Abstract
Through reviewing of current research, the paper seeks to compare and contrast the Montessori Method and the Traditional program in identifying their effect on the cognitive development of a child. Researchers show that both programs have their academic advantages. However, the academic gain that a child gets in the traditional pre-kindergarten program seems to wane as they get older. Children who attended the Montessori program appear to socially enjoy schooling and have a good relationship with peers and teachers compared to those who attended the traditional program. Prekindergarten program determines the development of the child’s cognitive development because the period when the child is mentally and socially developing. This research is not that’s conclusive because it biased due to the study design and it recommends that the programs should supplement each other by incorporating some of Montessori aspects into the traditional program.
Introduction
Jean Paget theory of cognitive development states that brainpower is not a fixed feature and that a child’s cognitive development is a process that is a result of biological maturation and the interaction with their environment. Therefore, the environment a child grows in during this sensitive period determines how they develop their ability to think process information and reason which is the cognitive skills. Cognitive development happens in different stages from infancy, toddler, and preschool to school age. Parents adopt different programs to help their children with the development. Quality pre-kindergarten programs facilitate better academic and social skills for children. Different parents find different programs effective for their children cognitive development. This paper will focus on determining whether the Montessori program is more effective than the traditional programs in the child’s development of cognitive abilities.
Montessori education has been regarded as an alternative educational program to the traditional form of education. The program became famous over half a century ago and has been mostly used in the private education sector until later when there was funding program for the program that it spread widely in the public education sector. The program, named after its founder Maria Montessori started in 1907, is a child-centered educational program that is based on the scientific study of children from birth to adulthood. The program operates on the principles that a child is one who is naturally eager to acquire knowledge and is capable of starting the learning process when given a supportive, thoughtfully prepared environment.
The idea is similar to what the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine that describes children as, “active, motivated, and engaged learners who possess an impressive range of cognitive competencies and learn through exploration. They demonstrate natural curiosity and have a strong drive to learn and act accordingly (Guillen, 2004).” This approach is regarded to value the human spirit and development of a child’s physical, social and emotional cognitive. However, due to the No Child Left Behind, there was interest on the cognitive effect the program had on children because the program did not promote the state-mandated testing and therefore there was a push for more qualitative empirical data to determine the efficiency of the program (Guillen, 2004).
The Montessori educational program is characterized by multi-aged classrooms and long uninterrupted working periods. Maria Montessori was of the opinion that learning and moving were intertwined and therefore came up with learning instruments that used real actions and objects that translate an abstract idea into concrete form. The relationship between the teachers and students creates a learning triangle and the classrooms are modified to support child freedom that is within limits, independence and a sense of order (Montessori). Through individual choices, a child uses that environment offered to develop themselves and only interacts with the instructor when support or direction is required. The long uninterrupted working hours help the children concentrate on learning materials while the multi-age class setting helps the younger ones learn from the older ones while the older ones improve their knowledge by the teaching concept, this also prepares the children for the real world where one works and socializes with people of different ages. This means that the program is based on the idea that children learn best when learning materials are appropriate for their age and their development stage and when learning at their own pace.
Montessori Learning Materials
Montessori educational program designs their learning materials to suit different stages of a child’s development. The materials range from beautiful objects made from a range of materials and textures. They also have a range of objects from nature such as seashells, birds’ nests among others. They also have fragile objects that the children handle because they believe that if a child does not break and learn from their mistake they can never learn how to be careful. Every learning material is used to learn one concept or one skill; this helps the children in their memory. The learning materials are made appealing and inviting to draw the students into exploring them.
The only problem that comes with comparing the Montessori and the Tradition educational programs is that their demographic differences make any study susceptible and sampling bias. Another problem is that there are factors apart from the time of program a child is exposed to that determines their cognitive development; these factors include parental involvement and encouragement which would make an otherwise average school program look effective while luck of it would make an effective school program look ineffective. The fact that they use different types of assessment to determine the child’s progress also makes I hard to compare the two programs. The Montessori program is more comparable I long-term research because its more qualitative than quantitative which makes it hard to compare with a traditional program that is more quantitative than qualitative. Further study on the effectiveness of Montessori on the cognitive program should be carried out especially with the NCLB initiative on testing. However, understanding the strengths, weaknesses and the differences in the two programs would help incorporate the most effective program.
Although both traditional education program and Montessori educational program are aimed at teaching children the skills needed for succeeding in their older age, they are fundamentally different. The traditional education program is just like a normal primary school where the teacher plans and facilitates activities taking place in the classroom within a stipulated time. The primary assessment of the child’s progress is a test and grading. Contrary to a Montessori program where the emphasis is on the learning process, traditional education program emphasizes the end result. This brings us to our first evaluation of the two programs;
Is Grading Good for a Child’s Cognitive Development?
Studies prove that children that receive bad grades tend to withdraw themselves from the educational system (Cook, 2009). This mainly happens in traditional educational programs because their assessment of the children’s progress is in form of a test and grading. Grading does more harm to the children than good. This is because there are many factors that are not considered while testing and grading the children. Such factors include parenting, social factor surrounding different children and different kids’ abilities. The traditional method assumes that all the children in one classroom possess the same understanding, reason and processing abilities in all fields. They do not consider the children with slow cognitive development. By grading these students those with also cognitive development will always score low grade which will demoralize the children. There is also a risk for the low scorers to face mockery from their peers who score good grades.
As we will see below each child develop differently from the other one and help them positively each child should be treated differently according to their abilities and the rate of cognitive development. Assessment done according to individual accomplishments is likely to motivate the child at an individual level than a generalized assessment. Further, same age grouping leads to the assumption that all children in that particular age are at the same stage of cognitive development which is not always the case. We shall see below how the Montessori addresses these problems. Therefore, grading is not good for the children’s cognitive development.
Cognitive Development according to Piaget’s Theory
Piaget defined cognitive development as the manner in which individuals think, perceive and acquire an understanding of their world through the relations of inborn and learned factors. It involves information processing, interpretation, intelligence, remembrance, and language development. Contrary to the emphasis by intelligence testing that a child’s abilities are native, behaviorists’ researchers such as John Watson and B. F. Skinner argued that children are flexible and their intelligence is shaped by the environmental factors that enable a child to learn by rewarding desirable behaviors and discouraging bad behaviors, which is called the learning theory (Siegler, 207). Piaget used a different approach from the learning theory of extensive observation to develop his theory of cognitive development. He envisioned a child’s comprehension to comprise of schemas, crucial units of knowledge that is used to systematize past experiences and serve as the basis for comprehending new experiences.
The central basis of this theory is that cognitive development appears in four different general steps with each comprising of complicated features and conceptual levels of thoughts. These steps appear in the same order and each one of them building on knowledge acquired in the previous step. The steps are as follows:
• Infancy Stage (Sensorimotor)
In this stage, children demonstrate their intelligence through motor actions without having to use symbols. During this stage, the world’s knowledge is limited but still developing because it is based on physical interaction and experience. At the age of seven months, children are able to acquire object permanency which is the element of memory, their physical development allows the students to gain new scholarly abilities which are the element of mobility and the element of language develops towards the end of this stage which involves symbolic abilities. This is the stage from birth to 18 months.
• Pre-operational Stage
This stage is also called toddlerhood or early childhood. This stage picks up from the infancy stage and intelligence is demonstrated in terms of symbols. The element of language also matures and recollection and thoughts are developed. However, thinking at this stage is not logical and it is predominated by self-centered thoughts. This stage is between 18 months to three years.
• Concrete Operational Stage
The stage is also referred to as elementary and early adolescence or the preschool age. Intelligence during this stage is expressed through a rational and efficient handling of symbols that are related to the real objects. Also, it is during this stage that egocentric thinking is diminished and operational thinking develops which is a reversible mental action. It is the stage between 3 to six years.
• Formal Operational Stage
This is the adolescence and adulthood stage or the school age. Use of logical symbols that are related to abstract concepts demonstrates intelligence during this stage. Some people demonstrate formal thinking during this stage especially those in industrialized countries. The stage is between age six to 12 and Piaget states that it is the concrete operations stage where the child should be able to use coherent actions to think and solve problems (McLeod, 2015).
Somehow, the Montessori educational program is based on Piaget’s theory of cognitive development because Maria Montessori also believed that children experience sensitive periods as they grew up. Therefore, the program took advantage of these sensitive periods to develop the child’s cognitive abilities at an early age depending on each child’s personal ability. This is done with the help of the teachers who match each student’s appropriate lessons and materials according to the sensitive period that individual child portrays through a natural learning of absorption and internalization. This ensures that no child is delayed from or sped through their development.
The program follows the individual cognitive development stages. In early childhood, the children learn through sensory-motor activities which involve handling the learning materials that help develop their cognitive powers through the experience. The program allows the children to directly involve their seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching and movement abilities. When the students advance to elementary years at their individual pace, the program through the learning materials and the interdisciplinary curriculum are able to organize their thoughts as they pass from the concrete stage to the abstract stage. The program helps and prepares its students for the outside world practicing free interaction with their peers and the teachers and by using the following virtues:
• Recognizing each child as unique. The program embraces the fact that every child learns differently and therefore accommodating all available learning styles. Also, the children are allowed to learn with their own speed with each student progressing through the curriculum when they are ready through guidance from the instructor and an individual learning schedule.
• Montessori students are able to develop order, coordination, concentration, and independence at an early age due to the program’s setting. The classroom design, customized learning materials and the individual daily routine help the child to emerge as “self-regulation” from toddler through adolescent.
• The program makes the students a part of a close caring community by involving multi-age classes which recreates a family arrangement. This gives the opportunity to the older children to enjoy the stature of guider and role models and the younger ones feel cared for and supported which helps all of the gain confidence to face the challenges ahead.
• Through working within the parameters set by the teacher, the students are able to enjoy freedom within limit by making them active participants by deciding what their focus in learning is. This works through the principle that internal satisfaction drives one to curiosity and interest that results in discovery which leads to sustainable learning.
• The basis of the Montessori educational program is self-assessment and self-correction. This helps the students even in the future to critically look at their work and become proficient in recognizing, correcting and learning from their mistakes they might have made.
The program basically models the students to become naturally knowledge seekers because the environment provided gives the student the freedom to explore, discover and learn according to one’s ability which is conducive to cognitive development.
From the above evaluations and discussions, it is evident that Montessori educational program is in line with the stage by stage cognitive development. As stated earlier the traditional educational program should incorporate some aspects of the Montessori program. To evaluate this, we should feature the major differences between the two programs.
• In the Montessori program, the student is an active participant in learning while in the traditional program the student is a passive learner.
• Montessori promotes the natural development of the child by matching their social development with learning, but traditional program promotes the transfer of a national curriculum where learning takes place without considering the social development of the child.
• Understanding Montessori program is through personal experience with the learning materials and unlimited learning experiences while in the traditional program learning is based on formulated subjects and is limited to the information given by teachers.
• Montessori environment and learning methods encourage self-discipline while in the traditional program, the teacher is the primary installer of external discipline.
• And finally, Montessori emphasizes on the cognitive structures as well as social development while traditional program’s emphasis is on rote knowledge and social development (College, 2016).
Any educational program should be aimed at developing a child’s social, cognitive and intellectual skill. However, a child whose cognitive skills are well-developed stands to be socially and intellectually developed as well because the cognitive development determines how a child socially interacts and how they intellectually fair. In this case, the traditional program as we have seen above, due to its learning methods and environment focus only on rote and intellectual knowledge without considering the child’s social and cognitive development. Therefore, traditional education program should mimic the Montessori educational program by incorporating some of their aspects, especially their learning methods and assessment style to promote the cognitive and social development of the students, which not only boost their intellectual knowledge but also prepare the child for the outside world.