Eight Principles, Briefly Stated
Montessori education is guided by eight specific principles about how learning actually works best:
- Movement and cognition are closely entwined, and movement can enhance thinking and learning.
- Learning and well-being are improved when people have control over their lives.
- People learn better when they are interested in what they are learning.
- Tying extrinsic rewards to an activity — like money for reading, or high grades for tests — negatively impacts motivation to engage in that activity once the reward is withdrawn.
- Collaborative arrangements can be very conducive to learning.
- Learning situated in meaningful contexts is often deeper and richer than learning in abstract contexts.
- Particular forms of adult interaction are associated with more optimal child outcomes.
- Order in the environment is beneficial to children.
Movement and Cognition
The first principle is that movement and cognition are closely entwined. The observation makes sense: our brains evolved in a world in which we move and do, not a world in which we sit at desks and consider abstractions. Dr. Montessori noted that thinking seems to be expressed by the hands before it can be put into words — implying that education should involve movement to enhance learning.
Choice
The second principle is free choice. Dr. Montessori noted that children seemed to thrive on having choice and control in their environment, and she envisioned development as a process of the child becoming increasingly able to be independent within their environment. Although good Montessori programmes impose definite limits on this freedom, Montessori children are free to make many more decisions than children in a traditional classroom.
Interest
The third principle is that the best learning occurs in contexts of interest. Dr. Montessori created situational interest partly by designing materials that children seemed to want to interact with, and she also trained Montessori teachers to give lessons in a manner that would genuinely inspire children.
Extrinsic Rewards Are Avoided
According to Dr. Montessori, extrinsic rewards such as gold stars and grades are disruptive to a child’s concentration. Rewards and punishments have no place in the Montessori classroom, because it’s important for children to work from their own self-motivation. If children work merely to get a gold star, another prize, or to avoid an adult’s disapproval, it becomes impossible for a teacher to see what the child’s true interests actually are.
Learning With and From Peers
In traditional schooling, the teacher gives children information, and children rarely learn from each other or directly from materials. Younger children are more apt to play side by side, but not necessarily together, whereas elementary-age children are intensely social — a distinction Montessori classrooms are built to accommodate.
Learning in Context
In traditional schooling, children sometimes learn without understanding how that learning applies to anything beyond school tests. Dr. Montessori reacted to this by creating a set of materials and a system of learning in which the application and meaning of what one was learning would come across clearly to every child. Rather than learning largely from what teachers and texts say to them, children in Montessori programmes learn largely by doing.
Teacher Ways and Child Ways
When teachers and adults provide clear limits but set children free within those boundaries — sensitively responding to children’s needs while maintaining high expectations — children show high levels of maturity.
Order in Environment and Mind
Montessori classrooms are very organised, both physically and conceptually. Order is very helpful to learning and development, and Dr. Montessori was right on target in creating such ordered environments in schools. This principle also speculates on the potential neurological impact of presenting orderly sequences of materials specifically intended to tune the senses.
