Piaget and montessori: Comparison of Piaget, Vygotsky, Montessori on Early Childhood Education Theories
Comparison of Piaget, Vygotsky, Montessori on Early Childhood Education Theories
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, developed several key concepts. First, “schemas” involve the physical and mental actions in learning, understanding, and knowing. Schemas involve anything a child is learning about. If the child’s family has a cat, they develop a schema about felines: small, fluffy, cute, makes purring sounds.
If the child goes to the zoo with their family and they see the tigers’ cage, they may be surprised at the size of those cats. This forces them to modify an existing schema about cats. Now, they need to add new information about the large size of tigers and lions. Mentally, they will modify that previous schema so they can easily include the new information.
Next, Piaget said that children who are adding new information to a schema are assimilating that information. Children try to modify information or their experiences so that they fit into beliefs they already hold.
Next, they attempt to create a comfortable balance between assimilation and accommodation, using a process called equilibration. As children move through each stage of cognitive development, they work at keeping that balance between using new knowledge and changing their behavior/schema to account for new knowledge they have learned (assimilation and accommodation). By using equilibration, children can progress more easily from one developmental stage of thought and into the next one.
Read More on Piaget’s Theory
Vygotsky’s Theory of Social Development
Vygotsky’s theory differs a little because he says that social interaction has a strong influence on how children develop cognitively. Children rely on people or devices with knowledge they don’t yet have.
The adult, more experienced peer, or (in today’s world) an electronic learning device is referred to as the More Knowledgeable Other or MKO. A teen or adult child can be an MKO to an adult who wants to learn something new about teen culture or a new electronic device.
Learners work within a Zone of Proximal Development or ZPD. This zone consists of three circles, with 2 inside the outermost circle. Within the smallest, interior circle, is what the child already knows. The next, larger circle contains information that the child still doesn’t know but is capable of learning with assistance from an MKO. The largest, exterior circle consists of information, skills, or knowledge that the child can’t yet learn, even with help.
Vygotsky believed that the MKO should teach the learner only what is within reach, in the zone of proximal development, with guidance and encouragement. The MKO demonstrates the new skill, then begins to guide the child through each step, and then the student can progress to more complicated skills that were previously out of range for them.
Read More on Vygotsky’s Theory
Montessori Theory of Education and Learning
After Montessori was able to successfully treat mentally disabled children who were thought to be impossible to educate, she decided she wanted to determine the potential of regular children who had no problems learning.
Working with children living in the San Lorenz slum, she developed her own theory, which is based on Periods of Development. She proposed the idea of Conducive Learning, where children were grouped based on periods of development. Children are grouped in three-year or six-year spans and work with the same teacher during this period.
The youngest group (Nido) is aged 0 to 1, or until the child is walking. The second group is the Infant Community, aged 1 to about 2 and a half or three. Group three is the “Casa dei Bambini,” aged 2.5 or 3 to 6.
Group four covers a wider age range, from 6 to 12. The children in this group have the same learning habits and tendencies. Their emotional and physical growth tends to be steadier, and their intellectual work is strong. In this group, the younger children are inspired by and learn from the older children. Finally, the next grouping is 12 to 15-year-olds. Montessori proposed a farm school for this age group, giving the children real farm work to do.
Read More on the Montessori Method
Stages vs. Planes of Development
Piaget based his theory on what he saw as a child’s stages of development. These included:
- Sensorimotor, from birth to 2 years. They use their senses to learn about the world.
- Preoperational Period, from 2 to 7 years. They learn and develop language and learning skills, but are self-centered, and can’t understand abstract reasoning or logic.
- Concrete Operational Period, from 7 to 11 years. Now they think logically and organize their knowledge. They classify objects and work on thought problems.
- Formal Operations Period, 11 to 15. The child starts reasoning more realistically about their future and deals better with abstractions.
Montessori worked using her own Planes of Development. These included:
- Birth to 3 years: An absorbent mind, learning from the sensory
- 18 months to 3 years: Begins muscle development and working on coordination – Likes smaller objects
- 2 to 4 years: Refines movements – Focuses on truth and reality – Develops awareness of order sequences in time and space
- 2.5 to 6 years: Sensory refinement
- 3 to 6 years: Becoming susceptible to adult influence
- 3.5 to 4.5 years: Works on writing
- 4 to 4. 4 years: Tactile senses begin to mature
- 4.5 to 5.5 years: Works on reading
4 years: Tactile senses begin to mature
Piaget vs. Vygotsky
Piaget didn’t spend much time thinking about a child’s social context. Instead, he believed that their cognitive development revolves around changes in the cognitive process and the child’s abilities. Early cognitive development uses processes based on actions, then progresses to changes in mental operations.
He used schemas or categorization to explain how children learn, using both the physical and mental in learning. Within schemas, assimilation and accommodation also take place. Children also place already-known information with newly learned information in a process called equilibration. In his theory of child and human development babies, toddlers, preschoolers, children, teens, and young adults progress through four stages of learning and development.
He said that the early cognitive development of a child involves processes that are based on actions. This development then progresses into changes in mental operations.
Vygotsky believed that social interactions have a big influence on the development of cognition. He also felt that the community surrounding a child holds a role in how children make meaning out of everything they see, learn, feel, and hear.
He introduced the More Knowledgeable Other as a source of experience and learning for a child. This MKO can be a parent, teacher, or relative of the child. This person can also be a younger child or teen who teaches an older adult or family friend about using electronics or learning a new dance, for instance.
Next, he introduced the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in where the most sensitive guidance should be provided, allowing the child to learn by practicing.
What Do They have in Common?
Between Piaget and Montessori, both psychologists believe that young children begin to work on the refinement of their movements early.
At 3.5 to 7 years (covering the developmental periods for both professionals), children begin to develop drawing and writing skills.
While Vygotsky didn’t divide child development into age groups, he did believe that a child could progress to this stage if that was what was culturally expected of him. If the majority of children in a certain age group know a certain skill, then one of them, or a teacher-figure, will act as the MKO for that child and he will inevitably also learn that skill.
In all three theories, the psychologists say that every child begins to learn about their world by using their senses. Vygotsky calls it “making meaning.” Piaget says that children obtain knowledge or their environment through the five senses.
Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is similar to Montessori’s Planes of Development and Piaget gives each developmental stage a name (sensorimotor, preoperational, formal operations).
Likewise, Vygotsky’s ZPD has an outer ring that denotes all the information that a child is not yet ready to learn.
Montessori’s planes of development show that some learning may be out of reach of children at various stages. Piaget does the same thing, noting that there are things children can’t learn until they reach a certain cognitive level.
Image from http://steppingstonesoflearning.blogspot.com
How These Theories Manifest in the Classroom
Children are social creatures. When they start school, they are one of 20 or more other students who are ready to begin formal learning.
Montessori created a model for learning that is known the world over. Montessori-based schools exist in most communities around the world. Individual classrooms and teachers in a Montessori school don’t teach traditionally. Instead, they are based on conducive learning, with multi-aged groups. The teacher doesn’t actively teach the entire classroom. Instead, they have a more generalized lesson plan. They introduce children to a concept using a book, lesson, or lecture. As the children learn, individually and with older children, they process the information, then “know” the knowledge and demonstrate this by passing a test, completing a project, expressing what they have learned, or by teaching another student.
Montessori said that children are always learning something new, which prepares them to learn another new thing. This is indirect learning. The entire class isn’t learning the same thing as classmates; they are working at their own pace, using the environment, and working with other classmates. The teacher teaches one child at a time. All areas of study link together and students can work on them in the order they choose.
In Piaget’s theory, assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration all work in a classroom setting. Children learn something new in the primary grades; as they progress grade by grade, they encounter the same information at a higher level of difficulty.
Vygotsky’s theory relies much more on the social interactions between children, adults, and society in general. Because of the social networks between children and their families, children can go to someone they know to ask for help in learning something new.
Constructivism Explained
“Constructivism” is a learning theory that says humans construct their knowledge using hands-on experience rather than being taught abstract concepts from books.
The teacher who uses constructivism in teaching students does everything they can to give students hands-on experiences, using people and objects. The teacher also asks students to use any skills they have already learned.
It’s a constructivist learning process to use materials to learn about assembly lines and what working conditions were like when assembly lines were most in use.
When the teacher has students use wrapping paper to determine whether it’s sufficient to wrap two cans, students put together a mathematical formula to determine a cylinder’s area.
It’s also constructivist to have students read persuasive articles, decide which of the articles have features that make them the most effective, and then create a rubric that includes all of those qualities for their own persuasive papers. Once they have written their reports out, they will be assigned to read more persuasive papers so they can fine-tune their criteria even more.
Maria Montessori was a constructivist.
She wrote, “Education is not something which the teacher does, but a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired by listening to words but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment.”
Lev Vygotsky was another constructivist. He wrote, “A child’s play is not simply a reproduction of what he has experienced, but a creative reworking of the impressions he has acquired. He combines them and uses them to construct a new reality.”
Jean Piaget was also a constructivist and said, “Each time one prematurely teaches a child something he could have discovered himself, that child is kept from inventing it and consequently from understanding it completely.”
Maria Montessori and the Montessori Method
Dr Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952) revolutionised early year’s education for children. She innovated and revolutionised the way we see the classroom and think about how children learn and develop. It was Montessori who understood how important it was to provide a secure, ordered, creative and happy environment for the child to develop at their own pace.
Her approach was to stimulate the child to learn through activity and play in the classroom using her unique apparatus to heighten awareness and to encourage their natural curiosity.
What makes a Montessori classroom so special and unique is that all the materials are at the child’s height and easily accessible. They are clean and uncluttered, with no distractions for the eye. In a Montessori classroom children walk about freely seeking activities, each child concentrates on a different task yet the whole group presents the appearance of perfect discipline. The classes are vertically grouped, mixed ages, so that the younger children learn from their elders and vice versa. The children learn through real experiences in a natural environment. In essence a Montessori classroom should be a home away from home full of interesting things to do and explore.
The role of the teachers is to act as directresses, first preparing an inviting, stimulating a safe environment and then guiding the children to learning opportunities and showing them ways of completing individual tasks, but ultimately the children learn and find out for themselves how to complete a chosen activity. As, we don’t all think and operate in our environment in the same way, we have all found unique ways to undertake everyday tasks. Children learn by doing and by providing children with the tools and opportunities to learn, their confidence and self-esteem will blossom.
Montessori designed resources which foster independence and a love for learning from a young age. These activities are naturally made or are as real to life as possible. If you walk around the classrooms you will see small jugs, funnels, sieves etc which the children practice pouring, transferring and other essential life skills.
It is only appropriate that Ladbroke Square Montessori School celebrate being the 100th Montessori school in the UK to be accredited by the Montessori Board, in 2011.
Notable Montessori Students
Prince William, Prince Harry and Prince George – All three have attended Montessori nurseries
Mark Zuckerberg – Co Founder of Facebook
George Clooney – Academy award-winning actor, director, humanitarian
Jeff Bezos – Amazon founder
Andrew Lloyd Webber – English composer of musical theatre
Beyonce Knowles – Singer, songwriter, 16-time Grammy award-winner
Anne Hathaway – Actress
Sergey Brin & Larry Page – Co founders of Google
Sean ‘P Diddy’ Coombs – Grammy award-winning musician
Anne Frank – Famous diarist
Jimmy Wales – Co founder of Wikipedia
Alan Ricman – Actor
Yo Yo Ma – Cellist
Juila Child – Celebrity chef & author
Supporters/advocates
Dianna Princess of Wales – began her career in a Montessori Nursery
Dali lama’s – Tibetan Refugee Children’s (TRC) schools are Montessori schools
Alexander Graham Bell (inventor). He and his wife founded the Montessori Education Association in 1913
Thomas Edison, scientist and inventor, helped found a Montessori school.
Jean Piaget, noted Swiss psychologist, made his first observations of children in a Montessori school. He was also head of the Swiss Montessori Society for many years.
Willie Nelson, musician, has a Montessori school on his ranch
Mahatma Gandhi – met with Maria Montessori many times and spoke at the Montessori Training College in London. Montessori and Gandhi both strongly believed that to have real peace, we must begin with our children.
Sigmund Freud told Montessori, “If everyone had your schools, they wouldn’t need me!”
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http://pedsovet.org/index.php?option=com_simplefaq&task=display&Itemid=68&catid=93 Hello. Reply. Indeed, Maria Montessori began her work with children with disabilities or, as they were then called, idiots. After the triumph at the Roman School Olympics at 19In the year 00, when in writing and reading her children overtook normal, medically healthy children, she concluded that if this is possible, then this means that something is being done wrong with the so-called normal children, they are somehow not being taught. Since that time, all her activities have been connected with medically healthy children. I note, by the way, that no one expresses doubts about the effectiveness of L.V. Zankov, on the grounds that its author worked for a long time at the Defetological Institute and was even its director. But back to M. Montessori. Based on the ideas of experimental psychology, Montessori explores the child and creates his own environmental pedagogy. What are the conceptual provisions of this system? nine0010 Author: Khusainova Gulnaz Il In short, the meaning of M. Montessori’s system can be defined as “the free work of children in a specially prepared environment.
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Knowledge of Montessori pedagogy will be useful to modern parents
The theory of an outstanding teacher is built on the characteristics of children’s physiology and psyche
How many small objects, toys and games designed for the successful development and upbringing of kids seem unremarkable, even ordinary things to us. We come to the store, buy cubes, buckets, spatulas, mosaics, and for some reason have not doubted their usefulness for a long time. But someone has been developing the world of children’s toys for a long time, inventing, studying the addictions of preschoolers, planning the most favorable environment for the life and activities of children. The name of Maria Montessori not only entered the history of pedagogy, but the work of her whole life continues to live and develop to this day. Today we decided to acquaint readers with the peculiarity of her program, tell about what didactic material the founder of this method recommends, and also tell you how to create a miniature Montessori center at home. nine0008
How Montessori pedagogy appeared
The Montessori system was not built in one day. It was created by the first Italian female pediatrician, Maria Montessori, in close collaboration with the founder of genetic psychology, Jean Piaget, and Freud’s daughter, child psychologist Anna Freud. Maria decided to take up pedagogy in those days when she began medical practice at a university clinic where children with disabilities were treated. The newly minted Aesculapius had to watch a picture of how, after dinner, unoccupied children crawled on the floor, collected crumbs and sculpted balls from them. What-no, but a game. No one was involved in their development, no one helped to fill the children’s leisure time. Montessori concluded that dementia is more a pedagogical problem than a medical one, and it should be solved not in hospitals and clinics, but in kindergartens and schools. nine0008
The doctor actively began to work on didactic (developing) material for both lagging and healthy children and developed a unique method of teaching writing and reading.
On what pillars the famous model of raising children rests
Kindergarten teachers in the process of training take a course of familiarization with the program of an Italian scientist, so we decided to contact Olesya Simchuk, a teacher of the middle group of kindergarten 51, who willingly uses Montessori techniques in your work. nine0008
— Interest is the first thing that the founder of the theory highlights in her pedagogy. The second is an individual approach,” says a kindergarten employee. The third is a high stake on the sensory development of children.
This approach lies in the fact that each child is allowed to do what he wants at this moment, because only he himself knows exactly what he needs to develop right now. Although there are some guidelines here. So, M. Montessori drew attention, and modern psychology confirmed that a child from the moment of birth and up to 6 years has periods (lasting a year, three years) when he most easily and naturally learns certain things. We have already called these periods sensitive in our articles. So, from birth to 6 years, the development of speech goes through several stages, and up to 5.5 years – sensory development (development of the organs of vision, hearing, smell, tactile sensations). On average, from 2.5 years to 6 years, the baby develops and consolidates social skills. At this time, children easily perceive forms of polite or rude behavior that become the norms of their lives. nine0008
Why the first schools with the Italian doctor’s program were closed in our country
Montessori groups brought up free, independent thinking people. In countries with a totalitarian regime, democratic pedagogy, which nurtured a free, creative generation, did not take root in any way. Most kindergartens in our country continue to operate according to the standard curriculum, and no reform in preschool education is expected. While attending a parent meeting recently, I, the author of the article, witnessed the dissatisfaction of some parents with the fact that for the summer all children will be united and there will be several groups of different ages. Parents were worried that the older children, communicating with the kids, would forget everything they had learned in a year. nine0008
Modern fathers and mothers would know that children teach other children better, and by teaching they themselves hone their knowledge, skills and abilities. And in our adult life, we communicate with those who are older than us, and with those who are younger. For example, Maria Montessori noticed this almost 100 years ago and filled her classes with children of different ages, highlighting two groups. In the first, she recommended that children be engaged from 3 to 6 years old, in the second – from 6 to 12. A number of studies have confirmed the fact that up to six years a child builds his mind, and after six he actively masters culture. nine0008
Montessori pedagogy returned to Russia in 1992. A Montessori Center has been opened in Moscow, which trains preschool teachers. Established contacts with AMI. In Irkutsk, according to the head of the department of preschool education, Galina Alexandrovna Itskova, there are no preschool institutions that implement the program of Maria Montessori in its pure form, and state kindergartens use only a number of elements.
“Private boarding houses, kindergartens and centers often claim to be Maria Montessori when they attract clients,” explains an official from the Department of Education. “However, this is just a publicity stunt for Irkutsk entrepreneurs. nine0008
We develop physical qualities: dexterity, flexibility, speed, coordination of movements
There will be no full mental development without physical development. The child has a lot of energy that should be directed in the right direction. Therefore, it is recommended that every kid at home equip a sports corner with swings, ladders, bars, swords, rings, slides. Prepare hard and soft mats for kids to play. Which rug is especially pleasant for a child to be on – let him crawl on them naked. Make a tactile path yourself (in one area – pieces of fabric that are different to the touch, on the other – flat buttons, massage devices). Usually children crawl on it with pleasure on their stomachs, on all fours, and run barefoot. Draw a line at home on the floor to coordinate movements and invite the child to walk along it barefoot, in shoes, on socks, with objects in their hands, while not stepping over the line. nine0008
Adults can make low bean bags and tumbling mats that children will finally be allowed to jump on. The sports corner can be filled with other attributes – balls of various sizes, bags weighing 1-3 kilograms, a hoop.
How to form a child’s skills for everyday life
In addition to sports items, we advise you to prepare things for your child to develop skills in practical life. In order for the child to know where his clothes are hanging, to be able to hang them up, undress, dress and put on shoes on their own, he needs to build a clothes hanger and a shoe rack in accordance with his height. Next to these things it is necessary to place a brush and a cloth for cleaning shoes in cases. In addition to the sports corner, the child simply needs his own workplace – a table and a chair. nine0008
Mom diversifies the baby’s games if she builds with her own hands a basket or a box with wallets, pockets with various fasteners (on one product – a zipper, on the second – a button, on the third – Velcro, a button, a ribbon, and so on). Children examine wallets with special interest, put objects in them, unfasten and fasten them. Children are very interested in looking at themselves in the mirror. And if he is also given a comb, then he will immediately begin to put in order not only himself, but also mom and dad. From the point of view of children, this activity is quite fascinating and develops the ability to handle objects, teaches them to be independent and accurate. nine0008
In addition to a comb and a mirror, the child should be provided with a towel and soap that will be at the level of his height, so that he can use them at any time. Prepare for children’s games a bag of grain, a spoon, two bowls and two containers. The child learns to carefully shift the grain with a spoon from one cup to another, pour it from one vessel to another. After such manipulations, the baby will be able to impeccably, unlike his peers, add granulated sugar to his mug of tea. What a pleasant feeling a child gets when he puts his pen in a bag of grain! He is pleased to hear the sound of falling grains. nine0008
For the successful development of boys and girls, it is necessary to have a lot of vessels, watering cans, spatulas, molds for playing with natural materials. The child carefully pours water from a jug into a jug, from a jug into glasses, from a teapot into a mug. Adults do not understand what emotions a child experiences when immersing a sponge in a basin of water. So he pressed it, and some water ran through his hands. The kid, imitating his mother, tries to wipe or wash the table with a sponge.
Fine motor skills development
Why should children develop their hands and fingers? By developing fine motor skills in children, we activate not only the coordination center of the fingers in the cerebral cortex, but also influence the nearby speech center. Human thinking, his mental activity is closely connected with the development of speech. The way a person speaks, the way he thinks, and the way he thinks. For the development of the hand, fine motor skills of children, make a basket or simply beautifully sheathe an ordinary box with a fabric and fill it with small soft toys. The child will be happy to feel them, remember the colors, name them. nine0008
Why do we recommend making baskets, cases or boxes for all items? The fact is that the Montessori method calls for accustoming children to order. It is impossible not to say about the short period of perception of order (from birth to 3 years). It actually determines the relationship of the baby with the world, because it concerns not only the order in the environment, but also in time (the child’s internal clock starts), as well as in interactions with adults. Parents and teachers create order in those things that are necessary for the development of the child, and there are a lot of them. All these cups, trays, sponges and brushes, as well as sticks and cubes, beads and rods, cards and boxes, if put in disorder, can only cause a feeling of powerlessness before the chaos of the world. nine0008
For the development of fine motor skills, it is proposed to pick up large wooden beads: unpainted polished wood of various shapes (balls, prisms, pyramids, cubes, and others) and primary colors. The child will diligently and with genuine interest learn to string beads. It is very easy to prepare a basket for leisure, along the edges of which there are clothespins. Let the children independently remove and attach the clothespins to the edge of the basket. Dads will also help you choose the developing material, having made, in addition to wooden beads, wooden carnations with a hammer. At first the child will hit them unconsciously, and then unmistakably. All these simple exercises improve coordination of movements according to the principle of the eyes: hand, form voluntary attention, logical thinking. nine0008
Now the store is full of large and small cups, which are made like nesting dolls. Children learn to independently disassemble inset cups, fold correctly (by trial and error), build turrets, and line up in size.
Developing sensing at home – sensory perception and sensations
It is also useful to pay great attention to the organs of hearing, sight, smell and tactile perception. To do this, you will need musical instruments (tambourines, metallophones, pipes, drums), objects that are different to the touch and smell of the substance. It is advised for kids to sew colorful bags and fill them with different materials: sand, rice, peas, pebbles, dry leaves, straws, balls. Let the children describe their feelings to their parents. Sew buttons of different sizes onto the fabric and make fasteners or eyelets for them. You can come up with exciting games with multi-colored shoelaces, with different-to-touch fabrics, paper, objects (smooth, rough, cold, warm, wet, dry). nine0008
Adults can make unpretentious boxes with different smells (coffee, perfume, garlic, lemon, chocolate) – just enough imagination, and let the child guess with closed eyes what this aroma belongs to. If a child is introduced to letters, then it is best to make them from rough paper pasted on planks. By tracing them with a finger, the future student remembers not only the letter itself, but also how to write it.