Montessori Education in Comparison with Other Education Systems
Nicole Asanza.
Parameters Montessori Education
 They include student-centered lessons and
activities.
 The students discover information for themselves.
 The time of the lessons is not established, and the
interruptions are avoided.
 The teachers work as guides and consultants to
Overall Structure students on a one-on-one basis.
 The levels are in an age range where the students
can develop the skills for that period.
 The curricula expand in response to the students’
needs.
 The student’s pace of each one is considered
individually, honored and encouraged.
 The learning is done through the hands. It involves
objects with which children play to learn.
Use of Objects  The objects involved in the learning process have a
specific purpose and they are self-correcting.
 They involve individuals or groups of two to six
children, depending on the age of the children and
how many in a class are ready for a lesson.
 The teacher typically determines the children’s
readiness by watching their interactions with
Interactive Lessons materials they learned about in prior lessons.
 When the teacher sees that children have mastered
one lesson in the sequence, the teacher considers
them ready to move on to the next.
 Free choice exists at the macrolevel of classroom
environment: most of the time, most Montessori
students choose what they work on.
 Choice in Montessori education varies by level.
Freely Chosen  At the more microlevel of exercises within the
environment, Montessori education offers less
freedom.
Conventional Education
 Conventional education tends to be less structured in
preschool and more tightly structured thereafter.
 They are based on teacher-centered lessons or activities.
 Children are expected to sit and listen to lessons passively
without interacting to then, memorize and take tests.
 The lessons are ruled by a schedule with time limitations.
 The teacher must deliver the same lesson, at the same
pace, in the same order, for all the students.
 The levels are structured by the school system, for a
specific age, each one.
 Their curricula are predetermined by the school system.
 The system expects each student to work at the same
pace.
 The classes generally dispense with any physical material
that the students could manipulate, the learning is done
through the eyes and ears.
 The objects are determined by the curricula and these are
repeated each cycle.
 Conventional school lessons are sometimes interactive,
sometimes not, depending how many questions a teacher
asks.
 This kind of lessons are less interactive due to the students'
collective thinking that making mistakes is not allowed.
 The teachers are indifferent with the fact of that some
students don’t mastered the lesson.
 In conventional school programs, teachers typically choose
activities for children.
 Only in some preschools the students can make a free
choice in an activity during a specific station.
 With playful learning, children’s own interests drive the
agenda. An adult provides the activities and objects and
guides the children’s engagement with the materials, but
an aura of free choice pervades.
 Montessori Education in Comparison with Other Education Systems
 Montessori lessons can involve individuals or small
groups.
 children usually may choose whether to work alone
Peers or with peers which is more frequent when the
student reach higher levels.
 It occurs initially with a teacher and later with
individuals or in small groups.
 In Montessori education as well, the intrinsic
reward of learning is an end.
 Originally thought children needed rewards, and she
offered them nice toys to play with after they
No Extrinsic Rewards successfully read words.
 Under conditions of free choice, learning was the
reward of the students. So, the extrinsic rewards
were eliminated from the program.
 A well-functioning Montessori classroom is full of
deeply engaged children enjoying themselves.
 Children in Montessori programs seem to like
Fun school, even in middle school, when conventionally
schooled children often come to strongly dislike
classwork.
 Conventional education calls for children to learn by sitting
alone at desks and listening to a teacher. Although some
conventional educational activities are social.
 Playful learning can occur one-on-one with an adult or
involve one or more peers.
 The playful learning occurs only with peers.
 In conventional didactic instruction, teachers often use
gold stars and grades to inspire children to behave well
and to learn material.
 Behind these rewards lies a behaviorist model of children
and learning.
 playful learning occurs for its own sake. Children are
intrinsically motivated to play.
 The General thought is that the school in the traditional
way is not fun at all.
 In contrast, playful learning is, by definition, fun and
enjoyable.