7 Vital Ways Montessori is Different than Traditional Education

Montessori education is a complex, interconnected system of hands-on materials, scientific theories on child development, and a spiritual philosophy rooted in the limitless potential of children. It is hard for even veteran Montessorians to perfect the fifteen-minute elevator pitch to answer the question “What is Montessori education?” to those who are unfamiliar. In this article, I will lay out the 7 most vital ways Montessori is different than traditional methods of education.

1. Multisensory Learning.

Many educational systems have recognized the importance of hands-on materials to help students grasp new concepts. From Orton-Gillingham for reading to Cuisenaire rods for math, plenty of systems have been developed to take advantage of multi-sensory learning to help children gain skills. However, long before these systems Dr. Montessori built on the work of Seguin to develop a truly comprehensive multi-sensory curriculum. Not only did she incorporate touch and movement into reading and math but she began much younger, starting with the sensorial materials. Sensorial materials, designed for ages 0-6, refine the senses and get them ready for use as tools for learning, understanding, and categorizing. They isolate one sense to offer concrete experiences in developing skill and sophistication with processing information from the world around us through each sense. For example, the smelling bottles help children isolate the sense of smell to match scents inside identical wooden cylinders. The sound cylinders offer different tones when shaken, for grading or matching. The knobbed cylinders and cylinder boxes introduce spacial concepts by focusing on graduated diameters and depths of cylinders. Once children have refined and strengthened their senses, they use them to process academic lessons as well. This includes, for example, the sandpaper letters and sand trays that offer movement and textural elements to learning letter sounds.

2. Freedom of Movement.

In a Montessori classroom, children are not required to sit in rows and give their attention to an adult all day. Because the materials themselves offer teaching, the teacher is a facilitator and guide that moves around the room observing, giving lessons, and offering support. Children are free to move throughout the classroom. However, this can also be misinterpreted by those new to Montessori as children “being able to run wild and do whatever they want”. This is not the case. Purposeful movement is welcome. This includes movement to move from one activity to the next, gather materials, meet physical needs, and engage in social learning (see number 4). The key is to clearly define with children their goals for the work period, and help them to reflect on whether their movement is helping them achieve their goals (redirecting when necessary).

3. Holisitc Learner Outcomes.

Montessori began her work with children with disabilities and those from extreme poverty. The trauma these children faced was an inhibitor to their learning, and she recognized that they needed more than just the 3 R’s when they came to school. To develop whole, happy, healthy citizens she knew her curriculum needed to address the whole human being. Her practical life curriculum evolved to help children feel fed, safe, clean, and loved which also helped them to learn. Today, the American Montessori Society lists Montessori learner outcomes as:

4. Social Learning Environments.

Montessori education happens in multi-age classrooms with three-year age groupings (0-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12, 12-15, and 15-18). Social environments have measurable positive impact because they require extra skills involved with collaborating on cognitive tasks. Skills involved in social learning include:

• Incorporation -imitation of others‘ behaviors and thought processes
• Distributed Cognition-social distribution of cognition in collaborative tasks
• Active Learning-distributed cognition results in needing to use transactive language, which results in more active learning because concepts must be understood well enough to articulate them to others effectively
• Motivation-importance of social life leads to higher satisfaction with projects involving social collaboration

5. Freedom Within Limits.

This may be the hardest area for new Montessori teachers to master because it is so “grey”. Freedom within limits is the concept that children thrive and are able to meet their potential when given as much freedom as possible to take risks, think creatively, and learn from doing (and from mistakes). One myth about Montessori education is that this means that we have no rules. On the contrary, the key to successfully guiding a classroom that has “freedom within limits” is that children understand the tenants of being together in a community and understand that they have freedom only as long as they are meeting those tenants. This helps them perceive a sense of control over their privileges and restrictions and leads to a sense of autonomy, ownership, and accountability for their behaviors.

6. Individualized Curriculum.

Montessori does not teach by calendar (meaning teaching all third graders multiplication with a two-digit divisor in February, for example). Instead, concepts are taught based on readiness. The lessons are designed to move quickly, with leaps in concepts for children who are ready, or more slowly in gradual progressions for those who need more repetition. Additionally, follow-up work after lessons is more open-ended. Students are allowed to explore, integrate curriculum, and design how they will demonstrate their learning in large projects sometimes referred to as “passion projects” or “big work”. In Montessori classrooms, careful observation allows teachers to harness a child’s Zone of Proximal Development for optimal learning, finding a child’s “just right” level of challenge. Lastly, interests are harnessed to take advantage of spontaneous learning opportunities.

7. Child-centered Classroom Communities.

Just like the teacher is not standing in the front of the room to lecture while everyone looks at him from desks, the teacher strives to remove himself from being center of attention in other ways as well. The goal is to help children find intrinsic motivation to independently succeed in the classroom. Maria Montessori was known to say, “The greatest sign of success for a teacher…is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.'” The Montessori teacher works to build skills of autonomy with children, so that they do not need a teacher to tell them what they should be doing next or to give them ideas on what their work should look like; instead, the teacher helps to build a classroom culture that includes high expectations for learning and gives the children ownership and accountability for their work within the classroom. Children rise to the expectations we give them. They know that believing in them and expecting more from them is the highest form of respect and compliment, and they want to meet that challenge each day. An example of this might be the “classroom agreements”, which are generated and enforced as a class and set the expectations for classroom behavior. This is instead of “rules” that traditionally are dictated and listed by the teacher. Students do what they know is right because everyone expects this from each other, not just the teacher.

If you have not yet had the opportunity to spend much time observing a Montessori classroom, I encourage you to do so. All of the descriptions in the world cannot match the wonder of seeing children joyfully follow classroom expectations and stretch themselves, without any need to be dominated by an adult. While there are other smaller differences between Montessori and traditional environments, these seven cornerstones of Montessori are what make a Montessori classroom look, sound, and feel different as soon as you walk in the door.