Comparing Methods

A Child-Centered Environment: The focus of activity in the Montessori setting is on children’s learning, not on teachers’ teaching. Generally students will work individually or in small, self-selected groups. There are very few whole group lessons.

The Responsive Prepared Environment: The environment is designed to meet the needs, interests, abilities, and development of the children in the class. The teachers design and adapt the environment with the current community of children in mind, rapidly modifying the selection of educational materials available, the physical layout, and the tone of the class to best fit the ever changing needs of the children.

A Focus on Individual Progress and Development: Within a Montessori program, children progress at the own pace, moving on to the next step in each area of learning as they are ready. While the child lives within a larger community of children, each student is viewed as an individual.

Traditional	Montessori
Emphasis on role knowledge and social development	Emphasis on: cognitive structures and social development
Teacher has dominant active role in classroom activity; child is a passive participant in learning	Teacher has unobtrusive role in classroom activity; child is an active participant in learning
Teacher acts as primary enforcer or external discipline	Environment and method encourage internal self discipline
Instructions both individual and group, conforms to the adult's teaching styles	Instruction, both individual and group, adapts to each students learning style
Same age grouping	Mixed age grouping
Most teaching is done by teacher, collaboration is discouraged	Children are encouraged to teach, collaborate, and help each other
Curriculum structured for child with little regard for child's interests	Child chooses own work from interests and abilities
Child is guided to concepts by teacher	Child formulates own concepts from self-teaching material
Child generally given specific time limit for work	Child works as long as s/he wishes on chosen project
Instruction pace usually set by group norm or teacher	Child sets own learning pace to internalize information
If work is corrected, errors usually pointed out by teacher	Child spots own errors through feedback from the material
Learning is reinforced externally by role repetition and rewards/discouragement's	Learning is reinforced internally through the child's own repetition of an activity and internal feelings of success
Fewer materials for sensory development and concrete manipulation	Multi-sensory materials for physical exploration
Less emphasis on self-care instruction and classroom maintenance	Organized program for learning care of self and environment (Polishing shoes, cleaning the sink, etc.)
Child usually assigned own chair, encouraged to sit still and listen during group sessions	Child can work where s/he is comfortable, moves around and talks at will (yet disturbs not the work of others); group work is voluntary and negotiable
Voluntary parent involvement, often only as fundraisers, not participants in understanding the learning process	Organized programs for parents to understand the Montessori philosophy and participate in the learning process