Assignment Module 1

Name: Ayesh Aamir

Roll No: D-15490
Q1) Discuss the life and work of Dr. Maria Montessori and why is she referred to
as a lady much ahead of her time?
Ans. LIFE OF DR. MARIA MONTESSORI:
Maria was born on August, 31st 1870, in Ancona, Italy. She was the only child of
her father, Alessandro Montessori, a military man and mother, Renilde Stoppani, a
well educated liberal lady that had a passion for reading.
After moving to Rome in 1875 and enrolling in the local state school the following
year, Maria broke many conventional barriers from the beginning of her education.
She initially had aspiration to become an engineer, as she was interested in
mathematics but when she graduated from secondary school, biology caught her
interest and she became determined to enter medical school and became a doctor.
Despite her parents encouragement to enter teaching, as that was one of the three
conservative roles open for women. Maria wanted to study the male dominated
field of medicine. After initially being refused, with the endorsement of Pope Leo
Xlll, Maria was eventually given a try at 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. Her thesis was
published in 1897 in the journal Policlinico.

WORKS IN THE EARLY YEARS:

Maria Montessori was in many ways, much ahead of her time.

Born in the town of Chiaravalle, in the province of Ancona, Italy, she became the
first female physician in Italy upon her education. Shortly afterwards, she was
chosen to represent Italy at two different womens conferences, in Berlin 1896 and
London in 1900. In her medical practice, her clinical observations led her to
analyze how children learn , and she concluded that they build themselves from
what they find in the environment. Shifting her focus from body to mind, she
returned to university in 1901, this time to study psychology and philosophy. In
1904, she was made professor of anthropology at the university of Rome.

HER RESOLUTE DEVOTION AND DEDICATION:

Her desire to help children was so strong, however, in 1906 she gave up both her
university chair and her medical practice to work with a group of sixty young
children of working parents in San Lorenzo district of Rome. It was there that she
founded the first Casa Dei Bambini, or “Children’s House”. What ultimately
became the Montessori method of education developed there, based upon on
Montessori’s scientific observations of these children’s almost effortless ability to
absorb knowledge from their surroundings, as well as their tireless interest in
manipulating materials. Every piece of equipment, every exercise, every method
Montessori developed was based on what she observed children to do “naturally,”
by themselves, unassisted by adults.
Children teach themselves. This simple but profound truth inspired Montessori’s
lifelong pursuit of educational reform, methodology, psychology, teaching, and
teacher training–all based on her dedication to furthering the self-creating process
of the child. Maria Montessori made her first visit to the United States in 1913, the
same year that Alexander Graham Bell and his wife Mabel founded the Montessori
Educational Association at their Washington, DC, home. Among her other strong
American supporters were Thomas Edison and Helen Keller.

WORLD WIDE ACCEPTANCE OF HER METHOD:

In 1915, she attracted world attention with her “glass house” schoolroom exhibit at
the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco. On this second U.S.
visit, she also conducted a teacher training course and addressed the annual
conventions of both the National Education Association and the International
Kindergarten Union. The committee that brought her to San Francisco included
Margaret Wilson, the daughter of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. The Spanish
government invited her to open a research institute in 1917. In 1919, she began a
series of teacher training courses in London. In 1922, she was appointed a
government inspector of schools in her native Italy, but because of her opposition
to Mussolini’s fascism, she was forced to leave Italy in 1934. She traveled to
Barcelona, Spain, and was rescued there by a British cruiser in 1936, during the
Spanish Civil War. She opened the Montessori Training Centre in Laren,
Netherlands, in 1938, and founded a series of teacher training courses in India in
1939. Dr. Montessori conducted training courses in Pakistan, London and the
Netherlands. Montessori traveled worldwide for over 40 years, establishing
training courses, lecturing, writing and promoting her principled method of
learning. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times–in 1949, 1950,
and 1951. Maria Montessori died in Noordwijk, Holland, in 1952, but her work
lives on through the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), the organization
she founded in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1929 to carry on her work.

MARIA MONTESSORI WAS A WOMAN FAR AHEAD OF HER TIME:

Maria Montessori was a woman far ahead of her time, a visionary and a scientist.
She developed a system of education, and a way of understanding and honoring
children, that was based on scientific observations, seeing the child as he or she
truly is. These principles of Montessori philosophy, such as the absorbent mind,
sensitive periods, and intrinsic motivation are confirmed by the most recent brain
research about how children learn and how the brain develops. These principles
have still not been assimilated into standard educational practice; in many ways
Montessori remains ahead of our times. It was during that period, late in her life,
that her view of cosmic education fully developed. She became committed to a
global vision of humanity, arguing that only through right education of our
children will world peace be achieved.
Once again she was ahead of her time, with this understanding of the planet as a
whole, and a vision of the potential evolution of humanity. She was nominated for
the Nobel Peace Prize several times. Since her death, Montessori education has
flourished, with schools on every continent, and training centers worldwide. A
diverse and sometimes competing group of Montessori organizations and training
centers developed over the years. It is worthy of note that in the last decade there
has been a strong and heartening move among some Montessorians, including the
leaders of the largest organizations, to work together more.. In this second decade
of the 21st century, a hundred years after her first “Casa,” Dr. Montessori’s
insights and holistic method of education are more relevant and necessary than
ever.
Q2) Which are the main requirements to be considered to start a House of
Children? How do you implement them?
Ans) Montessori is the place where children can do whatever they want and meet
their needs and interest. Therefore, one has to be very particular and consider
numerous things when start the house of children. It is the most difficult task to
start it. There are several requirements which one should be keeping in mind.
1) Montessori is the place where children can do whatever they want and
meet their needs and interest. Therefore, one has to be very particular and
consider numerous things when start the house of children. It is the most
difficult task to start it. There are several requirements which one should
be keeping in mind.
2) The number of students in the classroom should not be exceeding more
than 30 students.
3) The size of the classroom should allow minimum of 20 square feet per
students at the early level, 30 squares for the elementary level and 40
squares would be for secondary level.
4) Montessori house should be child-sized where he could enjoy his age. A
child sized kitchen, science lab, an art studio, bath rooms, hobby
workshop, everything should be according to the size of a child. They
lead him to fulfill his desires and enjoy his own world.
5) A house should be design in such a way that the child could face outdoor
environment. There must be window through which the children could
face sunlight at a daytime and become a natural source of ventilation.
6) There must be the children garden where child can grow vegetables and
fruits of their choice. It leads them to close to their natural environment.
7) There should not be any prohibition of doing something which the
student is not allowed at his home. “Prohibition is sweet or bitter,
prohibition is prohibition.”
8) Children are usually not allowed to do by themselves what they want at
their home so Montessori room should provide them this opportunity.
These are some factors which should consider while starting any house of
children.
HOW TO IMPLEMENT:
Considering requirements are very important but implementation is more important
than them because implementation is something which we have to implement and
how it works is based on it. There must be a lot of things which should be
implement those are:
 Respect for children.
 Focus on individual child
 The prepared environment
 Polite behavior of the teacher
 Parent- Teacher meeting

RESPECT FOR THE CHILDREN:

Respect is the basic thing which everybody requires. Every child needs respect.
Parents try to force them to follow the parents without regarding their needs and
interest. Therefore, first we should take great care of the respect of the child.
FOCUS ON INDIVIDUAL CHILD:
Every child is different from one another. Teacher should focus on individual child
as his learning progress, growth and understanding is different from other children.
THE PREPARED ENVIRONMENT:
Prepared environment is very important. When they have prepared environment,
they are able to do what they want. The material is available for the child which
they can easily access and do whatever their interest.
POLITE BEHAVIOR OF THE TEACHER:
The teacher is the role model for the student. Her behavior should be polite
towards students. As the teacher is the spiritual mother of the students, they learn a
lot from them after their mother. So, her behavior and attitude should be very good.
PARENT-TEACHER MEETING:
There must be parent-teacher meeting as parents should know the progress and
development of their student and the most important about the attitude and the
nature of the student. Montessori teacher can guide them according to the nature of
their children.
Q3) What are the main discoveries made by Dr. Maria Montessori by observing
the child?
Ans) After nearly twenty two years of such experimentation Dr. Montessori could
say that she had found a method of helping children in their educational pursuits.
This, later on, came to be known as the Montessori Method of education, which is
aimed at helping the child for life. It may be worthwhile to enumerate some of the
discoveries she had made during her work.

 Child loves to work purposefully. If it corresponded with the inner

developmental needs, they worked until they reached their goal. They work
out of a natural drive, which makes them select concentrate on tasks which
are appropriate for development.

 The inner drive is sufficient. Total development is possible only when the
child can work in various fields of human activity as specific times, whose
awareness and urge comes to him naturally.

 When something that answers the inner needs meets the child’s eyes,
spontaneous interest kindled. When the spontaneous Repetition of an
activity is done with interest the natural result is Concentration. But
concentration is not the end product of education, it is only the beginning.
True learning takes place with concentration.

 Very young children need order for their development. The child needs
not practice in everyday life. The child gets confused and this can create
wrap in his development.

 Normality depends on all human power working in unison, in

collaboration.

 Activities involving sensorial concepts, language, arithmetic, art,

culture, were found to be necessary for the child’s education. Dr. Maria
Montessori found out how the children needed to perform these activities
 especially because they brought the intelligence, will and voluntary
movements of the personality to the child.

 The children showed that they could assimilate the knowledge ,

normally considered to be too complex for the child, if it is presented in
rightful conditions.

 She discovered that real discipline comes from freedom. This suggested
that discipline must come from within and not imposed from outside because
true discipline is born in freedom. Freedom and discipline are two faces of
the same coin.

 Real obedience is based on love, respect and faith.

 Dr. Montessori discovered that children are often seen to behave in a certain
manner. In other words, the child is destructive, disorderly, stubborn and
disobedient if suitable condition are missing. She called it deviation.
However, under rightful circumstances the children behave otherwise. She
called this normality.

 Most of the activities presented to the children in Montessori houses of

children are results of observing the child.

 All the help we offer should lead the child to independence in his individual
and social life. “Help me Do it Myself” is what every child wants to tells us.
We just don’t listen to it.

 Montessori discovered that the environment itself was all important in

obtaining the results that she had observed.
  Montessori further studied the traffic pattern of the rooms.

 Montessori carried this environmental engineering throughout the entire

school building and outside environment.

Q4) What does “PILES” stand for when we talk of human development?
Discuss the physical, lingual, and intellectual development taking place during
3 to 6 years of age.
Ans) PILES stands for:
 P = Physical
 I = Intellectual
 L = Lingual
 E = Emotional
 S = Social

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT:
Physical development takes place during 3 to 6 years of age. The child feels certain
strong urges at specified time periods. Which lead him to development as shown in
the figure:

Age 0-6 years Strong natural urges

Development Experience which

satisfy the natural urges
At the age of 3 years:
 In this age a child can balance on one foot for a moment.
 He is dextrose on outdoor equipment.
 Steers and runs round obstructions with ease.
 Forcefully kicks ball walks in an adult fashion upstairs, even holding a big
toy.
 Still puts both feet on each step when coming downstairs. Likes to jump off
the last step.

At the age of 4 years:

 Bends down to pick up toys with legs straight.
 Bounce with ball games. Can throw, catch and kick well and can now
bounce a ball.
 Runs about on tiptoe.
 Runs upstairs with total efficiency.
 Able to sit cross-legged. Hops around and balances on one foot for longer.

At the age of 5 to 6 years:

 Can now play all sorts of ball games competently.
 Able to walk along a thin line.
 More energetic and lively in general.
 Expert at all outdoor activities such as swimming, climbing and sliding.

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT:
The intellectual development grows in the child with the passage of time. The child
learns how to behave with the adults and how to cope up with the awkward
situations but it’s all depend on the proper environment and conditions which we
provide to them.
At the age of 3 years:
 A child can be able to thread big beads and built 9 blocks high towers and
small bridges and bricks.
 He can use children’s scissors.
 He can also holds a pencil properly.

At the age of four years:

 A child is skilful at holding pencils.
 He is able to build 10 ricks high tower.
 He also knows primary colors.

At the age of 5-6 years:

 A child can draw more detailed drawings and painting including
surroundings.
 He can also count figures.
 Skilled at coloring and jigsaws.
 He can relate to the time of day corresponding to everyday activities.

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT:
Language development also improves through time to time and the child is able
communicate more clearly. Children learn from the environment and we should
make the environment suitable for the children.

At the age of 3 years:

  In age of 3 a child can recite name, age and sex.
 Sentences are completely understandable but still sound childish.
 Wants to be read favorite stories again and again.
 Recites more rhymes and can sing some songs.

At the age of 4 years:

 Always asking very inquisitive questions like “What does that mean?”
 He loves to have a joke.
 He will recall latest happenings in conversation with others.
 He can count 4 or 5 objects, and can recite up to 20.

At the age of 5-6 years:

 He still asks the meaning of intangible words.
 He will now recite own name, address, age and sometimes knows birthday.
 He knows more rhymes and songs, and loves to sing them.

Q5) Write a comprehensive note on the role of Teacher in a Montessori

classroom?
Ans) ROLE OF MONTESSORI TEACHER:
A Montessori teacher is a guide, a facilitator and does not consider
herself to be the primary cause of learning that occurs in her students. To
understand the role of a teacher better let’s look at the types of arts. There are two
types of arts namely, Productive and cooperative.

PRODUCTIVE ARTS:
This is the art in which the activity of the artist is the principal and the only cause
of production, such as shoemaker, carpenter, tailor, etc.
CO-OPERATIVE ARTS:
To define the cooperative arts, we can say that in such arts the activity of the artist
is neither the principal, nor the only cause of production. There are three very
common cooperative arts, which includes:
Farming: The art of raising plants and animals.
Healing: The art of curing. (This includes doctors, physicians, surgeons, nurses
etc)
Teaching: The third one is what we are concerned with.

A Montessori teacher’s normal classroom practices involves:

 Preparation of the environment.
 Observing the children.
 Giving lessons.
 Primary goal of the teacher.

PREPARATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT:

Montessori teachers would prepare the environment for the children which means
to facilitate the children’s independence and ability to select the material of their
own choice and they will select the activities that will appeal their interests and
keeping the environment in perfect condition.

OBSERVING THE CHILDREN:

Montessori teachers are carefully observes the children’s progress, needs and their
sensitive periods. They don’t just keep the track of all these developments but act
as a dynamic link between children and prepared environment. They are constantly
experimenting, modifying the environment to meet their perceptions of each
child’s needs and interests and then noting the results.

GIVING LESSONS:
Montessori teachers keep their lessons as brief as possible. Their goal is to bring
the children in a state of mind, so they will come back on their own for further
work with the materials. These are some points which are necessary for the
teachers:
Observing the child while he is exploring the materials on low shelves.
Going to the child and taking consent to work with that material.
Taking the material to the workplace with the help of a child, and specifying
its place.
Telling ground rules for use.
Giving the live demonstration of what can be done with it.
Leaving the child to work himself with concentration and without
obstruction.

PRIMARY GOAL OF THE TEACHER:

Montessori teachers are taught to nurture and inspire the human potential, leading
children to ask questions, think for themselves, explore, investigate, and discover.
Help them to learn how to learn independently, retaining the curiosity,
creativity and intelligence with which they were born.
Montessori teachers do not simply present lessons; they are facilitators,
mentors, coaches, and guides.

ROLE OF A TEACHER:
Anne Burke Neubert, in a Way of Learning (1973), listed the following elements in
the special role of the Montessori teacher:
Montessori teachers are the dynamic link between children and the Prepared
Environment.

They systematically observe their students and interpret their needs.

They are constantly experimenting, modifying the environment to meet their

perceptions of each child’s needs and interests, and objectively noting the
results.

They prepared an independent environment in which the children will able

to freely select their work of their choice.

They carefully evaluate the effectiveness of their work and the design of the
environment everyday.

They observe and evaluate each child’s individual progress.

They respect and protect their students independence. They must know when
to step in and set the limits or lend a helping hand, and when it is in a child’s
best interests for them to step back and not interfere.

They are supportive, offering warmth, security, stability, and non-

judgmental acceptance to each child.

They facilitate communication among the children and help the children to
learn how to communicate their thoughts to adults.
They interpret the children’s progress and their work in the classroom to
parents, the school staff, and the community.

They present clear, interesting and relevant lessons to the children. They
attempt to engage the child’s interest and focus on the lessons and activities
in the environment.

They model desirable behavior for the children, following the ground- rules,
of the class, exhibiting the sense of calm, consistency, grace and courtesy,
and demonstrating respect for every child.

They are peace educators, consistently working to teach courteous behaviors

and conflicts.

They are diagnosticians who can interpret patterns of growth, development,

and behavior in order to better understand the children and make necessary
referrals and suggestions to parents.