Pakistan Montessori Council

Name: Madiha Sharif

Roll No: D16441 M1
Assignment:Module-1

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

Dr.Maria Montessori is the founder of Montessori system of

education. She emphasized the need for early education. It
was much later that educational research verified those early
years is the most important years of a person’s life.

She observed children, looking for behavioral patterns in their

interaction with the environment, she conducted many
experiments in various parts of the world. Her lifelong
observations and inferences, lead to “Discovery of the child”.
According to Montessori Method a child concentrates with
enthusiasm and grows intellectually and emotionally.

Dr.Maria Montessori also respected and reputed for promoting

a substantial number of important educational reforms, which now have become integral
components of 21st century’s educational core.

Maria Montessori was born on the 31st August 1870 in the town of Chiaravalle, Italy. Her
father, Alessandro, was an accountant in the civil service, and her mother, Renilde
Stoppani, was well educated and had a passion for reading.
The Montessori family moved to Rome in 1875 and the following year Maria was enrolled in the
local state school. Breaking conventional barriers from the beginning of her education, Maria
initially had aspirations to become an engineer. 
When Maria graduated secondary school, she became determined to enter medical school and
become a doctor. Despite her parents’ encouragement to enter teaching, Maria wanted to study
the male dominated field of medicine. After initially being refused, with the endorsement of
Pope Leo XIII, Maria was eventually given entry to the University of Rome in 1890, becoming
one of the first women in medical school in Italy. Despite facing many obstacles due to her
gender, Maria qualified as a doctor in July 1896.

At the age of twenty-eight Maria began advocating her controversial theory that the lack of
support for mentally and developmentally disabled children was the cause of their delinquency.
The notion of social reform became a strong theme throughout Maria's life, whether it was for
gender roles, or advocacy for children. 

Montessori is referred to lady a head because her discoveries are being practiced all over the
world. She is immortal through her methods which are still being practiced now and will in
future also. She lived in old days but was definitely “A woman much Ahead of her time”.
 QUESTION:2
Which are the main requirements to be considered to start a
House of Children? How to you implement them?

Answer: Requirements to be considered to start a House of Children

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

 Independence (Love for activity, independence)

 Family setting
 Cooperation & collaboration rather than competition
 Mix age group concrete to abstract
 Respect for the child
  Everything should be child sized
 The absorbent mind
 The prepared environment
 Focus on individual child
  Polite and reasonable behavior of teachers
  Parents – Teachers meeting
 Family setting

 Our Homes are designed according to adults. Children cannot access anything freely and
comfortably. Children use to listened 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 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 face in their homes. So children need a
proper place where they can learn, play and get experienced.

How Do I implement:
I am a Psychologist.  I am already trying and practicing few activities from Montessori
Method of learning, achieving an astonishing results and development in my students. As kids
start learning very after from their birth and for their better growth, development and education
it’s our responsibility as a teacher/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.
In House of Children I will prefer to implement following thing:
 RESPECT FOR THE CHILD:

  Re Respect for the child is the keystone on which all other Montessori principles based.
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.

 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 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.
CONCLUSION:
Clearly babies come into the world remarkably receptive to its wonders. Their alertness to sights,
sounds, and even abstract concepts makes them inquisitive explorers—and learners—every
waking minute. Well before formal schooling begins, children's early experiences lay the
foundations for their later social behavior, emotional regulation, and literacy. Yet, for a variety of
reasons, far too little attention is given to the quality of these crucial years. Outmoded theories,
outdated facts, and undersized budgets all play a part in the uneven quality of early childhood
programs throughout the country.
 QUESTION:3
What are the discoveries made by Dr. Maria Montessori by
observing the child?

Answer: Dr. Maria Montessori’s educational approach is based on observation and

experimentation. She used a scientific approach. She worked tirelessly observing children,
analyzing results and developing new materials. In start she worked with mentally disabled
children and achieved astonishing results.

Maria Montessori's discoveries

She noticed that children preferred work over play, especially in school timings. She observed
that young children are highly energetic activity powerhouses, always seeking out experiences
that will help them grow and develop. She observed that children have the ability to select their
own work/activity.
Here are some of her observations that have the most importance for early learning activities:
  She carefully observed the inclination of child’s
interest and developed the materials/activities
accordingly.
 
·        
  She discovered that child whose concentration on
graded wooden cylinders was so strong that
efforts to distract him were useless. And when
the child had finished he seemed rested and
happy. The child’s ability for deep concentration
and love towards the work was phenomenal.

·         

She also discovered the child’s need for

repetition which fulfilled a child’s need. She
then decided to give children the freedom to be
able to accomplish their work.

·         

Maria Montessori also discovered that children

had a great sense of order. Children put things
back to where it belonged. She respected this
and allowed them to do it by placing the
materials in an open cupboard rather than
locked cupboards as it was initially done. This
cemented the way for the freedom of choice for
the e child to choose their work. She observed
that real discipline comes through freedom.

·         When Montessori gave a lesson on blowing

the nose she received great cheer from the
children. Children are always
being practiced about keeping their nose clean
but no one has calmly taught them how to do it.
This made her realize that even small children
had a sense on personal dignity. Montessori
always emphasized the respect for even the
youngest child.
·       

  She discovered that children have more interest in academic activities instead of toys. She
noticed that children preferred work over play, especially in school timings.

·        

 
She discovered that young children are highly
energetic activity powerhouses, always seeking out
experiences that will help them grow and develop.
She observed that children have the ability to select
their own work/activity. They are not work for any
incentives or rewards. Their inner motivation is fair
enough to motivate them for a particular work.

·      

   

She discovered that a child can learn almost

everything in early childhood, as it was previously
thought, that many things are too complex for
children.

·  

  She discovered and believed that real obedience comes

through love, respect and faith. Elders/ teachers
should be polite and sharp enough to understand the
child’s behavior.

·     She believed that the child’s behavior depends on the

environment. A child can be disobedient, stubborn
etc. or a child can be disciplined, happy and healthy.
It depends on the environment. If proper, healthy and
interactive environment provided to children and
their rightful needs fulfilled, they behave normal
otherwise not. The second condition is called deviation.
·     After continues research and observation she came to know the traffic patterns of the room

on floor during many activities so there should be rugs or floor mats for them.

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arrangements for children. Room should not be congested and over loaded. Children love to sit

·    She noticed that children are more comfortable with their sized furniture and things. So whole
building and rooms are designed according to children interest and comfort ability. The furniture,
washrooms etc. are designed and sized for children. Windows low to the ground and low shelves
used so that children can have the outside view and used things from shelves.

·      she discovered that for building child’s complete personality, they need to do activities
regarding sensorial concepts, physical activities, languages, math, art, culture and many more.

After all these discoveries and changes first “Casa dei Bambini” (House of Children) came out.
The fame of Maria Montessori, her House of Children and method quickly spread all over the
world. 

QUESTION:4
What does “PILES” stands for when we talk of human development ? Discuss the
physical ,lingual and intellectual development taking the place during 3 to 6 years of
age?

Ans: The acronym PILES. Stands for – physical, intellectual, language, emotional, social.

These categories each represent a series of broad skills that children learn as they grow. By
following the PILES model, teachers can monitor how each child is developing and can support
their development with daily activities that target specific skills that aid in a child’s overall
development.

Physical
The physical domain focuses on the development of a child’s body. This includes changes in
size, strength and physical maturity that contribute to gross-motor and fine-motor skills. Growth
in this domain is the most rapid between ages 0-2. Did you know that the brain triples in weight
during this time?

Activities to support physical development:

 Infants – Tummy time to build neck and upper body strength, holding and grasping
items for grip strength.
 Toddlers  – Block play for hand-eye coordination, walking around for balance and
gross motor skills.
 Preschoolers – Running and stopping for spatial awareness, drawing and writing for
fine motor skills.

This domain is really easy to incorporate on a daily basis and is a ton of fun. Get moving and
watch the kiddos grow!

Intellectual
The intellectual domain is also known as the cognitive domain. It focuses on how children
process their surroundings and solve problems. Counting and math skills, organization,
imagination and creative thinking fall into this domain.

Activities to support intellectual development:

 Infants – Reading to them and pointing out simple shapes, colors and counting things is
helpful to help children understand these concepts.
 Toddlers – Making and identifying shapes during play, organizing toys during cleanup
by color and encouraging them to count.
 Preschoolers – Engage in simple mathematics like simple addition and subtraction in
daily routines as well as measuring things.

Young children are naturally curious, so it is really easy to get creative to engage them!

Language
 The language domain covers a child’s speaking and reading ability as well as the size of their
overall vocabulary. This will lay the foundation for a child’s literacy skills such as reading and
writing. This is the most traditionally academic domain but that doesn’t mean it has to be boring!

Activities to promote language skills:

 Infants – Read to them like you’re talking to them. Hold eye contact and use hand
gestures to help infants understand verbal communication.
 Toddlers – Read, sing, repeat! Allow toddlers to repeat their favorite songs and stories
to you and encourage them to add onto their statements.
 Preschoolers – Engage preschoolers in the storytelling process by pausing to ask them
to interpret what’s going on. Ask open-ended questions and have frequent conversations
to help build their vocabulary.

Communicating with your kiddos is also a great way to solidify your relationship with them and
get to know their little personalities. You never know how a child might surprise you!

Emotional
The emotional domain is all about building an emotional connection, identifying, processing and
expressing feelings. This is arguably the most difficult domain as adults sometimes struggle with
this! A good place to start is by developing the language to talk about emotion and modeling
positive emotional responses for young children, especially in real-time situations.

Activities to promote social-emotional development:

 Infants – Exaggerate your facial expressions and enthusiasm when interacting with
infants and model empathy.
 Toddlers – Offer toddlers specific language to help them identify their emotions as
they are happening. Describe how a character in a book or show is feeling to help them
relate.
  Preschoolers – Encourage conversations around why a child feels a certain way.
Model mindfulness and self-awareness to show different ways to feel better.

Create a space where a child is able to express their feelings and develop their emotional
intelligence. A lot of this work happens spontaneously rather than planned so being adaptable is
key in this case.

Social

The social domain involves social interactions with their peers. Surprise!

Similar to emotional development, educators need to be adaptable to the situation and encourage
healthy conflict resolution and helping children understand their place in a community.

Activities to promote social development:

  Infants – Babble to them and encourage responses. Engage in eye contact to help them
associate it with communication. 
 Toddlers – Encourage group play and positively reinforce when children are being
kind to one another. In the event of a conflict, help children communicate their
boundaries using words instead of hitting.
 Preschoolers – Model cooperation and empathy. Help children develop their
confidence by encouraging group activities.

Allowing children to interact organically while observing them is a good way to notice how
they’re developing and whether they need individualized support.

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
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. Children learn many new words all the time.
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
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, and arms ) very brilliantly
·         Likes to paint and colors
·         Can build a high brick tower and bridges
·         Knows primary colors.

QUESTION:5
5 . Write a comprehensive note on the role of teacher in a Montessori classroom?

Ans: 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.
It takes a very special person to become a Montessori Teacher. The Montessori teaching method
emphasizes the heightened learning ability of children when they are allowed to make their own
choices. It was developed by Dr. Maria Montessori in the early 20th century to improve children’s
education by helping them help themselves. Montessori teacher’s role revolves around this very
method of guiding young minds.
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 ,I would mention two types of art of teaching:
Role of a teacher in Montessori class:
there are numerous roles of a teacher in Montessori class room.she has to be a role model for
children as they imitate her actions.the important roles of the teacher in a classroom are mentioned
below:

 Provide appropriate materials:

A Montessori directress should provide appropriate

materials 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 this child:

The Montessori 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 prepared environment.
 Giving lessons:
Montessori directress’s lessons 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 Montessori directress should evaluate her student in
such a way; she should able to know about needs and
effectiveness of her student. She should evaluate her
children performance individually.

 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 Of Developer:

The role of Montessori guider is to develop moral sense
in children. She should develop the sense of courtesy,
calm, grace and respect.

 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 a teacher or mentor in order to
retain curiosity, creativity and intelligence in students.