Pakistan Montessori Council

Assignment Module 1

Q: 1 Discuss the life and works of Dr.Maria Montessori and why is she referred to as a lady
much ahead of her time?

MARIA MONTESSORI LIFE

Dr. Maria was born on the 31st August 1870 in the town of chiaravalle; Italy
She was the only child of her parents, she graduate with highest honors from the medical
school of the University of Rome, becoming the first women physician an Italy in 1896.
Italy was not exception but Montessori pursued medical and scientific education.

In 1900, at the elapse of just a short span of four years after her degree in medicine, Montessori
was appointed director of the new Orthophrenic School attached to the University of Rome,

MARIA MONTESSORI WORKS

Dr. Montessori is recognizing as the founder of Montessori Method and one of the pioneer in
the development of early childhood education.

Dr.Maria Montessori is the founder of the Montessori system of education. Early childhood is
the only period. When qualities of mind, this is the time when foundation of an integrated
personality can be laid. Leads them to seek Montessori education for their children.

Dr. Montessori a physician who was born before the twentieth century began, and died in the
middle of it. She observed children, looking for behavioral pattern is their interaction with the
environment.

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She also explains in a convincing manner that most of our social and individual problems have
their origin in the fact that the child’s vital needs during his growing up phase are overlooked
upon.

The first day-care center ,name Casa die Bambini House of Children was inaugurated in 1907
and was located in the worst slum district of Rome, They also assisted their teachers with the
preparation and serving of meals and the maintenance of a spotless environment .

During her life time we may rank the period from the opening of the first children’s house in
1907 until the 1930s as her prime productive period during this time,

She is also author to many books like “The Absorbent Mind”. “The Discovery of the child”
among others.

She was honored by many countries with royal, civic and academic awards and was nominated
three times for the Noble Peace Prize as well. She was also the face as several Italian coins as
recognition for her brilliant work.

Dr. Maria Montessori can be regarded as the pioneer of the modern education system and
pedagogical wisdom based purely in science. Her unconventional method and life have rightly
earned her praise for being a woman much ahead of her time.

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Q: 2 which are the main requirement to be considered to start a House of Children? How do
you implement them?

Requirement to be considered to start a House of Children:

The main requirement to be considered to start a House of Children is:

In adult’s world Home child feel him like an alien. Our home is designed according to adults.
Children can’t access anything freely and comfortably.

Children used to listen word “NO” many times in a day. “Prohibition” is Prohibition, either
sweet or bitter.”

Adults try to teach children by their orders or by their words, they usually not practice
themselves.

Adults are sometime so busy that they have no proper time for children; Children can’t fine
proper work /activity to spend their time. Providing over and extra help to children, ignoring
that they want many of work done by their own selves.

Children are usually not allowed to “Let me do it myself” strategy. These are some basic
problems which every child faced in their home. So children need a proper place where they
can learn, play and get experienced.

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 How Do I Implement
I am a mother of one kid. I’m already trying and practicing few activities from Montessori
Method of leaning, achieving an astonishing result and development in my kids. As kids start
learning very after from their birth and for their better growth, development and education it’s
our responsibility as a parent /elder to provide then healthy , effective and fruitful
environment.

When environment meets all of the needs of children, they become, without any guidance by
the adult, physically healthy mentally and psychologically fulfilled, extremely well-educated,
and filled over the with joy and kindness to words each other.

Children who have better experiences at proper time develop more effectively as compared to
other who has less opportunities experience.

In House of Children I will prefer to implement following thing.

 Respect for the child

 Everything should be child size
 The absorbent mind
 Sensitive periods
 The prepared environment
 Focus on individual child
 Polite and reasonable behavior of teachers
 Parents-Teachers meeting

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 RESPECT FOR THA CHILD

Respect for the child is the keystone on which all

other Montessori principal based. As Montessori
said, “As a rule, however, we don’t respect children.

Teachers show respect for children when they help them to things and learn for themselves.
When children have choice, they are able to develop the skills and abilities necessary for
effective learning independence, and positive self-defense.

EVERYTHING SHOULD BE CHILD SIZE

Furniture, equipment, supplies that

children could access /used should be
child size so that they can work all by
themselves, they were self-motivated to explore, experiment, and
reach new understanding.

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 THE ABSORBENT MIND

Children are born to learn, they have remarkable

learning system. Children learn because they are
thinking beings.

But what they learn

depends greatly their on teacher, experience, and environment. We
need to understand that children can’t help learning, simply by
living, children learn by their environment.

SENSITIVE PERIODS

Sensitive periods vary from children to some children are more susceptible
to certain behavior and learn specific skills more easily other may not.
Although all children experience the same sensitive periods.one role of the
teacher is to use observation to detect times of sensitivity and provide the
setting for best result.

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 THE PREPARED ENVIRONMENT

Environment is extremely important at any level of the development of child. Children learn
best in a prepared environment, a place in which children can do things for themselves. It
makes materials and experience available to children in an orderly format and they can easily
access them.

Freedom is the essential characteristic of the prepared

environment. Since children within the environment are
free to explore materials of their own choosing, they
absorb what they find there.

FOCUS ON INDIVIDUAL CHILD

Teacher should focus on individual child as each child is a unique entity. Each children learning
progress, growth, understanding achieving a mastery of particular skill and requirement are
different.

POLITE ND REASONABLE BEHAVIOR OF TECHERS

Children learn a lot firstly from their mother’s then from their teachers. The behavior and
attitude of the teacher should be polite, reasonable and helpful towards children.

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 PARENTS TEACHER MEETIN

There should be a close interaction between parents and teacher. Parents should know the
progress, work and activity of a child so that they can practice same in home as well if they
home.

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Q: 3 what are the discoveries made by Dr.Maria Montessori by child observing the child?

The early year foundation stage is the period of education from birth to five years. Most
children are expected to achieve the early learning goals by the end of the foundation stage.
There is a strong emphasis on learning through play, both child initiated and planned play.

The curriculum is delivered through a combination of whole class activities, adult led focused
activities and child initiated activities.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE CHILD

Dr.Montessori discovered of the child. But this is true. She was a keen observed of children. She
studied them scientifically. If she saw unusual behavior in a child, it was providential that the
child revealed himself to her. And she had the genius of observing it and coming to conclusions.
She didn’t top there.

Only when she found that children acted in a certain manner under certain circumstances
without any interference from the adults, she could accept that it was the child’s true nature.

Children love to work purposefully.

The inner drive is sufficient.

When something that answers the inner needs meets the child’s eyes spontaneous interest in
kindled. Very young children need order for their development.

Normality depends on all the human powers working in unison, in collaboration.

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These developmental activities belonged to areas that the child needed for building his
personality.

Montessori discovered that the environment itself was all important in obtaining the results
that she had observed.

Most of the activities presented to the children in Montessori house of

children are results of observing the child.

Montessori Method bases itself on these and various other discoveries Dr. Montessori made
while she worked with children.

We might conclude by saying that Dr. Montessori calls upon every human being to develop the
humanity to learn from the child in order to create a healthy human being.

True learning takes place with concentration. The children revealed that
they could work with concentration when they found right condition.

Montessori carried this environment engineering throughout the entire school building and
outside environment, designing, child size toilets and low sinks, window low to the ground, low
shelves, and miniature hand and garden tools of all sorts.

Writing up observations can be a time consuming process – deciding when to do them, how
they are going to be done and what purpose they have?

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We are continually observing either the behavior, the engagement of the children on an
activity, or perhaps their sustained thinking during group work. We observe holistic and
discreet areas of development to provide us with the knowledge to plan for their future
interests and development.

A suggested session format of observing

Preparation
Initially, decide on the space and room. We found the smaller areas created more role-play
although the larger spaces were interesting in observing group dynamics. Try to keep the set-up
similar to encourage familiarity with small changes, rather than changing the setting up each
week.

Allow 5-10 minutes at the beginning without the children to set up and 5-10 minutes to clear
away at the end.

The session
The children enter the room. Sit them down in a circle and explain the session simply. Explain
the boundaries of the room. Explain that they can play how they want but if they hurt each
other or the equipment/environment then they will have to stop. This follows therapeutic
guidelines to play and gives a clear message that freedom is within a safe space for all to enjoy.

Have the equipment set out and point to each talking about each area briefly, explaining they
can go on their own or together, it is their choice. Allow children to explore.

Sit to one side, cross-legged, but leaning forward, showing an interest – try not to speak too
much unless asked something. Have a pen and some paper next to you, but not in front. Have a
camera nearby, if possible.

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Answer questions by mirroring the questions back to the child – actively try not to answer.
Allow the children to think for them and help resolve challenges.

The physical area of where the observer sat was significant and impacted the play, and whether
the group moved nearer or further away. Using a person-centered approach helped the
practitioner learn to see and reflect on themselves in the play process.

The main results drawn from our project

Children seem to want to initiate interactions with us and were
not entirely comfortable with total freedom.

The children were initially unsure of how to use equipment and were asking about how they
should use it and wanting to find the correct way, rather than simply exploring for its own sake.
There were dominant children who wanted to control the group and the environment.

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Q: 4 what does “PILES” stand for when we talk of human development? Discuss the physical,
lingual and intellectual development taking place during 3to6 years of age.

P.I.L.E.S is an anagram that stands for physical, intellectual, Lingual, Emotional and social
development.

Development in the age group of 3-6 involves children putting into practice all that they have
learn from observing. At this stage, it is important to give the child freedom to do this on their
own terms, as any interference can be a roadblock o their learning and development of their
personality.

Physical Development during 3 to 6 years of Age: During these years, a child is very physically
and imaginatively active. As they exert themselves, their muscles and motor skills develop. This
involves activities like the following: -

Outdoor activities and games like running, tri-cycling, jumping from low heights, playing ball
etc.

- Being able to put on and take off clothes without assistance

-Tiptoeing and balancing on one foot for short periods

- Dancing to music - Eating on their own without spilling or making a mess

- Being able to grasp and hold on to objects, as well as move them around

- Washing and drying hands on their own

- Tearing pages off a book - Climbing stairs, albeit slowly and with both feet on the step when
descending.

Lingual Development during 3 to 6 years of Age: Linguistic ability also rapidly develops during
this stage, and it is not uncommon for children to pick up on multiple languages easily during
these years. This happens in progressive stages; phrases, simple sentences and subsequently,

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complex sentences. Exposure to media alongside social interaction with parents, peers and
teachers etc.

Form the basis for their vocabulary. This is why it is vital that parents and teachers alike engage
them in meaningful conversation, read to them, watch informative TV shows with them, listen
to wholesome music etc. So they may naturally adopt the language. Common linguistic skills
attributable to this stage are:

-Improvement in grammar, sentence structure and enhanced vocabulary

- Inquisitive nature; asking a lot of questions

- Ability to engage in meaningful conversation

- Reading stories repetitively and enjoying humorous storytelling in particular

- Enjoying singing songs and rhymes

- Facing a little difficulty in pronouncing v, r or the sounds.

- Ability to communicate in more than one language

Intellectual Development during 3 to 6 years of Age: Children are more flexible and adaptive
than adults, which mean they are more open to changes in the self as well as the environment.
It is therefore beneficial to expose them to a dynamic set of activities and games for their
intellectual development.

Examples of such activities include:

- Knowledge of primary colors and basic shapes through drawing and painting etc.

- Counting

- Solving puzzles

- Handling stationary objects like pencils, scissors etc.

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- Matching shapes, colors, alphabets and numbers etc.

- Blowing bubbles

- Building a variety of things with Legos

- Teamwork and understanding about roles and rules

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Q: 5 write a comprehensive note on the role of teacher in a Montessori classroom?

The role of a teacher is to inspire, motivation encourage and educate learners.

Learning can be of any age and from any background. However, for the purposes
of this guide, teacher refers to those who educate young people of school age
roughly age (4-18) teachers serve many role within a school environment.

Teaching falls under the category of cooperative arts, whereby the activity of the artist, In this
case a teacher is not the sole cause of production.

In layman terms, for the process of learning to happen, a teacher is dispensable as

the learning itself will take place in the mind of the student to some degree even
with little to no teaching influence.

This suggests that conventional teaching methods of merely 'imparting' information in a

dictatorial manner without engaging the minds of children by encouraging active learning and
problem solving does little to uncover their human potential.

Anna Burke Neuter, in her book, A Way of learning (1973) gave certain guidelines to help
teachers, referred to as 'directresses' in their role as mentors and guides for children.

The teachers should look at each child individually, assess their interests and needs, and
prepare material and activities accordingly to address them.

They are also advised to set up an environment that facilitates and complements this learning
process by allowing children the freedom to move around and engage with their surroundings,
rather than being restricted to their desks without any sense of independence

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 They must also observe and evaluate the performance and progress of the kids periodically and
tailor the activities to fall in line with their changing needs.

This means that each child must receive individual attention and not be treated as a mere roll
number in the student register.

As peace educators, it is vital that teachers play a role in helping children interact and socialize
effectively with their peers and adults alike so as to develop into productive members of
society.

It is important to note that the main role of the Montessori teacher is to act as a guide and
mentor who can support children as and when needed with warmth and no judgment, while
simultaneously knowing when to step back and allow autonomy to the students.

Teachers play an essential role in everyone’s life. Not only do they teach us in school but we
also learn many useful things like moral values, social etiquette’s, how to treat other & be
friendly with our classmates. But a good teacher has the power to change our life, ignite us in
the most prefect way.

Teachers play a very important role in shaping the future of their students. Right from kindergarten to
university, they are the ones who impart knowledge and teach us about everything important.

Moreover, they also teach us about ethical values and imbibe in our moral values. Thus, we can say that
teachers shape our personality into something very strong and wonderful.

A world without teachers would be definitely chaotic. There are only a few people in our lives who
impact our world, and teachers are definitely one of them.

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