Our Fundamental Beliefs and Values
as Montessori
Educators
by Tim Seldin
President of the Montessori Foundation
Information provided
by: www.montessori.org
Basic Learning Theory
1. Whenever real learning has taken place, there will be
a distinct and observable change in the learner's behavior.
2. Learning is an active process. Children learn most easily
through repeated exposure, consistent role modeling from others
around them, and from repeated opportunities to apply and
practice; They learn by doing, not simply by seeing or listening
to others.
3. Education should begin with the learner and extend outward.
It should be linked step by step with the present reality
of her experience.
4. Most children under the age of twelve, and many adults,
have difficulty in grasping abstract concepts. It is essential
that schools make wide use of carefully designed and presented
'concrete' models and experiences which have been developed
to help them visualize the principle or concept being taught.
5. When children first begin school they enter as more effective
learners than they will normally be in two years. By first
or second grade, most will have forgotten how to learn, but
will know how to memorize and play the game of 'school'. As
infants and toddlers, children spend their first years of
life following the scientific discovery method. They touch,
taste, smell, manipulate, and investigate everything around
them. They ask endless questions. They are spontaneously curious
and motivated. Good education builds upon this fact of childhood,
and works to keep the spark of intellect and self-confidence
alive.
6. Children need to develop sensitive reality testing skills:
observation, a sense of order, and an awareness of logical
cause and effect. They must learn to trust their minds' ability
to think logically and to solve problems on their own.
7. Children learn in different ways at different paces. No
single approach can possibly meet the needs of all learners.
Therefore, an effective school must remain highly flexible
and be prepared to individualize and adapt education to the
learner.
8. In today's world, frantic social change makes it harder
to understand and creatively adapt to our environment. Because
we cannot predict the skills needed tomorrow, the single most
socially important thing to teach our children is how to remain
open to change, constantly ready and willing to learn new
things and master new technologies.
9. Children need to learn how to concentrate on a chosen
task, and to develop the patience and perseverance to keep
at it long enough to do it correctly. This skill is most easily
learned in early childhood, not later in life.
10. Children can learn to pay attention to what they see,
hear, feel, taste, and smell. They need to develop the ability
to observe stimuli or properties of objects and to use their
senses in more sophisticated ways; to recognize more and more
complex relationships or differences among things.
11. Children need to learn from their mistakes. Failing should
become a relatively anxiety free experience that tells them
to try again.
12. Children need to understand and accept the everyday consequences
of their social behavior. They should learn to recognize what
they are doing - the choices they are making - and what responses
they get; to predict their actions into new situations, and
alter their patterns of behavior to produce desired results.
13. Children and most adults need order and consistency.
Social expectations ought to be consistently reinforced. Everything
in the classroom should have a proper place and manner for
its use.
Emotional Factors In Learning
14. Environmental factors - the emotional climate of the
classroom group, the feeling tone of the class and school,
and the general appearance of the grounds have a definite
effect on a child's attitude toward learning.
15. Every human being has the right to feel successful and
to perceive herself as a successful learner.
16. When children feel that they are successful, they will
normally return to the area of their success again and again.
17. When people feel that they are not successful, they will
often give up and try to find some way of withdrawing from
the scene of failure. They will often justify their feelings
by saying such things as: "the teacher didn't like me",
"math is dumb", or "I am dumb". The ways
of minimizing impact of failure are complex and unlimited.
18. "Real" learning usually involves the learner
in taking what he thinks of as high personal risks: looking
stupid, being ridiculed, being wrong. The risk can come from
parent, teacher, or student reaction. "Real" learning
is the important kind, involving rather deep self-evaluation,
rethinking of your position, or trying out a difficult new
task. Even memorization is influenced by the degree of "risk"
felt when the learner is to demonstrate. Therefore, learning
is facilitated greatly if a climate can be created in the
classroom that minimizes risk and threatening situations.
This does not mean the elimination of tests, evaluations,
or memorization. It implies that learners should be able to
perform or try out a skill without the fear of criticism or
crushing failure. If mastery doesn't come the first time,
you simply go back and work at it some more.
19. Independence is a natural drive and desire among children
and adults. It should not be resisted, but channeled safely
through consistent and logical limits. We must help the child
to learn how to perform the tasks involved in independent
behavior. A good curriculum will deliberately teach the learner
to make decisions and to accept the consequences of the choice
made.
20. Independence and self-knowledge is facilitated when the
learner is involved in self-evaluation and criticism.
21. Learning is enhanced when power struggles between teacher
and student are avoided, and when the teacher is perceived
as being knowledgeable and someone to be relied on. Ground
rules and limits are important, but should be enforced without
impulsive punishments, through fairness and consistency.
22. When the teacher perceives her role as a facilitator
of learning, power struggles can be avoided and the status
difference between teacher and taught minimized.
23. Learning is facilitated when students are led to accept
a large degree of responsibility for their own education.
They do not study to please anyone but themselves, and should
learn to accept tasks without unnecessary teacher presence
or pressure. This requires deliberate efforts to create in
the learner a high degree of personal responsibility.
24. Whenever possible, students should be involved in the
planning of their education. Their contributions or areas
of interest should be springboards for future learning.
25. Learners need to know what they are doing, what they
should get out of what they are doing, and should be able
to set reasonable goals for themselves. Students need to be
able to sense the beginning and end of a unit of learning,
understand what is expected, have some opportunity to establish
some of their own learning objectives, and share in the process
of determining when the goals have been met.
26. Feelings, experiences, attitudes, and beliefs are important
areas of learning that have traditionally been ignored in
education. Teachers need to recognize the total humanity of
each child, with an emotional life - however hidden - fully
as complex and important as their own. It is difficult to
educate the mind and not involve the heart.
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