Montessori & Dewey

The basis of scientific pedagogy for Montessori is basically the use of the scientific method when the teacher is instructing, freedom for students, independence, and respect for students needs physically, mentally, and environmentally. She supports the student having choices and freedoms in the classroom to make the learning more enjoyable and memorable. To make the information more interesting she suggests the use of hands on activities and the use of materials rather than a lecture.

 

The classroom environment is very important in learning. The child must be comfortable in order to learn. If I child comes into a classroom and only sees the board and books and individual desks around the room they may become uninterested. The environment must be clean and inviting with fun and educational materials throughout.

 

Children must have freedom when learning because after instruction they will need to know the basis of freedom and how to handle having it. Freedom makes education less boring and stringent. A student will have a more positive outlook on learning when there is more freedom and less of the extreme uniform way of learning.

 

Dewey believes that thinking is a very important aspect of education. Today we call this critical thinking. Intelligent learning urges the use of problem solving to solve problems that are not artificial. He stresses that an important part of thinking, is having experiences; experiences such as hands on learning.

 

In order for students to properly use thinking in education, several conditions need to exist. The information and lessons need to be interesting and include hands on activities. The student needs to use thinking and the cognitive and analytical skills to solve problems.

 

Dewey supports social and interactive processes in learning. The process includes experience- constant interesting lessons and learning. There needs to be critical thinking involved in which the brain is stimulated and the student uses problem solving and observation. Solutions should be seen and the student should test the solution in order to fully understand the meaning.