Montessori vs. Traditional
Montessori Education |
Traditional Education |
| View the child holistically, valuing cognitive, psychological, social, and spiritual development | Views the child in terms of competence, skill level, and achievement with and emphasis on core curricula standards and social development |
| Child is an active participant in learning - allowed to move about and respectfully explore the classroom environment |
Child is a more passive participant in learning |
| Teacher is an instructional facilitator and guide | Teacher has a more dominant, central role in classroom activity |
| A carefully prepared learning environment and method encourages development of internal self-discipline and intrinsic motivation | Teacher acts as a primary enforcer of external discipline promoting extrinsic motivation |
| Instruction, both individual and group, adapts to students' learning styles and development levels | Instruction, both individual and group, adapts to core curricula benchmarks |
| Three-year span of age grouping | Same-age and/or skill level grouping |
| Grace, courtesy, and conflict resolution are integral part of daily Montessori peace curriculum | Conflict resolution is usually taught separately from daily classroom activity |
| Values concentration and depth of experience; supplies uninterrupted time for focused work cycle to develop | Values completion of assignments; time is tightly scheduled |
| Child's learning pace is internally determined | Instructional pace usually set by core-curricula standard expectations, group norm, or teacher |
| Child allowed to spot own errors through feedback from the materials; errors are viewed as part of learning process | Work is usually corrected by the teacher; errors are viewed as mistakes |
| Learning is reinforced internally through the child's own repetition of an activity and internal feelings of success | Learning is reinforced externally by test scores and rewards, competition and grades |
| Care of self and environment are emphasized as integral to the learning experience | Less emphasis on self-care, spatial awareness, and care of environment |
| Child can work where he/she is comfortable and the child often has choices between working alone or with a group | Child is usually assigned a specific work space; talking among peers discouraged |
| Multi-disciplinary, interwoven curriculum | Curriculum areas usually taught as separate topics |
| Progress is reported through multiple formats: conferences, narrative reports, checklists and portfolio of student's work | Progress is usually reported through conferences, report cards/grades, and test scores |
| Children are encouraged to teach, collaborate, and help each other | Most teaching is done by the teacher and collaboration is an alternative teaching strategy |
| Child is provided opportunities to choose own work from interest and abilities, concepts taught within context of interest | Curricula organized and structured for child based on core curricula standards |
| Goal is to foster a love of learning | Goal is to master curricula objectives |
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Sean, 1-3 YearI like when we work with others. I like when we make things.
