The Approaches to Learning and Teaching in Early Years Utilised by Montessori and EYFS - Essay Example

Compare and contrast the approaches to learning and teaching in early years utilised by Montessori and EYFS. Introduction: No one can question Madame Montessori’s eminence in the field of pre-school education. She was a great pioneer in the filed. She was inherently a scientist, interested in maths, biology and medicine and was a brilliant and determined personality with an independent mind, original ideas and unique courage to plead for the cause she believed in. As a doctor, she had to visit asylums and thus came in contact with retarded children. She was touched by their piteous condition and longed to help them. As she observed them, it became increasingly apparent to her that mental deficiency is a pedagogical problem rather than a medical one. She came to believe that with special educational treatment, their condition could be improved. Inspired by this new idea of pedagogy, she devoted herself to the teaching of defective children. Gradually, she began to realise that the methods she was using had nothing in them peculiarly limited to the instruction of the retarded. On the contrary, they contained educational principles more rational than those generally in use. She says, “This feeling, so deep as to be of the nature of an intuition, became my controlling idea. I became convinced that similar methods applied to normal children would develop and set free their personality in a marvellous and superior way.” Thus developed the Montessori Method, the educational system devised by Madame Montessori and which has undergone a process of birth, death and re-birth. In the last few years, innumerable books, magazines and newspaper articles have appeared in many parts of the world, singing the praises of Madame Montessori. As a matter of fsct, a whole ‘Montessori Mystique’ has come into being. New theories have developed leading to new methods for pre-school education in different parts of the world. However, they are either adaptations of the Montessori Method, or deviations in some respect, yet, rooted somewhere in the Montessori Method. One such scheme operating in U.K. is the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). We shall compare and contrast the Montessori Method with the EYFS with respect to the following factors: Theory and principles Aims and objectives View of the child How children learn Curriculum Classroom environment Learning materials Role of the teacher Theory and principles: Montessori was not a theoretician in the true sense. Montessori education is based on an empirical experiment with children in concrete life situations. Madame Montessori was so struck by what she observed that she never felt the need to build up an abstract theoretical system. More important to her were not the theories but the child itself and the revelations of its spontaneous behaviour which touched her so profoundly that she devoted the rest of her life to provide him such conditions which would help him achieve optimal development. The EYFS on the other hand, is based on the principles, pedagogy and approach of the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage, the Birth to Three Framework and the National Standards for Under 8s Day Care and Child Minding. EYFS is a principled approach and its principles are “grouped into four distinct but complementary themes.” They are: 1. A Unique child 2. Positive Relationships 3. Enabling Environments 4. Learning and Development Madame Montessori believed in self-paced teaching- learning and proceeding systematically from simple to complex. She valued order in the environment which should be conducive to learning. As a physician, she emphasized movement. She allowed for a great deal of repetition. Materials were carefully selected and children were allowed to handle them freely. Madame Montessori opined that learning first takes place through senses – the intellect develops later. Each sense is exercised separately through perception of identities, contrasts and gradations. We can observe that both Montessori Method and EYFS are based on certain educational and psychological principles. The modern psychologist Jean Piaget and Madame Montessori both insist on learning through experience. Both methods recognise the crucial significance of early childhood for the later development of the child, particularly the cognitive development. However, the Montessori Method lacked the legal force of the EYFS. The latter covers two periods in childhood – birth to three years and 3 to 8 years. The Montessori Method concentrates on the initial 6 years of the life of the child. Aims and Objectives: Montessori was concerned about what she called ‘direct preparation for academic learning’. The aim was to provide a suitable environment and learning materials, to promote social development through interaction with peers in the school, to give independence and avoid interference and to give opportunity for self correction. The aim of EYFS is to help young children to achieve the five outcomes of Every Child matters, which are as follows- 1. Staying safe 2. Being healthy 3. Enjoying and achieving 4. Making a positive contribution 5. Achieving economical well-being. A feeling of safety and security on the part of the child is a basic condition for further development, as mentioned by Madame Montessori as well. So is good health. The striking similarity is regarding enjoyment. This is exactly what the Montessori Method emphasizes. Work’ and ‘play’ are equated because the child enjoys whatever he does and it is ‘play’ for him. Both methods believe in learning through joy and play, and both insist on providing toys, materials and environment accordingly. Achieving economical well-being has become an important aim of education in modern times, on account of growing competition. Madame Montessori did not take it into consideration because conditions were different in those times. While ‘Every Child Matters’ includes making a positive contribution as one of its aims, the Montessori Method is more concerned about academic development. How did Madame Montessori put her principles into practice? Her book, ‘The Montessori method’, gives explicit guidelines of how settings should be run, including what the children should eat, wear, how the school should be designed, what activities should be conducted etc. We shall discuss the important aspects in the subsequent sections of this essay. The EYFS settings ensure transition, continuity and coherence in implementing the programme across the nation. For this purpose schools also provide guidance for time between end of EYFS and the years 6 to 7. View of the Child: Montessori sensed the unique nature of early intelligence, employed it in her method and understood that by only using methods appropriate to the age level, maximum acceleration of cognitive development can be achieved. She talked about ‘sensitive periods’. Children between 3 to 6 years are sensitive to sensory motor activities and this period is the foundation for all following intellectual development. Within each child lies a hidden potential. For this potential to be unlocked, we need to give children the opportunities to develop trust and autonomy, which will nurture confidence, self-esteem and courage. The ability to embrace new challenges, take risks and act with initiative is a natural outcome of these conditions and underpins the principle of the ‘unique child’. Montessori saw freedom as the single most important factor in allowing children to develop as spontaneous, creative individuals. EYFS believes in ‘unique child’ principle. Every child is a competent learner from birth who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured. The four commitments are: 1. Child development – A child should be trained in good communication skills and should be taught the skills of learning so that he becomes a competent learner. 2. Inclusive practise – It caters to education of all, including the handicapped and disadvantaged children. All children are entitled to elementary education and all kinds of support is provided to them. 3. Keeping safe – safety and security are pre-conditions to learning. EYFS provides freedom to children to make their own choices. 4. Health and well-being – A healthy mind resides in a healthy body. The scheme monitors the health and well-being of each child. Emotional wee=being is equally important. Both Montessori Method and EYFS are child-centred programmes. Both highlight the need for safety and security of the child, physical and emotional well-being and necessary support for the children. Montessori Method did consider the special need of each child but EYFS pointedly consider each child as a unique child. How children learn: As an expert physician, Dr. Montessori knew that young children learn through movement. She believed that all learning was cumulative and the beginnings of reading and writing were clearly to be found in a child’s first years. She was of the opinion that learning begins at birth. Through appropriate learning materials, children master complex skills. “Never let a child risk failure until he has a reasonable chance of success.” The EYFS places more emphasis on learning through concrete experience and working in small groups. A child seeks answers through experimenting, trial and error, using all his senses. EYFS acknowledges that children have different ways of learning. They learn by themselves, learn from each other and learn from the teacher. One of the principles of EYFS is positive relationships. The four commitments of this principle are: 1. Respecting each other – Children should be given an opportunity to work in small groups so that they learn to respect each other’s feelings, understand each other, and develop friendship and professional relationships. 2. Parents as partners – Parents should actively involve themselves in the education of their child and co-operate with teachers. Parents and teachers should work in partnership. 3. Supporting learning – Learning can be supported by encouraging positive interaction among children, by listening to them patiently and valuing or appreciating their opinions and by making teaching effective by using interesting methods and techniques. 4. Key person – The care-taker, teacher or parent should be attached to the child, should be loving and caring and should establish a good rapport and understanding with the children. The Role of the Teacher – The teacher in the Montessori Method had a specific role. Montessori believed that children learn first by seeing the teacher demonstrating, second, the child imitating the demonstration and third, the child repeating the imitation. The teacher’s chief concern was providing suitable materials, creating a proper environment and providing opportunity to the child to learn, with as little interference as possible. Since she believed that giving independence to the child to do what he liked was of prime importance, the teacher receded into the background to a great extent. Montessori Method had at its base liberty of the child and liberty of activity. There is order and control but it comes through organization of the environment rather than direct control of the child’s behaviour by the teacher. This provides valuable autonomy to each child. Developing positive relationships is important in EYFS. Children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with a key-worker, parent or carer. In EYFS, the teacher is expected to observe the progress of the child continuously as a part of formative assessment. Curriculum: Montessori Method can be divided into four sections- 1. Exercises of practical life – They include daily living skills like care for the environment, care for oneself as an individual and care for others in the community. 2. The sensory exercises – They are concerned with observing, understanding and explaining the world through senses. 3. Mathematics – In mathematics, understanding of numbers comes first, followed by a structured decimal system. Science covers exploration of the wider world, the natural world. 4. Language development – In Montessori Method, self expression and communication are of primary importance. It emphasises use of the phonetic system and word building for early literacy. The content is graded from easy to difficult, simple to complex and concrete to abstract. The Child care act 2006 provides the EYFS Learning and Development requirements to comprise of three elements. The first of them is ‘Early Learning Goals’ (ELG). There are 6 areas covered by the ELG and educational programmes. They are as follows – 1. Personal, emotional and social development 2. Communication, language and literacy 3. Problem-solving, reasoning and numeric 4. Knowledge and understanding of the world 5. Creative development 6. Physical development We find a great deal of overlapping in the curricula of Montessori Method and EYFS. Both include basic communication skills, study of language and numeric and knowledge of the natural world. Montessori Method is confined to personal and social development whereas EYFS adds the aspect of emotional development and creative development. We cannot expect Montessori Method to include tasks like problem solving and reasoning because they are the result of later research in Developmental psychology by psychologists like Piaget. Environment – The factor of environment is considered to be a vital element in pre-school education. Madame Montessori was the first one to understand the role of environment in shaping and moulding a child. Later adaptations of the Montessori Method as well as modern methods of pre-schooling have not ignored the factor of environment. Dr. Montessori worked out with patience, perseverance and exactitude, the preparation of an environment in all its details and the part played by the adult in charge of it. The environment should be like a home and not a formal place. Hence, Montessori institutions for children are called ‘Houses of Children’. Instruction and concentration spring from a measured and orderly environment. The adult in charge of the environment is also a part of it. A favourable environment, which supports the child’s self-construction, is carefully prepared by knowledgeable practitioners, ensuring that children’s developmental needs are met. Montessori’s notion of the environment, not as a classroom, but as a room to learn, is significant. According to her, environment is an excellent ally in helping children to internalise certain behaviour limits. An important principle in EYFS is providing an ‘enabling environment’. Its four commitments are- 1. Observation, assessment and planning – The child’s activities should be observed and his performance should be assessed continuously in the environment. 2. Environment should support the learning of every child, care to his needs and promote co-operation. 3. The learning environment should provide emotional stability and security which is important in helping the child to adjust with elements in the society. Environment includes indoor and outdoor learning centres. 4. Environment in EYFS is extended further to include a wider context. What the child learns in school environment helps him to make a transition into he outer world and ensures continuity in learning on a wider scale through multi-agencies working together in he community. Both methods give due importance to planning an enabling and conducive environment for pre-school stage. Both methods acknowledge the support necessary from the environment. Comparatively, Madame Montessori’s view of the environment is rather narrow and confined more or less to the classroom. The EYFS sees the environment as a preparing ground for entry into the wider world, so as to make the process of transition smooth and easy for the child. It also takes into account the various agencies in the environment that influence the child simultaneously, and the role of the community as a whole. Materials – Learning materials are important at every stage of learning but they are of crucial importance at the pre-school stage. The play material that Dr. Montessori designed for her school children is another great contribution to child education. She tried to follow the principle of ‘isolation of sense’ by reducing as far as possible the impact of the play material on senses other than the particular one for which it is meant. The other important principle she used in preparing the play material is ‘pairing and arranging in gradation’. While pairing, the child notices similarity and dissimilarity. While grading, he again has to compare the items. She took care that the play material was sufficiently light to handle and carry from one place to another. The materials provided are developmental aids. They should have scope for purposeful activity and repetition by the child. The children should be able to do something constructive with them. The materials should be self corrective so that child discovers the mistakes by himself and adult interference can be avoided. They should be kept within easy reach of the child. Each piece must be complete and attractive. The environment must not be over stuffed with objects. The EYFS, in its attempt to provide an enabling environment, mentions toys, games, musical instruments and drawing and colouring materials which assist children in their creative endeavours, particularly toys and games which engage the child in reasoning and problem solving. While both methods agree that suitable materials should be provided, Montessori Method has given much more importance to materials and points out details about their purpose, placement, arrangement etc. In addition to the above factors EYFS includes a complete programme for formative and summative assessment. Formative assessment is continuous in nature and keeps track of development of a child through observation, video clips and photographs taken periodically. Summative assessment id usually conducted at the end of a teaching programme to test whether its objectives have been fulfilled. EYFS is a compulsory programme with legal bindings upon each school that provides pre-school education. EYFS also aims at constant quality improvement. Limitations: Montessori Method seems to minimize the whole field of children’s literature, field trips, excursions and outdoor activities and significance of dramatic play. It tends to emphasize work experience but these define specific tasks. It relies heavily on Montessori materials. Montessori schools are quieter with children working more as individuals. The teachers seem to be trained as technicians in the use of Montessori materials and tend to be more controlling. Her system does not provide much scope for the social and aesthetic development of the child. It is more a cognitive development oriented approach, perhaps because it was devised for the under privileged children who start life with a deficit. Some of Montessori’s statements, particularly on the subject of play, imagination etc are certainly not in line with recent trends in child psychology and child education. About the EYFS, it can be said that the entire programme appears to be rigid and overly prescriptive in nature. Parents cannot exercise their human right to have their children educated in accordance with their own philosophies. Conclusion – A careful observation of the two programmes shows that although the EYFS is specially designed according to modern practices, it has its roots in the Montessori Method. Every system has its merits and demerits. The success or otherwise of a system depends upon its ability to fulfil the needs of the individual child, at the same time making worthy contribution to the development of the nation. REFERENCES 1. Pitcher, Evelyn. An Evaluation of the Montessori Method in Schools for Young Children. Early Childhood Education Rediscovered, edited by J.E.L. Frost, Holt, Rine Hart and Winston, USA, 1968. 2. Piaget, J., The Origins of Intelligence in Children, New York, Orton, 1952. 3. Strong Foundations, Early Childhood Care and Education, EFA Global Monitoring Report, UNESCO, 2007. Read More