Montessori & John Dewey

Montessori Method

The base of the Scientific Pedagogy, on Montessori terms, would be a child-centered educational approach based on scientific observations of children. More focusing on the development of the child more so than learning the information. In a traditional Montessori classroom, kids are encouraged to learn on their own, through experience with countless activities to help the young students learn. Take note, I am talking about this in terms of an elementary style classroom. Students should have the freedom to learn through activities chosen by them. Now they are not completely free to do whatever they want, being that they are closely monitored by the current teachers. The teachers aren’t merely teaching the students, but assisting them with teaching themselves, determine when the student is ready to move on to the next level of abstraction. This method also helps in teaching them morals, having them clean up after activities and encouraging cooperation and manners to be employed between the students, which will also help better the environment. In term of their environment, the classroom must be beautiful. Simply, the classroom must appeal to all of the child’s senses, inspiring them to use the resources around them.

 John Dewey

John Dewey was one of America’s greatest philosophers and one of the most well-known thinkers of educational reform in the late 1800s. Dewey mostly studied in how kids can learn material most effectively, which would be determined, by him, that only through hands-on activity do children truly learn and process new information. The best process, for Dewey, would be experiential learning through specific parameters set by the teacher that don’t feel constrictive to the student’s individuality. A student must be able to in their own, because every kid is born different, instead of cramming the same information and hoping they’ll retain and use the information on a later date. “Thinking in education”, on John Dewey’s term, can be defined as “the method of intelligent learning, of learning that employs and rewards mind” (John Dewey). Simply stating that though it would be good for students to memorize and retain information, it would be better for them to think about the information on their own terms and in the vision of the world around. Not only have the information but also being able to relate what they’ve learned to the world they live in would be a better use. One condition that must be available would experience. This would be where the student would be able to experience the subject their learning about. This can stem from watching documentaries, physical activity, and/or performing experiments. Second, teachers must base their teachings on prior experiences of their students. Just asking the students to spit out information of the top of their head is not an effective way for the student to learn. And second, they must have been able to experience the information being taught so that they can better retain the information for later use.