EDUC 1002 Pioneers and Philosophies of Education Week 3 .docx

EDUC 1002: Pioneers and Philosophies of Education
Week 3
The Learning Environment
Throughout history we have been searching for quality
educational environments and
practices for young children. European thought and practice,
adapted to the unique
circumstances and culture of American society, has greatly
influenced today’s early
childhood programs. By learning about the theories and
practices of some of the
great educational philosophers, we better prepare ourselves to
contribute to and
advance early childhood education.
Objectives
By completing this week, you should be able to:
• Recognize how environment affects learning
• Identify the major contributions of the targeted philosophers

• Analyze the impact of the targeted philosophers on modern
education
You will know you have successfully completed this week
when:
• You can discuss how environment affects learning
• You can describe the major contributions of the targeted
philosophers
• You can assess the impact of the targeted philosophers on
modern
education
Copyright © Laureate Education, Inc.
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The Underlying Issues
What is the impact of the educational environment on learning?
What were the
major contributions of some important educational
philosophers, and how have they
impacted modern education? This week we will explore possible
answers to these
questions as we take a closer look at the educational
philosophies of Johann
Pestalozzi (1747–1827), Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852), John
Dewey (1859–1952),
and Maria Montessori (1870–1952).
As you read this week, keep the following issues in mind:
• Issue #1: How does the educational environment impact
learning?
• Issue #2: What were the major contributions of Johann
Pestalozzi,
Friedrich Froebel, John Dewey, and Maria Montessori to the
philosophy of
and practice of early education?
• Issue #3: What impact has each of the aforementioned

philosophers had
on modern education?
Johann Pestalozzi (Nachforschungen, 1797)
Johann Pestalozzi:
Educating the Mind, Body, and Soul
“Education is not the work of a certain course of exercises . . .
but of a continual and
benevolent superintendence.” --Johann Pestalozzi
1747 - Born
1781 – Published best-selling educational novel, Leonard and
Gertrude
1801 - Outlined educational philosophy in How Gertrude
Teaches Her Children
1804 - Became director of Yverdon Institute for student and
teacher training
1827 – Died
Brief Bio
Johann Pestalozzi was born during the Age of Enlightenment
into a middle-class
Swiss family in 1747. The death of his father in 1751 left the
family in straightened
circumstances and contributed to Pestalozzi’s overprotected and

sheltered
upbringing. During his college years, however, Pestalozzi broke
out of his shell and
became a member of the Helvetic Society. This group sought to
promote Swiss
identity, improve education, and reform the government.
In addition to the Helvetic Society, Pestalozzi was heavily
influenced by the
philosophy of Jean Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau, who argued
that children were
inherently good, advocated child-centered education conducted
in a prepared natural
environment in his didactic novel, Emile. Pestalozzi followed
Rousseau’s lead in the
education of his own son and at his first school, Neuhof, where
he sought to
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establish a self-supporting farm and handicraft school for poor
children. The school
never turned a profit, however, and Pestalozzi was forced to
close it down in 1779,
five years after he opened it. He then turned to writing to earn a
living and to
disseminate his educational ideas. In 1781 he published Leonard
and Gertrude. The
novel, which demonstrated the benefits of a natural education,
became an instant
hit. During the next two decades, Pestalozzi continued to write,
publishing another
educational tome, How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, as well
as newspaper articles,
essays, and children’s books.
Thanks to his writing, Pestalozzi became a recognized
educational authority and
was appointed head of an orphanage in Stans in 1799. During

his short, six-month
tenure, Pestalozzi came to the important realization that
cognitive development was
aided by an emotionally secure environment. From 1800 to
1804, Pestalozzi directed
a new educational institute at Burgdorf. There he based his
teachings for both
students and teaching interns on the belief that children should
begin learning by
exploring their immediate environment with familiar objects.
From 1804 to 1825,
Pestalozzi continued his educational work at the Yverdon
Institute, which was
attended and visited by educational scholars from around the
world. Although
dissension and quarrels marked the later years at Yverdon,
Pestalozzi stayed until
the school closed. He then returned to Neuhof, where he died
two years later.
Major Contributions to Education
Learning from Pestalozzi via Gertrude
In his best-selling book, Leonard and Gertrude, Pestalozzi
related the story of the

regeneration of an economically depressed village, thanks to the
natural education
instituted by Gertrude. The novel was his first attempt at
outlining his educational
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philosophy. In the book, Pestalozzi advocated educating the
whole child
simultaneously (intellectual, moral, and physical) and uniting
the home with the
school and the school with the community. By doing so, he
contended that education
could lead to social reform and, thus, a better society. In his
subsequent book, How
Gertrude Teaches Her Children, Pestalozzi provided an account
of his educational
theories and methods, which demonstrate that children need an
emotionally secure

environment to learn effectively, and that they learn how to
think by proceeding
gradually from observation to comprehension to the formation
of clear ideas.
Object Lessons: Form, Number, and Name
Pestalozzi´s educational ideas were manifested in object
lessons, in which
teachers guided children in the observation, examination, and
analysis of objects
found in their immediate environment. Thus, learning began by
using the senses to
study the form, number, and names of familiar objects. For
example, children would
learn about the form of a leaf by looking at it and touching it,
and then tracing its
outline. They would then learn about numbers by collecting
leaves and grouping and
counting them. Finally, they would learn how to talk about
leaves by learning the
names for leaves and the qualities they possessed, such as color
and texture, as well
as other objects associated with leaves. Pestalozzi believed that
once children

mastered the object lessons, they were ready to proceed with
more conventional
reading, writing, and arithmetic lessons.
The Spread of Pestalozzian Methods and Principles
At Burgdorf and Yverdon, Pestalozzi refined and disseminated
his educational
theories and methods. Notable educational scholars from around
the world, including
Friedrich Froebel and Horace Mann, visited and studied with
him. In the early 1800s,
the spread of Pestalozzian principles and methods to the United
States was fomented
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by William Maclure. A world traveler, pioneering geologist, and
educational reformer,
Maclure recruited one of Pestalozzi´s assistants, Joseph Neef, to
introduce

Pestalozzi’s methods, first in Pennsylvania, then in Indiana. In
the middle of the
nineteenth century, Henry Barnard, the first U.S. commissioner
of education and
editor of the American Journal of Education, became a vocal
and influential advocate
for these methods. In 1865 the National Teachers´ Association
gave a strong
endorsement to object teaching, which, about the same time,
was being instituted as
the centerpiece of the teacher education program at the Oswego
Normal School in
New York. In the twentieth century, Pestalozzian principles of
child-centered
education focused on active learning in a secure, comfortable
environment influenced
the reformist ideas of progressive educators such as John
Dewey, ideas that are still
relevant today. Key lessons from Pestalozzi include the
following:
• Introduce concrete objects before abstract concepts.
• Begin with objects found in the immediate environment rather
than in

distant ones.
• Proceed gradually from simple exercises to more complex
ones.
In His Own Words
In How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, Pestalozzi
demonstrated how children
learn to think by proceeding gradually from observation to
comprehension to the
formation of clear ideas. As you read this excerpt, think about
what place sound,
form, and number have in early childhood education today.
Then I found, further, that all our knowledge flows from three
elementary
powers:
1. From the power of making sounds, the origin of language
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2. From the indefinite, simple sensuous-power of forming
images, out of which
arises the consciousness of all forms
3. From the definite, no longer merely sensuous-power of
imagination, from
which must be derived consciousness of unity, and with it the
power of
calculation and arithmetic
I thought, then, that the art of educating our race must be joined
to the first and
simplest results of these three primary powers--sound, form,
and number; and
that instruction in separate parts can never have a satisfactory
effect upon our
nature as a whole, if these three simple results of our primary
powers are not
recognized as the common starting-pointing of all instruction,
determined by
Nature herself. In consequence of this recognition, they must be
fitted into forms
which flow universally and harmoniously from the results of

these three
elementary powers; and which tend essentially and surely to
make all instruction
a steady, unbroken development of these three elementary
powers, used
together and considered equally important. In this way only is it
possible to lead
us in all three branches from vague to precise sense-
impressions, from precise
sense-impressions to clear images, and from clear images to
distinct ideas.1
1 Pestalozzi, J. H. (1931). How Gertrude teaches her children.
In L. F. Anderson (Ed.), Pestalozzi (pp.
48−55, 58−61, 73). Retrieved from
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/DKitchen/new_655/pestalozzi.htm
#Nature
Friedrich Froebel
Friedrich Froebel: Cultivating Young Learners
“In play [the child] reveals his own original power.” --Friedrich
Froebel

1782 – Born
1808 – Began two-year study with Pestalozzi at Yverdon
1826 - Published The Education of Man
1837 - Opened first kindergarten
1852 - Died
Brief Bio
Friedrich Froebel was born in Germany in 1782, the youngest of
five boys. His
mother died when he was only nine months old, and the feeling
that he was
mistreated and neglected by his stepmother stayed with him
throughout his life.
Froebel first attended a girl’s school because his father felt his
son was slow; it was
not until Froebel went to stay with a maternal uncle that he
began to experience
educational and social success. Throughout his twenties,
Froebel studied on and off.
In 1805 he wanted to study architecture but, instead, accepted a
position as a
teacher in a Pestalozzian school. To prepare him for the
position, Froebel’s employer
sent him to Yverdon to study with Pestalozzi for two weeks.
Three years later,

Froebel left his teaching position and returned to Yverdon for
two years.
After further study at universities in Göttingen and Berlin,
active service in the
Napoleonic Wars, and a stint as an assistant to the director of a
mineralogical
museum, Froebel established the Universal German Educational
Institute in 1816.
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There he wrote about and put into practice his educational
methods, methods

that encompassed both universal child development and the
individual child’s
particular developmental needs. In 1826 he published a treatise
on his methods
titled, The Education of Man.
In 1829 Froebel was forced to close his school due to low
enrollments, but he had
earned a reputation as a superb educator. In 1831 he was invited
to establish a
school in Switzerland, which he ran for four years. In 1835 he
directed an orphanage
at Burgdorf, where Pestalozzi had once taught. There Froebel
established a nursery
school for three- and four-year-olds and began experimenting
with the objects,
materials, and activities that would become part of his
kindergarten repertoire.
When Froebel’s wife became severely ill in 1836, the couple
returned to
Germany. In 1837 Froebel opened an institute for early
childhood education in the
spa town of Blankenburg in the state of Prussia. His wife died
not long after, and in
1840 the institute was renamed the Universal German

Kindergarten. At the
kindergarten, children became socialized and acculturated
through songs, stories,
and games, and were encouraged to express themselves through
play with selected
objects for discovery (which Froebel called the “gifts”) and
materials or activities for
creativity (which Froebel called the “occupations”).
Froebel’s success spread rapidly. Within 10 years there were
nearly 50
kindergartens operating in the German states, and Froebel began
to train
kindergarten teachers. He also continued to write scholarly
articles and published a
book of nursery songs. A year before his death in 1852, political
leaders became
concerned about his philosophy, which deviated from
maintaining strict control over
young children, and Froebel was accused of atheism. This led to
the banning of
kindergartens in Prussia. However, Froebel’s contribution to
modern education had

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already been secured; and by the end of the nineteenth century,
his kindergartens
were being cultivated around the world.
The Kindergarten Philosophy
Similar to Plato, Froebel believed that children possess at birth
all that they will
become as adults. Thus, the purpose of teaching is to bring out
rather than put in.
Froebel likened the child to a plant who grows under the care
and guidance of a
“gardener,” who is the teacher. This gardening analogy led him
to coin the term
kindergarten, meaning “children’s garden.” In Froebel’s
kindergarten philosophy, the
teacher cooperates with God and nature to cultivate child

development by providing
a nurturing environment specially prepared and suited to
children’s needs and
interests. The teacher’s role is not to mold and shape the child,
but rather to guide
the child’s growth through play.
In Froebel’s kindergarten, children become socialized and
acculturated through
songs, stories, and games, and are encouraged to play,
particularly with selected
objects (the “gifts”) and materials (the “occupations”). Play
encourages children to
express and act on their own thoughts, as well as to imitate
life’s activities and
practice community interactions. While the children play, the
teacher observes so
that she/he can identify and record patterns in behavior and
stages of development
reached, which enables the teacher to create and refine
activities based on the
children’s needs.
The Kindergarten Gifts and Occupations
Froebel’s kindergarten gifts likely stemmed, at least in part,

from Pestalozzi’s
object lessons. The gifts were objects that represented
fundamental forms but also
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had symbolic meanings. They possessed external characteristics
(e.g., color or
shape) and internal characteristics (e.g., individuality or
personality), and provided
essential lessons for the child (e.g., “study us”!). According to
Froebel, the gifts “are
a coherent system, starting at each stage from the simplest
activity and progressing
to the most diverse and complex manifestations of it. The
purpose of each one of
them is to instruct human beings so that they may progress as
individuals and

members of humanity in all its various relationships.
Collectively they form a
complete whole, like a many branched tree, whose parts explain
and advance each
other.”2. The gifts were to be used for arranging activities.
Gifts
BODIES (SOLIDS)
1. Color: Six soft, colored balls
2. Shape: Wooden sphere, cube, and cylinder
3. Number: Eight small cubes
4. Extent: Eight rectangular blocks
5. Symmetry: 27 cubes, three divided diagonally and three
divided into four
triangles
6. Proportion: 27 rectangular blocks, three divided vertically
and three divided
horizontally
SURFACES
7. Square and triangular tiles
LINES

8. Sticks or splints and whole and half wire rings
2 Ansel, G. P. (2004). Kids/blocks/learning. New Haven, CT:
Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute.
Retrieved from
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1993/1/93.01.01.x.h
tml
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POINTS
9. Beans, lentils, peas, or pebbles
FRAMEWORK
10. Means to connect surfaces and solids
While gifts were composed of materials that could return to
their original form,
occupations were composed of materials that would be altered
and could not return

to their original forms. The occupations were to be used for
controlling, modifying,
transforming, and creating activities.
Occupations
SOLIDS
• Molding
• Carving
• Constructing
SURFACES
• Painting
• Folding
• Cutting
LINES
• Drawing
• Weaving
• Braiding
POINTS
• Stringing
• Perforating

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The Cultivation of Kindergartens
After Froebel’s death in 1852, the kindergarten philosophy
spread from Germany
throughout Europe and to Japan and the United States. In the
United States,
kindergartens were first established in German schools. Soon,
however, they were
supported by influential persons such as Henry Barnard, the
first U.S. commissioner
of education, and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, the sister of
Horace Mann’s wife.
Peabody translated many of Froebel’s works, founded the
American Froebel Union
kindergarten association, and established a kindergarten teacher
training institute. In

1873, the St. Louis superintendent of schools, William Torrey
Harris, incorporated
kindergartens into the local public school system. Later, as the
U.S. commissioner of
education, he would incorporate kindergartens into the national
public school
system.
In His Own Words
In The Education of Man, Froebel described a child’s building
process and defined
the kindergarten gifts and occupations. As you read the
following excerpt from
Froebel’s The Education of Man, think about the relevance of
Froebel’s gifts and
occupations to early childhood education today.
The distinction between the “Gifts” and “Occupations” was that
the gifts were
“intended to give the child from time to time new universal
aspects of the
external world, suited to a child’s development. The
occupations, on the other
hand, furnish material for practice in certain phases of the

skill...nothing but the
First Gift can so effectively arouse in the child’s mind the
feeling and
consciousness of a world of individual things; but there are
numberless
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occupations that will enable the child to become skillful in the
manipulation of
surfaces...The gift leads to discovery; the occupation to
invention. The gift gives
insight; the occupation, power....The occupations are one-sided;
the gifts, many-
sided, universal. The occupations touch only certain phases of
being; the gifts
enlist the whole being of the child...each gift should ...aid the
child to make the

external internal, the internal external, and to find the unity
between the two.” 3
3 Froebel, F. (1887). The education of man (W. N. Hailman,
Trans.). New York: D. Appleton & Co.
Retrieved from
tml#d
tml#d
John Dewey
John Dewey: Integrating Life and School
“The educator's part in the enterprise of education is to furnish
the environment
which stimulates responses and directs the learner's course.” --
John Dewey
1859 - Born
1884 - Accepted first philosophy position at University of
Michigan
1896 - Established experimental laboratory school at the
University of Chicago
1905 - Began 25 years as philosophy professor at Columbia
University
1952 - Died

Brief Bio
John Dewey, one of the most influential educational
philosophers of the twentieth
century, was born in 1859 in Burlington, Vermont. Because his
father owned a
grocery store, a local gathering place, and his mother’s family
was involved in
national and state politics, Dewey grew up accustomed to
community participation
and social service. A bright child, Dewey finished elementary
school in five years and
high school in three. In 1875, around his sixteenth birthday, he
began studies at the
University of Vermont. Especially drawn to philosophy,
literature, and history, Dewey
graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1879 and began
teaching high school. In
1882 he began advanced studies in philosophy at Johns Hopkins
University, an
institution that emphasized original scholarly research. There he
studied under G.

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Stanley Hall, a pioneer in child psychology, and Charles
Sanders Peirce, the
originator of philosophical pragmatism, and alongside the future
progressive
president Woodrow Wilson.
Dewey began his career in higher education in 1884 by
accepting a position as
instructor of philosophy at the University of Michigan under his
Hopkins mentor,
George Sylvester Morris. He left for the University of
Minnesota in 1888 but returned
to Michigan as the chairman of the philosophy department after

Morris’s sudden
death just one year later. In 1894 he accepted an appointment as
chairman of the
newly created Department of Philosophy, Psychology, and
Pedagogy at the University
of Chicago, which had been founded just a few years earlier.
In Chicago, Dewey connected with many leading educational
thinkers, including
Jane Addams and Colonel Francis Parker, a champion of
progressive education. In
order to test his ideas on learning, Dewey established the
University of Chicago
Laboratory School in 1896. This experimental school, still in
existence today,
emphasized the link between the school and the greater
community, and focused on
collaborative, problem-solving activities. Disagreements over
the school’s
administration, however, led to Dewey’s resignation in 1904.
The next year he
accepted a philosophy professorship at Columbia University.
While at Columbia, Dewey solidified his reputation as a leading
philosopher and

educational theorist, but he also became an important
commentator on social and
political issues. He wrote for popular magazines such as The
New Republic and
Nation, lectured in Japan and China, and consulted on national
educational policy in
Turkey. He also participated in liberal and reformist political
activities. He was a
founding member of the American Association of University
Professors (AAUP) and
the national Association of the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP), and was
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active in the New York City Teachers Union and the American
Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU). For more than two decades after his retirement from
Columbia in 1930,

Dewey continued to speak out for educational and social reform.
He died in 1952 at
the age of 92.
Dewey’s Pragmatic Philosophy and Progressive Education
Dewey rejected the notion of latent, in-bred potential. His
pragmatic view of
philosophy contended that individuals learned through
experimentation. According to
Dewey, knowledge acquisition was a process of socialization in
which individuals
learned how to best adapt their interactions to the environment
at hand. Because
environmental conditions change, this process was fluid and
ongoing.
Although American culture had a great propensity for change,
public schools
tended to be culturally and pedagogically uniform. Progressive
educators sought to
make education better represent the American democratic
society and better
educate its citizens for participation in that society. In
education, they advocated

respect for individuals and their diverse abilities, interests,
ideas, and needs. They
also rejected traditional learning by memorization and drill,
supporting, instead, the
development of critical thinking and socially engaged
intelligence. They believed
these skills would better enable individuals to understand and
participate effectively
in the greater community.
Dewey, in particular, viewed education as a social function; he
proposed that
schools should help to counteract the decline of community life
that was occurring
with the rise of industrialized society. He believed that schools
could achieve this
goal by reinforcing connections to home and community life
through collaborative

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activities that allowed children to share, communicate, and
learn as a group as well
as individually. Today, scholars, educators, and activists are
rediscovering Dewey's
work and exploring its relevance to a global society in the
information age.
Experimenting with Education: The Laboratory School
To teach well, Dewey believed that the teacher must connect the
subject matter
to the needs, desires, and interests, as well as the cognitive
development of the
student, taking into account the physical, social, and political
environment in which
they lived. Putting his ideas into practice, Dewey established
the University of
Chicago Laboratory School in 1896, calling it a “free and
informal community.”4
Unlike traditional curriculums, which focused on memorization
of information and
the use of repetition to develop specific skill sets, the lab school
focused on learning

that extended beyond the classroom using the scientific method
and collaborative
learning, which allowed for learning by various means. Students
worked on projects
and problem-solving activities that included making and doing,
history and
geography, and science. The school achieved rapid success and
was renown
throughout the country and, later, the world. Several of the key
lessons learned from
Dewey’s school “experiment” include the following:
• Education should be valid outside the classroom as well as
within,
teaching students how to be creative problem solvers and
responsible
participants in their respective communities (school, city,
nation).
• Learning at school should support, build on, and augment
learning that
takes place elsewhere.
• Learning should be focused on the students rather than the
subject.
4 Gutek, G. L. (2005). Historical and philosophical foundations

fo education: A biographical introduction (p.
347). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Page 19 of 27
• Learning is a social process that is best achieved through
small groups
that support and cultivate the abilities and needs of individual
members.
• Learning should encompass creative as well as practical
subjects.
• Learning should be accomplished by doing; for example, the
study of
natural science should focus on exploring nature.
• Within a structured framework, teaching should be
autonomous to best
suit individual students and the environment in which they are
living and
learning.

• Teaching should be supported by continuing research and
training.
Learning Through Inquiry: The Scientific Method
Dewey’s theory of inquiry for educators was a five-stage
approach to problem
solving following the scientific method. He advocated using this
process in a variety
of educational projects to stimulate learning.
1. Problem Identification: In this stage, experience with an
unfamiliar
situation or a concept leads to the identification of a problem.
2. Problem Definition: In this stage, the problem and its root are
defined,
which are important steps in the search for solutions.
3. Information Gathering and Hypotheses Identification: In this
stage,
information is gathered in order to identify one or more
hypotheses against which
solutions will be tested.
4. Hypotheses Exploration: In this stage, tentative hypotheses
are examined
and explored through reflection and consideration of “if-this,

then-that” scenarios.
5.
Solution
s Testing: In this stage, hypotheses are carried out and resulting
“solutions” reviewed to determine their functionality and
validity.
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In His Own Words
In “Three Years of the University Elementary School,” Dewey
looks at ways in
which teachers can connect school experiences with those from
home and
community life. As you read the excerpt found in this week’s
Learning Resources,
think about the ways early childhood professionals might
strengthen the relationship
between school, home, and community.
Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori:
Fostering Healthy Learning Environments
“The environment itself will teach the child . . .” --Maria
Montessori
1870 – Born
1896 - Became first woman in Italy to earn a medical degree
1907 - Opened first early childhood education center, Casa dei
Bambini
1912 - Published The Montessori Method
1952 – Died
Brief Bio
Maria Montessori was born in Italy in 1870 to middle-class,
well-educated
parents. When she was 13, Montessori broke with tradition and
enrolled in a
technical secondary school mainly attended by boys. Continuing

to flaunt educational
convention and social customs, she enrolled in engineering
school in 1886. In 1890,
however, Montessori decided to change careers and applied to
the School of Medicine
at the University of Rome. Although her application was
rejected initially, Montessori
persevered and was accepted. She interned at a children’s
pediatric hospital and, in
1896, became the first woman in Italy to earn a medical degree.
A month after
graduating from medical school, Montessori was selected to
participate in the
International Women’s Congress held in Berlin. Throughout
much of her life she
would continue to play an active role in the European women’s
movement, urging

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women to take a leading role in educational reform.
In 1900 Montessori opened a school for hearing-impaired and

mentally deficient
children and pre-service teachers of handicapped children. At
the school, she applied
two principles that integrated her own theories with those of
two noted French
physicians—Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard and Edouard Seguin—and
aspects of the
philosophies of Jean Jacques Rousseau, Johann Pestalozzi, and
Friedrich Froebel:
that mental deficiency required special education as well as
medical treatment, and
that specifically designed learning materials could facilitate this
special education.
Montessori’s work there led to her appointment as a lecturer at
the University of
Rome’s Pedagogical School in 1904.

Montessori opened another school, Casa dei Bambini, in 1907 to
provide care for
poor, working-class, preschool-age children and to test her
educational ideas. The
school operated on the premise that the most effective learning
takes place in a
structured environment. The school was widely successful. By
1910, Montessori had
seen her school replicated around Italy, had established a
training institute for
teachers, and had attracted the attention of educators around
Europe and North
America. In 1912 she published The Montessori Method, and
for much of the next
decade, sought to control the training of Montessori teachers
and the distribution of
the Montessori method and materials, which were spreading

rapidly around the
world.
From 1916 to 1927, Montessori based her operation in Spain.
Then, during
1929−1930, she worked in Italy with the support of Mussolini’s
fascist state.
Subsequent arguments, however, led to her exile from Italy in
1936. Montessori
relocated to the Netherlands, where the headquarters of the
Association Montessori
Internationale (AMI) still resides. During World War II
Montessori conducted a

of 27
training school in India and then returned to the Netherlands in
1946. Beyond
education, she struggled tirelessly for world peace and was
nominated for the Nobel
Peace Prize three times before her death in 1952.
Child Development and Sensitive Periods
Montessori believed that children progressed through a series of
developmental
stages.
• Birth to 6 years: Children develop and perfect fine and large

muscle
coordination and skills, improve communication skills, and
become aware
of spatial and social relationships.
o Birth to 3 years: During this sub-stage, children’s minds
function
mainly unconsciously as they begin to develop language and
acquire personality and intelligence through interaction with
others
and their environments.
o Years 3 to 6: During this sub-stage, children consciously
direct,
manipulate, and attempt to control their environmental and
social
explorations.

• Years 6 to 12: Children exercise, refine, and expand on
concepts and
skills developed during the first stage.
• Years 12 to 18: Children undergo momentous physical changes
and work
to find and understand their unique places in society.
Montessori believed that children between zero and six years
were particularly
sensitive to certain types of learning. Today, these “sensitive
periods” are typically
categorized as follows:

of 27
• Birth to 3 years: Children absorb information from all five
senses—sight,
hearing, touch, smell, and taste—to understand the surrounding
environment.
• 1½ to 3 years: Children undergo rapid linguistic development,
laying the
foundation for communication skills.
• 1½ to 4 years: Children develop and perfect fine and large
muscle
coordination and skills.
• 2 to 4 years: Children become increasingly adept at movement
and
communication and become aware of spatial and social

relationships. Ideal
activities include matching, sequencing, and ordering objects.
• 2½ to 6 years: Children work well incorporating all five
senses to adapt to
their environments.
• 3 to 6 years: Children are especially interested in mimicking
adult actions.
• 4 to 5 years: Children’s tactile senses are particularly acute.
Ideal activities
include cutting, writing, and creating art.
• 4½ to 6 years: Children display particular readiness to develop
reading and
math skills.
The Environment and the Materials of Learning
Montessori believed that the learning environment was just as

important as the
learning itself, and that a structured, well-prepared environment
best promotes
effective learning. The teacher, whom Montessori renamed
“directress,” was
responsible for structuring the environment and then guiding the
child around it on
his/her path to self-development. The well-prepared
environment included tables,
chairs, shelves, cabinets, and so on, fit to the size and needs of
children.
Within the ordered Montessori environment, children were
encouraged to work on
activities at their own pace. Not unlike Froebel’s gifts,
Montessori created a set of

Page 25 of 27
materials that naturally invited activity to aid in sensory
development.
• Set of wooden cylinders and blocks, the blocks having holes
into which the
cylinders could be inserted
• Ten pink blocks of graduating size with which to build a tower
• Ten brown wooden prisms and ten red rods with which to
build broad, long
stairs

• Boards and fabric of different weights, textures, colors, and
size cut into
different geometric forms (sphere, cone, pyramid)
• Wooden puzzles featuring geometric forms of varying color
and size
• Cards with various geometric forms pasted on them
• Musical tone bells, a wooden board with musical staff lines,
and wooden discs
to represent notes
• Sensory boxes filled with a variety of spices with distinctive
odors
The Montessori Method for Early Childhood Education
Montessori thought children should be free to explore and learn
without
restriction or criticism, and believed that her carefully prepared
environment and

self-correcting learning materials enabled a child to engage in
his/her own learning
and develop at his/her own pace. According to Montessori,
children who are given
the freedom to choose among a given set of learning activities
demonstrate a strong
capacity for concentration and patience, repeating tasks without
prodding until they
have mastered them.
In addition to preparing the environment, the role of the
directress, or teacher,
was to guide a child in his/her self-discovery. The directress
also observed the child,
making notes about his/her individual interests and needs, as
well as his/her physical
and mental readiness for new learning experiences. The

directress then used this
Page 26 of 27
ever-evolving educational profile, along with knowledge of the
sensitive periods, to
best direct the child’s learning.
The Montessori method strove to educate the senses, the
intellect, and the spirit.
The curriculum for early childhood education included the
development of the

senses, practical life skills, language and mathematics, as well
as cultural and moral
development. Children of different ages were “taught” together,
“subjects” were
interwoven, and assessment came solely in the form of
observations recorded by the
directress.
Sensory Development: By seeing, listening to, touching,
smelling, and tasting
the Montessori materials, children learn how to order, classify,
and compare sensory
impressions, which help them to form clear concepts and,
thereby, lay the
foundation for intellectual development.
Practical Life Skills: Children learn to control and direct their
physical

movements, to respect and care for their own persons and their
environments, and
to recognize and develop proper habits and social relationships.
Language Development: Children develop vocabulary by
learning the names of
objects in their immediate environments and then learn to
classify and describe the
objects.
Mathematical Development: Children learn about abstract
mathematical
concepts through the manipulation of concrete, geometric
forms.
Cultural Development: Children are introduced to music tones
and simple
melodies and are encouraged to participate in activities
involving singing and playing

musical instruments. Activities involving art, geography and
history, and foreign
language/culture are also encouraged.
Moral Development: Children are encouraged to nurture
sensitivity for living
Page 27 of 27
things—plants, animals, and each other.
In Her Own Words

In The Montessori Method, Montessori clearly defined her
philosophy and
methods for stimulating learning. As you read the “How
Lessons Should Be Given”
excerpt found in this week’s Learning Resources, think about
how teaching/learning
methods you are familiar with compare to Montessori’s.
Solving for MWHEN c = rf, THE ENVELOPE PORTFOLIO
IS THE MARKET PORTFOLIO MVariance-covariance
matrixExpected returns
E(r)0.400.030.020.000.060.030.200.00-
0.060.050.020.000.300.030.070.00-
0.060.030.100.08Constant0.01Envelope portfolio
is market portfolio M0.05260.29400.06040.5930Portfolio
expected return, E(rM)6.95%Portfolio standard devation,
sM19.23%30.96%Sharpe Ratio

1. Go to the spreadsheet that I attached called Solving for M
and changing the risk-free rate 2015. You will see how I used
matrix multiplication to solve for the weights in the M portfolio
given a risk-free rate. First, solve for the weights in M* if the
risk-free rate is changed by increments of 0.5% starting at 1%
and going to 4%. How does that change your results? (Note I
have included the Sharpe measure). Second, solve for the
weights in the minimum variance portfolio as well as the
expected return, variance and standard deviation of the MVP.

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