Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori, Italy's first female doctor, developed the Montessori method, which is still actively used in many parts of the world today. Maria, a scientist and educator, made a great impact with the alternative education system she developed. He laid the foundations of the method while working as an administrator at a school in Rome where children with mental retardation were educated. While observing children who were claimed to have mental retardation, he came to the conclusion that their situation was highly educational. In his research on his thought, he came across the works of Sêguin and Itard and improved and developed his project. Montessori began to create her own method. He gave education to a group of children based on his own method. The success of the method became concrete when these children who participated in the proficiency exams organized by the state achieved scores close to the success of children considered normal. Dr. This time, Maria started to think about the failures of children who are considered normal. Following observation and thought processes, the method, which is suitable for all children at a basic level, has been completed. As a result of his observations, he saw that children liked to move more than to sit, and he first added the principle of freedom of action in education to his method. According to him, children should be provided with freedom of action within a designed, limited area. In this way, concrete materials placed in the designed area would be discovered and experienced by children with freedom of movement. These materials allowed the child to learn spontaneously. Children who were allowed to experience the feelings of curiosity, discovery and experimentation would create effective learning with this method.
Principles of Montessori Education
According to Montessori principles, children are divided into age groups, not age. This separation method is based on the sharing efficiency of children of different ages. Within this interaction-oriented principle, groups are determined by taking into account the age range at which children can communicate developmentally. While the younger child learns something from the older child, It increases communication ability. While the older child transfers his knowledge to the younger ones, he reinforces and develops his leadership skills. The most important principle that distinguishes Montessori education from existing education systems is long working hours. In this form of education, there are no short-term lessons and breaks allocated to branches. On the contrary, it involves long hours of work that focuses children's attention on the materials. Dr. In response to Maria's idea of learning through the senses, Montessori schools include materials that encourage sensory learning. In long-term study areas, children sometimes gain new knowledge regarding smell and sometimes hearing. This principle, which has a positive impact on sensory development while ensuring learning, is important. Additionally, the Montessori method, which targets practical life skills, is shaped according to the age range of children. While efforts are made to provide practical life skills to meet physiological and social needs for younger age groups, skills such as production and job design are targeted for older age groups. According to the Montessori method, the teacher who accomplishes all these is not like a teacher but a guide who shows the way of learning and accompanies the journey. The Montessori educator provides instruction by observing children, identifying their needs, and providing them with the right materials as soon as they are open to learning. Dr. This project of Maria differs from traditional methods in terms of its educational field, duration, method and diversity, as well as its understanding of the educator. In this form of education, all principles of which are child-focused, the freedom of the child is drawn with transparent boundaries. It is up to the child, who has to evaluate the material given to study, at his own discretion as to how he will use the material. He can choose the branch he wants to work in and sit at the table or wherever he wants, accompanied by a guided instructor. He can evaluate the material given to him in any way and for as long as he wants, according to his learning ability. Situations such as invading the space of other friends in the work area are not included in the child's freedom. While one child is drawing in the same area, the other can read. While one child practices mindfulness for physical skills, the other meditates for mental relaxation. can. The Montessori method, which brings together all the different activities, accepts all parts of the child as one. According to the principle of integrity, all of them have equal value for the child, who can be evaluated in many aspects such as physical, spiritual, social, mental and emotional. It is within the child's freedom to turn to the part that makes him feel good. One of the most critical points of the method that emphasizes freedom and experience is to accept the child as an individual. Montessori advocates providing individualized education according to the needs and level of the child, who is considered an individual. While children can make free choices within limits, they are responsible for order. When creating the area, children's attention and ability to learn are taken into consideration. It is equipped by considering many details such as color and placement of materials. The existing layout and location of materials are always preserved.
Children Who Believe in Success
Dr. The power that pushes Maria to observe, think, research and create is related to her belief that children can change the future. Dr. believes that children can heal and solve global world problems. Maria reflected her thought in the method she created. The Montessori method, which emphasizes the world and society, provides education with the awareness that educating children peacefully is an investment in the future. All principles of this education method are aimed at the child discovering himself and his environment, learning effectively and becoming a conscious individual.
"Never help a child with a task that he feels he can achieve" says scientist Dr. Maria Montessori literally summarized the method she designed with these words. This method, which is open to trial and error, involves children realizing their own mistakes and making improvements, even after long hours. This effort instills in the child the feeling that he can succeed. To examine the opposite situation, if a child has the capacity to complete a task or job in many aspects such as physical, developmental and sensory, if he is constantly directed by external interventions, after a while the child will have a feeling that he will not be able to achieve it. This feeling creates a domino effect on the child, creating all the tasks he/she needs to complete after that period. It causes him to think that he cannot succeed in his work. When the child completes his development and turns into an adult, external guidance and interventions end, but the person always continues to wait for help. This is primarily a big blow to the person's ability to know himself and then to realize himself. An individual who cannot realize himself has difficulty in taking an active role in society. Small interventions in childhood, even within the scope of innocent emotions, can multiply like an avalanche and shape the child's entire future. It is the worse version of this situation, which does not provide guidance to the child, and is the behavior of ending the task that the child needs to complete by someone else, using phrases such as "he can't do it!", "he can't do it". This can create much more destructive results.
Montessori's Utopia
Maria Montessori's quote about success is in one of her works where we see the child's feeling of success. Our opinion is that we should let him do it alone. Montessori education aims to create this feeling of achievement. Scientist Dr. is aware of how much progress children can bring to the world in the future. Maria still maintains its importance with her words and the education method she created, emphasizing that the only way to achieve this is by gaining the ability to do and be able.
What should be done, as a parent, should be to guide children rather than teaching them in all areas such as home, park, street, etc., apart from educational life. The child should be given freedom of action within the safe area drawn. As a guide, he should just be observed and allowed to form his preferences. It is possible to imagine a completely different world with the belief in success of children raised with this plan that Maria Montessori observed, thought, believed and created. Children are unaware of the diversity of creatures living in the ocean. In order to reveal their depth, diversity and potential, we should not approach them as if we were stepping into a shallow stream.
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