Twenty Best Practices of an Authentic Montessori School
The Montessori Learning Environment
1. A Child-Centred Environment: The focus of activity in the Montessori setting is on children learning, not on teachers teaching.
2. A Responsive Prepared Environment: The environment should be designed to meet the needs, interests, abilities, and development of the children in the class.
3. A Focus on Individual Progress and Development: Within a Montessori environment, children progress at their own pace, moving on to the next step in each area of learning as they are each ready to do so.
4. Hands-on Learning: In a Montessori learning environment, students rarely learn from texts or workbooks. In all cases, direct personal hands-on contact with either real things under study or with concrete learning materials that bring abstract concepts to life allow children to learn with much deeper understanding.
5. Spontaneous Activity: Any true Montessori environment encourages children to move about freely, within reasonable limits of appropriate behaviour.
6. Active Learning: In Montessori learning environments, children not only select their own work from the choices presented to them, but also continue to work with tasks, returning to continue their work over many weeks or months, until finally the work is so easy for them that they can demonstrate it to younger children.
7. Self-motivated Activity: One of Montessori’s key concepts is the idea that children are driven by their desire to become independent and competent beings in the world, to learn new things and master new skills. Montessori children construct their own sense of individual identity and personal judgment of right and wrong.
8. Freedom Within Limits: Montessori children enjoy considerable freedom of movement and choice, however their freedom always exists within carefully defined limits on the range of their behaviour.
9. Self-disciplined Learning: In Montessori programmes, children do not work for grades or external rewards, nor do they simply complete assignments given them by their Montessori educators.
