Montessori school is known with its student-centred approach.

According to The Bilingual Montessori

School of Paris (n.d), Montessori concept has its own uniqueness regarding to its respect to the
students’ desire and ability in learning and how it recognizes their needs of independence. Generally,
the purposes of Montessori approach are about the students’ personal skills and interest and students’
connection to their surroundings/environment. Specifically, the purposes of Montessori education
according to Living Education Montessori Community (n.d.) are:

1. To develop students with curiosity and passion in learning

The usual learning process would be the activities where the students can practice by their own
hands and give them a real-life experience instead of listening to the teacher all day long.
Students are expected to dig more and ask more questions rather than just listening. So the
activities are set up to gain their interest and curiosity. By this, students are learning actively by
observing and questioning their surrounding instead of only listen to designated materials.

2. To create independent, critical thinkers

Montessori education respects students’ choices. This is the foundation to make students
become confident of their own thoughts and opinions. In day-to-day learning process in the
school where I work, teachers often allow the students to choose and speak out what they want
and/or need, for example to choose what book to read. Since I handle 2.5 – 4 years old students
and most of them could not read yet, I would allow them to discuss and decide which book to
read in each session with their friends. This way, they would develop their communication skills
as well as their critical thinking to solve their own problems.

3. To promote self-awareness about discipline

One typical learning environment in Montessori is the behaviour to clean up and tidy up as early
as possible. Students are expected to tidy up by themselves after whatever the activity is. This is
the basic to develop discipline as early as possible. In my class, it is common to run the activity
later than the schedule to make sure the students tidy up and clean up their toys before starting
the lesson.

By these explanations, it is clear that the learning environment I am working in use the learner center
ideology by Schiro. Learner center ideology stated by Schiro focuses on personal interests and skills of
the students (Curriculum Ideologies and Conceptions of Diversity and Social Justice. 2020). Montessori
education focuses on the children’s development and it allows students to learn in their own pace
instead of the need to follow the standardization from a certain party.

In my personal opinion, developing curiosity and passion in learning is essential especially in early-years
education. This aspect can lead to many other objectives in educations. I believe that a lot of adults lost
their interest in learning (not only in school but also learning as general aspect to grow skills and
potentials) because their past experience in learning do not cover this aspect. Passion in learning covers
a lot of aspect in life outside school environment. So having passion in learning would help an individual
to develop themselves into their maximum potential.

The one thing I want to develop more to support the learning process is more various and more
attractive activities. As I teach young learners their focus often distracted easily by their surroundings. I
think more attractive activities would help them to focus. With more attractive activities, I believe the
students would more interest to participate and would ask more questions according to their
observations. This would lead them to gain more knowledge by real-life experience.

References

Living Montessori Education Community (n.d). Montessori Goals for Developing Your Child’s Full
Potential. https://www.livingmontessori.com/our-school/goals-principles/

PEÑA-SANDOVAL, César; LÓPEZ JIMÉNEZ, Tatiana. (2020). Curriculum Ideologies and Conceptions of
Diversity and Social Justice. v. 50, n. 177, p. 738-756. Cadernos de Pesquisa, São Paulo.
https://doi.org/10.1590/198053147086

The Bilingual Montessori School of Paris. (n.d). What Makes a Montessori Education Unique?
https://www.montessori-paris.com/montess/index.php/component/rokdownloads/downloads/
newsletters/3-montessori-newsletter-december-2010