Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori (August 31, 1870 – May 6, 1952) was an Italian educator, scientist, physician, philosopher, feminist, and humanitarian.

Pedagogy

Aside from a new pedagogy, among the premier contributions to educational thought by Montessori are:

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• instruction of children in 3-year age groups, corresponding to sensitive periods of development (example: 3-5, 6-9, and 9-12 year olds with an Erdkinder Program for teens)
• children as competent beings, encouraged to make maximal decisions
• observation of the child in the environment as the basis for ongoing curriculum development (presentation of subsequent exercises for skill development and information accumulation)
• child-sized furniture and creation of a child-sized environment (microcosm) in which each can be competent to produce overall a self-running children's world
• parent participation to include basic and proper attention to health screening and hygiene as a prerequisite to schooling
• delineation of a scale of sensitive periods of development, which provide a focus for class work that is appropriate and uniquely stimulating and motivating to the child (including sensitive periods for language development, sensorial experimentation and refinement, and various levels of social interaction)
• the importance of the "absorbent mind," the limitless motivation of the young child to achieve competence over his or her environment and to perfect his or her skills and understandings as they occur within each sensitive period. The phenomenon is characterized by the young child's capacity for repetition of activities within sensitive period categories (Example: exhaustive babbling as language practice leading to language competence).
• self-correcting "auto-didactic" materials (some based on work of Itard and Seguin)