|
|
 The "Prepared Environment"
The "prepared environment" is Maria Montessori's concept that the environment
can be designed to facilitate maximum independent learning and exploration by the child.
In the prepared environment, there is a variety of activity as well as a great deal of
movement. In a preschool classroom, for example, a
three-year-old may be washing clothes by hand while a four-year-old nearby is composing
words and phrases with letters known as the movable alphabet, and a five-year-old is
performing multiplication using a specially designed set of beads. In an elementary
classroom, a small group of six- to nine-year-old
children may be using a timeline to learn about extinct animals while another child
chooses to work alone, analyzing a poem using special grammar symbols. Sometimes an entire
class may be involved in a group activity, such as storytelling, singing, or movement.
In the calm, ordered space of the Montessori prepared environment, children work on
activities of their own choice at their own pace. They experience a blend of freedom and
self-discipline in a place especially designed to meet their developmental
needs.
Montessori
"Materials"
In the Montessori classroom, learning materials are arranged
invitingly on low, open shelves. Children may choose whatever materials they would like to
use and may work for as long as the material holds their interest. When they are finished
with each material, they return it to the shelf from which it came.
The materials themselves invite activity. There are bright arrays of solid geometric
forms, knobbed puzzle maps, colored beads, and various specialized rods and blocks.
Each material in a Montessori classroom isolates one quality. In this way, the concept
that the child is to discover is isolated. For example, the material known as the pink
tower is made up of ten pink cubes of varying sizes. The preschool-aged child constructs a
tower with the largest cube on the bottom and the smallest on top. This material isolates
the concept of size. The cubes are all the same color and texture; the only difference is
their size. Other materials isolate different concepts: color tablets for color, geometry
materials for form, and so on.
Moreover, the materials are self-correcting. When a piece does not fit or is left over,
the child easily perceives the error. There is no need for adult "correction."
The child is able to solve problems independently, building self-confidence, analytical
thinking, and the satisfaction that comes from accomplishment.
As the child's exploration continues, the materials interrelate and build upon each
other. For example, various relationships can be explored between the pink tower and the
broad stair, which are based on matching precise dimensions. Later, in the elementary
years, new aspects of some of the materials unfold. When studying volume, for instance,
the child may return to the pink tower and discover that its cubes progress incrementally
from one cubic centimeter to one cubic decimeter.
The Process of "Normalization"
In Montessori education, the term "normalization" has a specialized meaning.
"Normal" does not refer to what is considered to be "typical" or
"average" or even "usual." "Normalization" does not refer to
a process of being forced to conform. Instead, Maria Montessori used the terms
"normal" and "normalization" to describe a unique process she observed
in child development.
Montessori observed that when children are allowed freedom in an environment suited to
their needs, they blossom. After a period of intense concentration, working with materials
that fully engage their interest, children appear to be refreshed and contented. Through
continued concentrated work of their own choice, children grow in inner discipline and
peace. She called this process "normalization" and cited it as "the most
important single result of our whole work" (The Absorbent Mind, 1949).
She went on to write,
Only "normalised" children, aided by their environment, show in their
subsequent development those wonderful powers that we describe: spontaneous discipline,
continuous and happy work, social sentiments of help and sympathy for others. . . . An
interesting piece of work, freely chosen, which has the virtue of inducing concentration
rather than fatigue, adds to the child's energies and mental capacities, and leads him to
self-mastery. . . . One is tempted to say that the children are performing spiritual
exercises, having found the path of self-perfectionment and of ascent to the inner heights
of the soul. (Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind, 1949)
E.M. Standing (Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work, 1957) lists these as the
characteristics of normalization: love of order, love of work, spontaneous concentration,
attachment to reality, love of silence and of working alone, sublimation of the possessive
instinct, power to act from real choice, obedience, independence and initiative,
spontaneous self-discipline, and joy. Montessori believed that these are the truly
"normal" characteristics of childhood, which emerge when children's
developmental needs are met.
For more information, see Common Misconceptions about Montessori
Education and Montessori: Creating a Paradigm Shift in
Education. |
Content
courtesy of the North
American Montessori Teachers' Association.
© NAMTA. All Rights Reserved |
|
|
