COMPARISON
Montessori vs. Traditional Classroom
MONTESSORI EDUCATION |
TRADITIONAL EDUCATION |
| Teacher has unobtrusive role in class, the facilitator. | Teacher is the centre of classroom, the controller |
| Environment and method encourage self discipline | Teacher acts as primary enforcer of discipline |
| Mainly individual instruction | Mainly group instruction |
| Mixed age grouping | Same age group |
| Child chooses own work while teacher monitors progress. | Teacher assigns work to child |
| Child discovers own concepts from self-teaching, self-correcting materials | Child is shown concepts by teacher and corrected by teacher |
| Child works as long as he wishes on chosen projects | Child generally allocated specific time for givenwork |
| Child sets own learning pace and reinforces own learning by repetition of work and internal feeling of success | Instruction pace usually set by group norm.If work is corrected, errors are pointed out or praise comes from the teacher |
| Multi-sensory materials for physical exploration | Few, but increasingly more |
| Child can work where he chooses, move around and talk at will yet not disturb others at work, also participate in group projects | Child often assigned own place. Required to participate, sit still and listen during groups |
| Teacher facilitates organised programme for learning, care of self and environment | Care of self and environment left primarily to parents |
