Qurat-ul-ain Abro Assignment Module 1

Roll no= Dk 1150

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

Maria Montessori 1870-1952

Ans=Maria Montessori was the founder of the Montessori system . Maria
Montessori was an Italian physician, educator, and innovator, acclaimed for her
educational method that builds on the way children naturally learn. Montessori
was born on August 31, 1870 in Chiaravalle , Italy. Her father, Alessandro
Montessori was a conservative military man. Her mother, Renilde Stoppani, 25
years old, was well educated for the times and was the great-niece of Italian
geologist and paleontologist Antonio Stoppani and was a liberal lady. While she
did not have any particular mentor, she was very close to her mother who readily
encouraged her. She also had a loving relationship with her father, although he
disagreed with her choice to continue her education.

Beginning in her early childhood years, Maria grew up in Rome, a paradise of

libraries, museums, and fine schools. Maria was a sterling student, confident,
ambitious, and unwilling to be limited by traditional expectations for women. At

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age 13 she entered an all boys technical institute to prepare for a career in
engineering. After wards she changed her mind, deciding to become a doctor
instead. She applied to the University of Rome’s medical program, but was
rejected. Maria took additional courses to better prepare her for entrance to the
medical school and persevered. With great effort she gained admittance, opening
the door a bit wider for future women in the field. When she graduated from
medical school in 1896, she was among Italy’s first female physicians. She
turned out to be one of the world’s most influential educators of all the times.

Maria’s early medical practice focused on psychiatry. She also developed an

interest in education, attending classes on pedagogy and immersing herself in
educational theory. Her studies led her to observe, and call into question, the
prevailing methods of teaching children with intellectual and developmental
disabilities.

The opportunity to improve on these methods came in 1900, when she was
appointed co-director of a new training institute for special education teachers.
Maria approached the task scientifically, carefully observing and experimenting
to learn which teaching methods worked best. Many of the children made
unexpected gains, and the program was proclaimed a success. In 1907 Maria
accepted a new challenge to open a childcare center in a poor inner-city district.

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She opened the first Montessori school—the Casa dei Bambini, or Children’s
House—in Rome on January 6, 1907. Subsequently, she traveled the world and
wrote extensively about her approach to education, attracting many devotees.
There are now more than 22,000 Montessori schools in at least 110 countries
worldwide. This became the first Casa dei Bambini (Children’s house), a quality
learning environment for young children. The youngsters were unruly at first,
but soon showed great interest in working with puzzles, learning to prepare
meals, and manipulating materials that held lessons in math. She observed how
they absorbed knowledge from their surroundings, essentially teaching
themselves. Utilizing scientific observation and experience gained from her
earlier work with young children, Maria designed learning materials and a
classroom environment that fostered the children’s natural desire to learn. News
of the school’s success soon spread through Italy and by 1910 Montessori
schools were acclaimed worldwide.

In the years following, and for the rest of her life, Maria dedicated herself to
advancing her child-centered approach to education. She lectured widely, wrote
articles and books, and developed a program to prepare teachers in the
Montessori Method. Through her efforts and the work of her followers,
Montessori education was adopted worldwide. As a public figure, Maria also
campaigned vigorously on behalf of women’s rights. She wrote and spoke
frequently on the need for greater opportunities for women, and was recognized
in Italy and beyond as a leading feminist voice.

Maria Montessori left the world in the Netherland in 1952, but would always
stay alive as she lives as an immortal through her build mild stone of the
concepts and methods of Montessori system which has and will contribute for
the better development of children’s capabilities and capacities to explore
beyond his knowledge. She lived in old days but was defiantly A woman much
ahead

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Q 2= Which are the main requirements to be considered to start a
house of children? How do you implement them?

Ans=

Requirements to be considered to start a House of Children

The main requirements to be considered to start a House of Children are:

 A big place or area where children could engage themselves in activities.

 Children can access anything freely and comfortably.
 Suitable material and staff that a child can handle.
 Children used to listened word “No” many times in a day. “Prohibition is
prohibition, either sweet or bitter.”
 Proper time for children to learn things
 Children can’t find 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 homes. So
children need a proper place where they can learn, play and get experienced.

HOW TO IMPLEMENT:
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 them 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 with joy and kindness towards each other.
Children who have better experiences at proper time develop more effectively as
compared to other who has less opportunities and experience. So for sake for

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their proper development and growth of knowledge there should be a proper
place for children where they could explore now things and there should be
proper material that provides any sort of knowledge and education to them then
a proper trained team of staff that could be able to make sure that the child is
learning something.

For implement further consideration to be preferred are following:

1.      Respect for the child

2.      Everything should be child sized
3.      The absorbent mind
4.      Sensitive periods
5.      The prepared environment
6.      Focus on individual child
7.      Polite and reasonable behavior of teachers
8.      Parents – Teachers meeting

RESPECT FOR THE CHILD  

Respect for the child is the keystone on which all other Montessori principles
based. As Montessori said, “As a rule, however, we do not respect children.
Teachers show respect for children when they help them do things and learn for
themselves. When children have choices, they are able to develop the skills and
abilities necessary for effective learning independence, and positive self-esteem.

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EVERYTHING SHOULD BE CHILD SIZED:    

Furniture, equipment, and supplies that children could access/used should be

child sized so that they can work all by themselves, they were self-motivated to
explore, experiment, and reach new understandings.

THE ABSORBENT MIND:

Children are born to learn, and they have remarkable learning systems. Children
learn because they are thinking beings. But what they learn depends greatly on
their teachers, experiences, and environments. We need to understand that
children can’t help learning, simply by living, children learn from their
environment.

SENSITIVE PERIODS:

Sensitive periods vary from children to children some children are more
susceptible to certain behaviors and can learn specific skills more easily others
may not. Although all children experience the same sensitive periods (e.g., a
sensitive period for reading), the sequence and timing vary for each child. One
role of the teacher is to use observation to detect times of sensitivity and
provide the setting for best result.

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 learning materials and experiences available to

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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:

Teachers should focus on individual child as each child is a unique entity. Each
child’s learning progress, growth, understanding, achieving a mastery of
particular skill and requirements are different.

POLITE AND REASONABLE BEHAVIOR OF TEACHERS:

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.

PARENTS – TEACHER MEETINGS:

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

Q 3= What are the discoveries made by Dr. Maria Montessori by

Observing the child?

Ans= The Discovery of the Child by Maria Montessori

It does sound incredible when we say that Dr. Montessori discovered the child. But this is true.
She was a keen observer of children. She studied them scientifically. If she saw some unusual
behavior in a child, she would say, “I won’t believe it now… I shall, if it happens again”. Thus, it
was providential that the child revealed himself to her. And she had the genius of observing it
and coming to conclusions. She did not stop there. She studied the conditions under which the
children performed those actions, re-created them in different parts of the world. Only when she

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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. 

Inner Need for Freedom & Constructive Work

The children were given some educational material to use for certain duration of time but she
found out that the children were keen to go on even after it was time to give it back. This
happened so repeatedly that Dr. Montessori was compelled to believe that children loved to do
constructive work provided it suited the age and stage of development. As a moral response to
what the children showed she had to give them the freedom to work as long as they wanted. She
observed that the children worked with great interest and repeated the activities on their own to
reach a state of concentration.

Ability to Select Activities

On a day when the assistants were not around, the children opened the cupboards and had taken
whatever they wanted to work with. When the assistants arrived, they were surprised to see the
children busy with various activities of their choosing. This was when Dr. Montessori made the
great finding that the children are capable of choosing their own activity suitable to their
capacity.

Dr. Montessori was herself surprised at what the children showed her. She says that she set the
work like a peasant woman stirring some clods of earth to sow seeds and instead of earth she
found gold. She felt a moral responsibility towards this section of humanity (children). She
decided to follow the child. Thanks to the revelations and the freedom she allowed to the
children, the attitude of the assistants also changed. Materials were alerted, modified, some
rejected and some newly introduced to suite the requirements of the  children.

Other Discoveries

Similar incidents led Dr. Montessori to discover several aspects of the child and childhood.
Being the one with a scientific bent of mind she needed to test whether every child who had such
opportunities would manifest these types of behavior. She was able to test these again and again

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because of a good group of friends who could try out the methods in various places and report
back. Slowly, her concepts of child education caught on and houses of children sprung up all
around the world. Dr. Montessori continued with her work of observing and studying the child.
After nearly twenty two years of such experimentation Dr. Montessori could say that she had
found a method of helping children in their educational pursuits. This, later on, came to be
known as the Montessori Method of education, which is aimed at helping the child for life. It
may be worthwhile to enumerate some of the discoveries she had made during her work.

1.         Children love to work purposefully. If it corresponded with the inner developmental
needs, they worked until they reached their goal. Adults, on the other hand, work for incentives,
but children do not. They work out of a natural drive, which makes them select and concentrate
on tasks which are appropriate for development. 

2.         The inner drive is sufficient. The adults need not to be motivators or conventional
teachers but only have to provide the necessary conditions. They just have to follow the child,
who is following a purposeful inner urge. Total development is possible only when the child can
work in various fields of human activity at specific times, whose awareness and urge comes to
him naturally. Montessori teachers/guides are not even allowed to give rewards to children for
the possibility of children beginning to work for incentives ignoring their inner urge to do work
on some other activities.

3.         When something that answers the inner needs meets the child’s eyes spontaneous
INTEREST is kindled. When this interest finds suitable conditions to work spontaneous
repetition is the result. When the spontaneous REPETITION of an activity is done with interest
the natural result is CONCENTRATION. But concentration is not the end product of education,
it is only the beginning. True learning happens with concentration. The children revealed that
they could work with concentration when they found right conditions.

4.         Very young children need order for their development. The proof of it came to Maria
when she found that children put things back at their places. This order needs not to be only with
things in the environment but also with values, functions and other human activities. The child

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needs to see human values like ‘Say the Truth’ being practiced. But the adults do not  practice in
everyday life. The child gets confused and this can create wrap in his development. Similarly any
object in the environment being used for a purpose other than what it is meant for creates
disturbance (e.g. the other end of a tea spoon used  as a screwdriver). Contrary instructions about
behavior muddle his decisions – how some action is allowed at some time and not allowed at
some other time (for example when a visitor is there). The examples can go on multiplying but
the important factor that we need to remember is that a young child is in the process of building
his personality which lasts for his lifetime. He needs consistency in everything in his
environment. It takes a while for him to understand that things can also be different. 

5.         Normality depends on all the human powers working in unison, in collaboration. Very
often children deviate from this normality because they do not find the conditions necessary for
their development. Dr. Montessori says that during the early childhood it is possible to rectify
any developmental errors and bring the child back to normality. The rectification can be made
possible only by the child’s working individually at the developmental freedom. ACTIVITY was
essential.

6.         These developmental activities belonged to areas that the child needed for building his
personality. Activities involving sensorial concepts, language, arithmetic, art, culture were found
to be necessary for the child’s education. The introduction of the exercises of practical life as
developmental activities was Dr. Montessori’s contribution to education. She found out how the
children needed to perform these activities especially because they brought the intelligence, will
and voluntary movements of the personality to the child. Dr. Montessori realized that these
activities were very well understood by the children and mobilized their intelligence to the fullest
participation.

7.         Several other topics, those were considered too high and too out of reach for the children
of 3 to 5 years were brought into the house of children. Dr. Montessori found out that these areas
of knowledge are necessary for the child’s total development rather than being subjects to be
learnt or perhaps, memorized. The children showed that they could assimilate the knowledge,
normally considered to be too complex for the child, if it is presented in rightful conditions. 

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8.         In the house of children, discipline that is a problem in educational institutions came in a
new form. The children managed their individual life – their manner of speaking, moving,
handling material, interacting with other children. The children revealed quiet, orderliness,
remarkable work attitude striving for perfection, sense of responsibility towards themselves and
the environment and also others in the community. Above all they showed independence, control
of errors, love for silence and indifference with regard to reward or punishments. This made her
believe that discipline did not have to be enforced. She discovered that real discipline comes
through freedom. This suggested that discipline must come from within and not imposed from
outside because true discipline is born in freedom. Freedom and discipline are two faces of the
same coin. 

9.         Real obedience is based on love, respect and faith. When obedience leads to inner
satisfaction it becomes real obedience and hence it leads to real development.

10.       Dr. Montessori discovered that the children are often seen to behave in a certain manner –
destructive, disorderly, stubborn, disobedient, etc. but in specially prepared environments and
with specially trained adults they show orderly, responsible, loving behavior… both are
seemingly real. But why is the contradiction? Dr. Montessori says that the second instance is the
natural one and first is the result of the child not finding the right conditions for development.
This discovery was possible because she could witness this grandeur of human normality. In
other words, the child is destructive, disorderly, stubborn and disobedient if suitable conditions
are missing. She called it deviation. However, under rightful circumstances the children behave
otherwise. She called this normality.

11.       Most of the activities presented to the children in Montessori houses of children are
results of observing the child, and therefore, may be constructed as discoveries – The silence
activity; exercises of practical life and walking on the line are some of the examples.

12.       All the help we offer should lead the child to independence in his individual and social
life. “Help Me Do it Myself” is what every child wants to tells us… we just don’t listen to it.

13.       Montessori discovered that the environment itself was all-important in obtaining the
results that she had observed. Not wanting to use heavy school desks, she had carpenters build

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child-sized tables and chairs. She was the first one to do so, recognizing the frustration that a
little child experiences in an adult-sized world. Eventually she learned to design entire schools
around the size of the children. She had miniature pitchers and bowls prepared and found knives
that fit a child’s tiny hand. The tables were lightweight, allowing two children to move them
alone. The children learned to control their movements, disliking the way the calm atmosphere
was disturbed when they knocked into the furniture.

14.       Montessori further studied the traffic pattern of the rooms, arranging the furnishings and
the activity area to minimize congestion and tripping. The children loved to sit on the floor, so
she bought little rugs to define their work areas and the children quickly learned to walk around
work that other children had laid out on their rugs.

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

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.

Q 4= What does “PILES” stand for when we talk of human development?

Discuss the Physical, lingual and intellectual development talking places
during 3 to 6 years of age.

Ans= When we talk of human development “PILES” stand for:

P = Physical, I = Intellectual, L = Language, E = Emotional and S = Social

Development in 3 to 6 years is a sub-phase of a first stage of development of children. In

this phase child bring his learned, observed and watched activities into practical format. He
wants a freedom to practice them all by himself. Adults/teachers over helped or prohibition are a

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great hindrance for his development at this time. Research shows that at the end of 6 years
child’s personality completely developed.
 
Physical Development during 3 to 6 years of Age: At this stage child is very active, energetic
and imaginative. The value of physical development and the role they play in a child's entire life
is very important. A young child's physical growth first begins as muscles gain strength with use
and children gradually develop coordination. The development of muscular control is the first
step in this process. It also involves activities such as:

 Running around outside

 Jumping on the bed
 Grasping a parent's finger
 Balance on one foot for sometime
 Washes and dries hand with assistance
 Is able to use spoon without spilling
 Can torn pages in a book one by one
 Kick, bounce and throw ball
 Can put on and take off coat
 Jump from low steps
 Pedal and steer a tricycle
 Walk and run forward
 Walk on tiptoe
 Move large toys easily
 Go upstairs like adults, but still placed both feet on coming down
 Able to sit crossed legs
 Dance on music
 Touch toes while legs straight
 Full of energy
 Love for outdoor games

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Lingual Development during 3 to 6 years of Age: Language skills also continue to improve
during early childhood. Language is an outgrowth of a child's ability to use symbols. The more
words a child uses in sentences, the more sophisticated the child's language development.
Language develops in sequential form, phrases with inflections, simple sentences, and complex
sentences. Children learn many new words all the time. Parents, siblings, peers, teachers, and the
media provide opportunities for children to increase their vocabulary. Parents are children's very
first teachers and when it comes to language development, parents who actively engage their
babies and children in conversation can have a great impact on the child's ability to communicate
verbally. Talking to babies is a wonderful way for them to begin understanding the rhythm of
speech, laying the groundwork for later verbalization. Reading to babies and children, as well as
enjoying music with them are other ways that young kids can internalize speech patterns, tone,
and inflection, paving the way for them to become expert speakers. Most important lingual skills
learn at this stage are:
 Tell name, age, address and sex
 Love sing rhymes and songs
 Reading stories again and again
 Sentence structure improved rapidly
 Grammar also improves continuously
 Happy to engage in conversations
 Understand nouns and plurals
 Always in a questioning mode
 Able to start counting, and know the alphabets, numbers, shapes and colors
 Feeling happy after listening humorous stories
 Have some difficulty in pronunciation of v, r or th.
 Vocabulary increases
 Speak native language correctly, sometime more than one languages

Intellectual Development during 3 to 6 years of Age: Children change more quickly than
elder’s. It seems that you can blink your eyes and your child has grown and developed. At one
moment they are throwing balls in the box the next moment they are flipping the pages of a story

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book. Then they start reading of their own choices story books. Different activities and games
can enhance their intellectual development.
 May blow bubbles in drinks
 Know colors and different shapes
 Use children’s scissors
 Interested in playing with peers, understand rules and roles
 Count objects and recognize them
 Matches shapes, colors, alphabets and numbers
 Solve puzzles
 Hold pencil properly
 Draw shape (circle etc), alphabets and features (head, face, legs, arms ) very brilliantly
 Likes to paint and colors
 Can build a high brick tower and bridges
 Knows primary colors

Q 5= Write a comprehensive note on the role of teacher in a

Montessori classroom.

Ans= Teacher

A Montessori teacher is considered to be a guide, facilitator or a directress. Her role in teaching

Montessori students is very distinct and significant. In order to have a better understanding of a
role of teacher we have two types of art of teaching. Montessori believed that “it is necessary for
the teacher to guide the child without letting him feel her presence too much, so that she may be
always ready to supply the desired help, but may never be the obstacle between the child and his
experience."Montessori teacher is like a guide/ helper to the children. For better understanding a
role of a teacher, we should know that there are two types of art of teaching; one is Productive
and the other is Cooperative.

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ART

PRODUCTIVE ART COORPERATIVE ART

It refers to an “art in which the activity In this type of art, the end product is not
of an artist is the principle and the predefined or activity of an artist is not
only cause of production” the primary cause of production.
No artistic= No production No artistic= Still production
For example For example
Painting, Tailor, carpenter. Farming, Healing, and Teaching.

ROLE OF A TEACHER IN MONTESSORI CLASS:

Since classroom is a place where children are supported to work where as teachers should be
facilitating or scheduling and arranging activities. There are numerous roles of a teacher in the
Montessori classroom. She has to be a role model for children as they imitate her actions. The
important Roles of the teacher in a classroom are given below.

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PROVIDE APPROPRIATE MATERIALS:

A Montessori directress should provide appropriate material which meets the needs of the
Montessori students to develop their interest in different fields of education and practical life.

PREPARATION OF ENVIRONMENT:
A Montessori mentor should prepare the best learning environment where a child could easily
select his own work which is according to his interest. It should be put in low shelves where the
child could easily explore and place it in order.

OBSERVING THE CHILDREN:

A directress should observe all children individually. She should deal with them according to
their interest and provide materials or activities but there must be a dynamic link between
children and the prepared environment. She should observe her student very keenly in order to
interpret his need.

GIVING LESSONS:
Montessori teacher’s lesson should be brief and interesting therefore their attention should not be
diverting elsewhere. She should provide simple and necessary information to the child to do the
work on their own pace.

EVALUATE A STUDENT:
 A directress should evaluate her student in such a way; she should able to know about the needs
and effectiveness of her student. She should evaluate her children performance individually.

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A GOOD COMMUNICATOR:
As we know that a teacher is a role model for a student; she should be a very good communicator
and help the children to learn how to be a good communicator and communicate their thoughts to
adults.

MORAL SENSE DEVELOPER:

The role of Montessori guider is to develop moral sense in children. She should develop the
sense of courtesy, calm, grace and respect.
 
DIAGNOSTICIAN:
Diagnostician’s mean concerns are with psycho-educational assessment. A Montessori teacher is
a diagnostician as she can figure out the growth, development, and behavior of the children and
guide their parents about their children habits.

PROTECT STUDENT’S INDEPENDENCE:

A directress should give space to students and let them to work according to their own interest.
She should respect and protect their freedom.  She may present interesting and relevant lesson
and then free them to work according to their interest and generate new ideas and meet their
needs.

SUPPORTIVE:
The teacher should be supportive, offering warmth, security, stability, and non-     judgment
acceptance to each child. She should support her student to learn or generate new ideas and work
independently.

To sum up, Montessori directress is more than a teacher. Her ultimate goal is to facilitate
Montessori children. She works as a guide, directress, and teacher or mentor in order to retain
curiosity, creativity and intelligence in students.

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