Montessori Education
| | Traditional Education
|
|---|
| Views the child holistically, valuing cognitive, psychological, social, and spiritual development. | | Views the child in terms of competence, skill level, and achievement with an 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; teacher is an instructional facilitator and guide | | Child is a more passive participant in learning; 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, three-year cycles, allow teacher, students, and parents to develop supportive, collaborative and trusting relationships. | | Same-age and/or skill level grouping; one-year cycles can limit development of strong teacher, student and parent collaboration |
| Grace, courtesy and conflict resolution are integral parts 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 the 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 the environment are emphasized as integral to the learning experience | | Less emphasis on self-care, spatial awareness, and care of the environment |
| Child can work where he/she is comfortable and the child often has choices between working alone or with a group that is highly collaborative among older students | | Child is usually assigned a specific work space; talking among peers discouraged |
| Multi-disciplinary, interwoven curriculum | | Curriculum areas usually taught as separate topics |
| Child learns to share leadership; egalitarian interaction is encouraged | | Hierarchical classroom structure is more prominent |
| 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 oher | | 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 core curricula objectives |
