The Montessori approach, much like any science, has its own set of vocabulary and terminology. Montessorians share a very specific set of brief references that evoke the world of the child as described by Maria Montessori. The Glossary of Montessori Terms relates to the theory and practice for the Primary (3-6) level. It was prepared by the late Annette Haines (Montessori Training Centre of St. Louis) at the request of Molly O'Shaughnessy (Montessori Centre of Minnesota) to accompany her lecture at the Joint Annual Refresher Course, held in Tampa, Florida in February 2001.
Absorbent Mind
A mind able to absorb knowledge quickly and effortlessly. Montessori
said the child from birth to six years has an absorbent mind.
Adaptation
Related to the idea of an absorbent mind (Haines, 1993) is a special
power of the young child that can be called the power of adaptation.
This power is a process whereby the young child uses the environment to
develop and, in so doing, becomes a part of that environment. The young
child absorbs the culture of her time and place, taking in all the
spirit, the customs, the ambitions/aspirations and attitudes of a
society simply by living in that society.
Analysis of Movement
A technique used by Montessori teachers. The adult, when showing a
complex action to a child, breaks it down into its parts and shows one
step at a time, executing each movement slowly and exactly. The action
thus becomes a sequence of simple movements and the child has a greater
chance of success when 'given the liberty to make use of them.'
(Montessori, 1966, p. 108)
Children's House
The English name for Montessori's Casa dei Bambini (Italian). A place
for children from 3-6 years to live and grow. Everything necessary for
optimal human development is included in a safe and secure environment.
Classification
Sorting. Allocating or distributing according to common characteristics.
The young child engages in classification activities because the
process is essential for the construction of the intellect. The
Montessori classroom offers many opportunities for classification.
Concentration
Recognising that 'the longer one does attend to a topic the more mastery
of it one has,' the great American psychologist William James remarked,
'An education which should improve this faculty would be the education
par excellence.' (1892/1985, p. 95) Montessori, who knew of James, set
out to do just that. She believed that if environments could be prepared
with 'objects which correspond to...formative tendencies' (1949/1967,
p. 169) the child's energy and interest would become focused on that
aspect of the environment which corresponded to the developmental need.
Concrete to Abstract
A progression both logical and developmentally appropriate. The child is
introduced first to a concrete material that embodies an abstract idea
such as size or colour. Given hands-on experience, the child's mind
grasps the idea inherent in the material and forms an abstraction. Only
as the child develops, is she gradually able to comprehend the same idea
in symbolic form.
Control of Error
A way of providing instant feedback. Every Montessori activity provides
the child with some way of assessing his own progress. This puts the
control in the hands of the learner and protects the young child's
self-esteem and self-motivation. Control of error is an essential aspect
of auto-education.
Coordination of Movement
One of the major accomplishments of early childhood. Through the child's
own effort, she wills herself to refine her muscular coordination and
consequently acquires increasingly higher levels of independent
functioning. Because of this developmental need, children are drawn to
activities that involve movement and especially to those which demand a
certain level of exactitude and precision.
Creativity/Imagination
Imagination involves the forming of a mental concept of what is not
actually present to the senses. Creativity is a product of the
imagination and results from the mental recombining of imagined ideas in
new and inventive ways. Both are dependent on mental imagery formed
through sensorial experience.
Cycle of Activity
Little children, when engaged in an activity which interests them, will
repeat it many times and for no apparent reason, stopping suddenly only
when the inner need which compelled the child to activity has been
satisfied. To allow for the possibility of long and concentrated work
cycles, Montessori advocates a three-hour uninterrupted work period.
Development of the Will
The ability to will, or choose to do something with conscious intent,
develops gradually during the first phase of life and is strengthened
through practice. The Montessori environment offers many opportunities
for the child to choose. Willpower, or self-control, results from the
many little choices of daily life in a Montessori school.
Deviations
Behaviour commonly seen in children that is the result of some obstacle
to normal development. Such behaviour may be commonly understood as
negative (a timid child, a destructive child, etc.) or positive (a
passive, quiet child). Both positive and negative deviations disappear
once the child begins to concentrate on a piece of work freely chosen.
Discipline from Within
Self-discipline. The discipline in a well-run Montessori classroom is
not a result of the teacher's control or of rewards or punishments. Its
source comes from within each individual child, who can control his or
her own actions and make positive choices regarding personal behaviour.
Self-discipline is directly related to development of the will.
Exercises of Practical Life
One of the four areas of activities of the Montessori prepared
environment. The exercises of Practical Life resemble the simple work of
life in the home: sweeping, dusting, washing dishes, etc. These
purposeful activities help the child adapt to his new community, learn
self-control and begin to see himself as a contributing party of the
social unit. His intellect grows as he works with his hands; his
personality becomes integrated as body and mind function as a unit.
False Fatigue
A phenomenon observed in Children's Houses around the world-often at
approximately 10 a.m. The children seem to lose interest in work, their
behaviour becomes disorderly and the noise level rises. It may appear as
if the children are tired. However, if the directress understands this
is simply false fatigue, they will return to work on their own and their
work will be at an even higher level than before.
Grace and Courtesy
An aspect of Practical Life. Little lessons which demonstrate positive
social behaviour help the young child adapt to life in a group and arm
her with knowledge of socially acceptable behaviour: practical
information, useful both in and out of school.
Help from Periphery
The periphery is that part of the child that comes into contact with
external reality. The child takes in impressions through the senses and
through movement. Help from the periphery means presenting objects and
activities in such a way so as to evoke purposeful movement on the part
of the child. 'We never give to the eye more than we give to the hand.'
(Standing, 1957, p. 237)
Human Tendencies
A central tenet of Montessori philosophy is that human beings exhibit
certain predispositions that are universal, spanning age, cultural and
racial barriers; they have existed since the dawn of the species and are
probably evolutionary in origin. 'Montessori stresses the need to serve
those special traits that have proved to be tendencies of Man
throughout his history.' (Mario Montessori, 1966, p. 21)
Independence
Not depending on another‚ with various shades of meaning.' (OED, p. 836)
Normal developmental milestones such as weaning, walking, talking, etc.
can be seen as a series of events which enable the child to achieve
increased individuation, autonomy and self-regulation. Throughout the
four planes of development, the child and young adult continuously seek
to become more independent. It is as if the child says, Help me to help
myself.
Indirect Preparation
The way nature has of preparing the intelligence. In every action, there
is a conscious interest. Through this interest, the mind is being
prepared for something in the future. For example, a young child will
enjoy the putting together of various triangular shapes, totally unaware
that because of this work his mind will later be more accepting of
geometry. Also called remote preparation. the deeper educational purpose
of many Montessori activities is remote in time.
Indirect Presentation
Because of the absorbent nature of the young child's mind, every action
or event can be seen as a lesson. It is understood that children learn
by watching other children work or by overseeing a lesson given to
another. In the same way, they quickly absorb the behaviour patterns and
the language used by the family, the neighborhood children and even TV.
Isolation of a Difficulty
Before giving a presentation, the Montessori teacher analyses the
activity she wants to show to the child. Procedures or movements that
might prove troublesome are isolated and taught to the child separately.
For example, holding and snipping with scissors, a simple movement, is
shown before cutting curved or zigzag lines; folding cloths is shown
before table washing, an activity requiring folding. A task should
neither be so hard that it is overwhelming, nor so easy that it is
boring.
Language Appreciation
From the very first days in the Montessori classroom, children are given
the opportunity to listen to true stories about known subjects, told
with great expression. Songs, poems and rhymes are a part of the daily
life of the class. The teacher models the art of conversation and
respectfully listens to her young students. Looking at beautiful books
with lovely, realistic pictures is also a part of language appreciation.
Learning Explosions
Human development is often not slow and steady; acquisitions seem to
arrive suddenly, almost overnight, and with explosive impact. Such
learning explosions are the sudden outward manifestation of a long
process of internal growth. For example, the explosion of spoken
language around two years of age is the result of many months of inner
preparation and mental development.
Mathematical Mind
All babies are born with mathematical minds, that is, they have a
propensity to learn things which enhance their ability to be exact and
orderly, to observe, compare, and classify. Humans naturally tend to
calculate, measure, reason, abstract, imagine and create. But this vital
part of intelligence must be given help and direction for it to develop
and function. If mathematics is not part of the young child's
experience, his subconscious mind will not be accepting of it at a later
date.
Maximum Effort
Children seem to enjoy difficult work, work which tests their abilities
and provides a sense of their growing power. They exult in giving their
maximum effort. For example, a tiny child will struggle to carry a tray
with juice glasses or push a heavy wheelbarrow whereas school-age
children, if allowed to make up their own problems will prefer to sink
their teeth into a challenging equation (I + 2 + 3 + 4... + 10)2 rather
than drill on 3 + 5 = ... and 6 + 2 = ... .
Mixed Ages
One of the hallmarks of the Montessori method is that children of mixed
ages work together in the same class. Age groupings are based on
developmental planes. Children from 3-6 years of age are together in the
Children's House; 6-9 year olds share the lower elementary and the
upper elementary is made up of 9-12 year olds. Because the work is
individual, children progress at their own pace; there is cooperation
rather than competition between the ages.
Normalisation
If young children are repeatedly able to experience periods of
spontaneous concentration on a piece of work freely chosen, they will
begin to display the characteristics of normal development: a love of
work, an attachment to reality, and a love of silence and working alone.
Normalised children are happier children: enthusiastic, generous, and
helpful to others. They make constructive work choices and their work
reflects their level of development.
Obedience
Obedience is an act of will and develops gradually, showing itself
'unexpectedly at the end of a long process of maturation.' (Montessori,
1967, p. 257) While this inner development is going on, little children
may obey occasionally, but be completely unable to obey consistently. As
their will develops through the exercise of free choice, children begin
to have the self-discipline or self-control necessary for obedience.
Points of Interest
Montessori realised that if children spent too long a time on a complex
task or failed to master the necessary details, the exercise would cease
to interest them. Therefore she suggested that points of interest be
interspersed throughout each activity. These points guide the child
toward his or her goal and stimulate repetition and interest by offering
immediate feedback, or what Montessori called control of error. The
child's performance becomes refined through trial and error, the points
of interest acting as signposts along the path to success.
Prepared Environment
The Montessori classroom is an environment prepared by the adult for
children. It contains all the essentials for optimal development but
nothing superfluous. Attributes of a prepared environment include order
and reality, beauty and simplicity. Everything is child-sized to enhance
the children's independent functioning. A trained adult and a large
enough group of children of mixed ages make up a vital part of the
prepared environment.
Presentation
The adult in a Montessori environment does not teach in the traditional
sense. Rather she shows the child how to use the various objects and
then leaves her free to explore and experiment. This act of showing is
called a presentation. To be effective, it must be done slowly and
exactly, step by step, and with a minimum of words.
Psychic Embryo
The first three years of life is a period of mental creation, just as
the 9 months in utero is a period of physical creation. The brain awaits
experience in the environment to flesh out the genetic blueprint. Since
so much mental development occurs after birth, Montessori called the
human infant a psychic embryo.
Repetition
The young child's work is very different from the adult's. When an adult
works, he sets out to accomplish some goal and stops working when the
object has been achieved. A child, however, does not work to accomplish
an external goal but rather an internal one. Consequently, she will
repeat an activity until the inner goal is accomplished. The unconscious
urge to repeat helps the child to coordinate a movement or acquire some
ability.
Sensitive Periods
Young children experience transient periods of sensibility, and are
intrinsically motivated or urged to activity by specific sensitivities. A
child in a sensitive period is believed to exhibit spontaneous
concentration when engaged in an activity that matches a particular
sensitivity. For example, children in a sensitive period for order will
be drawn to activities that involve ordering. They will be observed
choosing such activities and becoming deeply concentrated, sometimes
repeating the activity over and over, without external reward or
encouragement. Young children are naturally drawn towards those specific
aspects of the environment which meet their developmental needs.
Sensorial Materials
The sensorial materials were created to help young children in the
process of creating and organising their intelligence. Each
scientifically designed material isolates a quality found in the world
such as colour, size, shape, etc. and this isolation focuses the
attention on this one aspect. The child, through repeated manipulation
of these objects, comes to form clear ideas or abstractions. What could
not be explained by words, the child learns by experience working with
the sensorial materials.
Simple to Complex
A principle used in the sequence of presentations in a Montessori
classroom. Children are first introduced to a concept or idea in its
simplest form. As they progress and become capable of making more
complex connections, they are eventually able to handle information that
is less isolated.
Socialisation
'The process by which the individual acquires the knowledge and
dispositions that enable him to participate as an effective member of a
social group and a given social order.' (Osterkorn, 1980, p. 12)
'Optimal social learning takes place when the children are at different
ages.' (Hellbr_gge, 1979, p. 14)
Sound Games
Many children know the alphabet but have not analysed the sounds in
words nor are they aware that words are made up of separate sounds
(phonemic awareness). From the age of two (or as soon as the child is
speaking fluently), sound games can make them aware of the sounds in
words. In England, they use the nursery game "I Spy." The sound of the
letter and not the letter name is pronounced.
Three-Hour Work Cycle
Through years of observation around the world, Montessori came to
understand that children, when left in freedom, displayed a distinct
work cycle which was so predictable it could even be graphed. This
cycle, with two peaks and one valley, lasted approximately three hours.
In Montessori schools children have three hours of open, uninterrupted
time to choose independent work, become deeply engaged, and repeat to
their own satisfaction.
Vocabulary Enrichment
The young child's vocabulary increases exponentially in the years from
3-6. To feed this natural hunger for words, vocabulary is given: the
names of biology, geometry, geography, and so forth, can be learned as
well as the names of qualities found in the Sensorial Material. The
child's absorbent mind takes in all these new words 'rapidly and
brilliantly.' (Montessori, 1946, p. 10)
Work
From an evolutionary perspective, the long period of childhood exists so
children can learn and experiment in a relatively pressure-free
environment. Most social scientists refer to this pressure-free
experimentation as play (e.g., see Groos, 1901), although Montessori
preferred to call this activity the work of childhood. Children
certainly are serious when engaged in the kind of play that meets
developmental needs and, given freedom and time, will choose purposeful
activities over frivolous make-believe ones.