decisions about which activities he/she will work on at any given time.

Directed Choice When a teacher suggests an activity to a

child while still allowing the child to believe that it is their own choice.

Nature versus Nurture

Nature Nurture

Montessori

“Education is a natural process carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words, but by experiences in the environment.” – Maria Montessori

Montessori Classroom

• Child-sized furniture• Materials within a child’s reach• Nature brought indoors – plants and animals • Mats designate personal work space

Montessori Classroom

Interview “you have to really understand that you are not a teacher. Knowledge is not just like

throwing things in a sack. Everything is connected and you always build on schema. So you are more of a director, even if you are not called one.”

“as a Montessori teacher you do a lot of it is observing. You really need to see where each child is at. You want them to pick what they are interested in, but you also need perceived choice to make sure they are covering all areas of study…it is a lot. Classroom management, making sure no one is hoarding snacks or playing with the materials, all while giving lessons and observing all the students to make sure they are getting something out of what they are learning. While you are giving a lesson you have to have eyes in the back of your head and are always making mental notes. You are multitasking a lot. Take a break and observing the class as a whole and their dynamics only happens about once or twice a day.”

“A bad Montessori school is worse than the most horrific public school, because in a bad Montessori school, very little learning happens. But a well run, true Montessori school, well that is just about the best thing you can do for a child.”

“The best benefit of Montessori education is allowing the child to develop at their own pace in all areas. Socially, academically, physically. You can be strong in math and need more support in language. You have an incredible amount of flexibility that you just can’t get in a usual classroom.”

“a negative is that some children really need structure. Some Montessori people want to say it is perfect for everybody, there are some kids that struggle with that freedom.”

Observations in a Class

  She wandered around the room and never settled on one activity.

Did not put one activity away before starting another one.

Molly put the snack necklace on for fun while wandering around the room. She did not put it on and then eat her snack like she was supposed to.

 She tried to take play-dough from another girl instead of getting her own.

Molly – not a model Montessori

student

Lily – the ideal Montessori

student   She came in and immediately chose an activity and began.

Worked on one activity for an extended period of time until normalized.

When Lily decided to eat a snack, she put the necklace on, chose a snack, spent over 10 minutes peeling and slicing it, set a place at the table for herself, got a glass of water, then finally sat down to enjoy her snack.

 Was not distracted by the children around her, always remained focused on her chosen task.

Why Montessori?

“the ordinary school not only denies the child every opportunity for using his will but directly obstructs and inhibits its expression” - Montessori

“It becomes increasingly obvious that traditional education, based as it is upon handing to the student the answers of another era, is no longer sufficient. If young people are to meet the challenge of survival that faces them today, it is imperative that their education develop to the fullest extent possible their potential for creativity, initiative, independence, inner discipline, and self-confidence. This is the central focus of Montessori education.” - Lillard

Our Study

Purpose: to compare the results of Maria Montessori’s method of child-centered learning to the teacher-directed learning found in traditional classrooms.

Our Questions: Is there a noticeable difference in the

results of child-centered learning as compared to teacher-directed learning?

Which method produces better results?

Hypothesis

That when comparing the results of child-centered and teacher-directed outcomes, there will be a marked difference. The child-centered students will demonstrate a more thorough understanding of the material than the teacher-directed students.

Our Study

Taught an introduction to Fractions Lesson to 12 first graders

6 kids were taught using an AMI certified lesson plan and 6 using a Cscope lesson plan.

After the lesson we assessed their understanding using oral questioning with scores based on a rubric.

We returned the day after and assessed them two more times using the same questions.

Wait a minute! Montessori Lesson

Plans?!?

Lessons Plans

Manipulative intensive

Solely focused on circle fractions

Questioning Choice in activity

Modifications:None made, followed the lesson exactly

Image/visual intensive

Started with hexagons, then moved to circles

Telling Assigned activity

Modifications: Added circles up

to tenths.

Montessori Lesson Plan

Traditional Lesson Plan

Compare the Questions Teacher-Directed (Traditional)

Students1. Show the child a picture of a circle

separated into 2 or 3 parts. What are parts of a whole called?

2. Show the child a picture of a circle separated into 3 parts. Are the 3 parts equal?

3. Show the child a picture of a circle divided into 4 parts, with one part shaded. What number goes below the fraction bar for this fraction?

4. Show the child a written fraction. How many fractions of this size are needed to make a whole?

5. Have the child match 3 different fractions to their appropriate circles.

Child-Centered (Montessori) Students1. Take several units ( ½, 1/3, ¼ )

and separate the pieces slightly on the felt. What do I call pieces of a unit?

2. Clear the felt except for the 3rd family circle. Point to the unit on the felt. Are the pieces of this unit equal?

3. Have a unit and a black strip on the felt. Have the numbers in easy access to the child. What number would you place below the black strip for this unit?

4. Remove all families from the felt. Show a fraction on the black strip. What family does this fraction belong to? How many pieces are in that family?

5. Place the different family units on the felt and their written fraction. Can you match these written fractions with the correct family unit?

Rubric We Used

Concept:Student doesn't have a grasp of the concept (0

points)

Student has some grasp of the concept (1 point)

Student has a total grasp of the

concept (2 points)

Breaking a unit (whole) into parts results in fractions.     

Putting those fractions together again creates a unit.     

When breaking the unit into equal pieces a student conceptually understands that they are equal.

     

You can divide a unit into a different number of pieces.     

The size of the pieces depends on the number of pieces the unit is divided into.      

When writing a fraction, the number of equal pieces used to create a unit is written below the black bar.

     

The number written below the black strip is how many equal pieces of that fraction size are needed to create a unit.

     

The number written below the black strip is called the denominator.      

We write a number one above the black strip because each fraction is one part of the unit.

     

The number written above the black strip is called the numerator.     

The child can match a written fraction to a concrete fraction in one-to-one correspondence.

     

The child on their own comes to show knowledge of fractions with a numerator greater than one.

     

Sample Answers for Different Scores

Zero point answer: no concept, says they do not know or gives information they know but is not relevant. “my shoe has a black strip”

One point answer: gets answer correct, but cannot explain what they know. the use of the word circle instead of whole or unit. “I just remember it” “because you said so earlier”

Two point answer: explains the reason behind the answer, shows a real understanding of the concept being questioned. “the thirds only has three pieces, so each piece has more space

than the sixths.” “two of the family of sixths fit in each piece of the family of

thirds, so the thirds are bigger” “1/4 goes with the family of fourths because there is a 4 in the

fraction and 4 pieces in the family”

Results – Average Scores

Asse

ssm

ent 1

Asse

ssm

ent 2

Asse

ssm

ent 3

0

5

10

15

20

25

MontessoriTraditional Students

Results – Question Averages

Quest

ion

1

Quest

ion

2

Quest

ion

3

Quest

ion

4

Quest

ion

5

Quest

ion

6

Quest

ion

7

Quest

ion

8

Quest

ion

9

Quest

ion

10

Quest

ion

11

Quest

ion

120

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

MontessoriTraditional

Findings

Montessori students started higher but remained stagnant.

Traditional students needed the additional repetitions to comprehend the lesson more fully, but were able to improve.

However, traditional student average scores never reached average Montessori scores.

Implications

Hands on, positive questioning, results in faster absorption of the materials

Giving children opportunity to experience real things rather than representations of things seems to foster increased understanding.

Places for improvement

The Montessori students were not given enough time to Normalize with the material

We are not Montessori certified nor traditional school certified, which might have changed the lesson.

Would have had more time with the students Not enough students Too small of a student pool – all in private

school We altered the tradition lesson plan to match

the amount of information in Montessori

Conclusion

Although we couldn’t fully prove our hypothesis, there is at least some, if not a significant, difference between the Montessori and traditional students comprehension of the material.

Acknowledgements

Thanks so much to: Mrs. Khirallah St. Francis Montessori School Amy Kremling Holy Family of Nazareth School Maria Montessori