MONTESSORI
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TRADITIONAL |
| Views the child holistically, valuing cognitive, psychological, social and spiritual development. |
Views the child in terms of competence, skill level and achievement with an emphasis on core curricula standards and social development. |
| Child is an active participant in learning; allowed to move about and respectfully explore the classroom environment; teacher is an instructional facilitator and guide. |
Child is a more passive participant in learning; teacher has a more dominant, central role in classroom activity. |
| A carefully prepared learning environment and method encourages development of internal self-discipline and intrinsic motivation. |
Teacher acts as a primary enforcer of external discipline promoting extrinsic motivation. |
| Instruction, both individual and group, adapts to students' learning styles and developmental levels. |
Instruction, both individual and group, adapts to core curricula benchmarks. |
| Three-year span of age grouping, three-year cycles allow teacher, students, and parents to develop supportive, collaborative and trusting relationships. |
Same-age and/or skill level grouping; one-year cycles can limit development of strong teacher, student, and parent collaboration. |
| Grace, courtesy, and conflict resolution are integral part of daily Montessori peace curriculum. |
Conflict resolution is usually taught separately from daily classroom activity. |
| Values concentration and depth experience; supplies uninterrupted time for focused work cycle to develop. |
Values completion of assignments; time is tightly scheduled. |
| Child's learning pace is internally determined. |
Instructional pace usually set by core-curricula standard expectations, group norm or teacher. |
| Child allowed to spot own errors through feedback from the materials; errors are viewed as part of the learning process. |
Work is usually corrected by the teacher; errors are viewed as mistakes. |
| Learning is reinforced internally through the child's own repetition of an activity and internal feelings of success. |
Learning is reinforced externally by test scores and rewards, competition and grades. |
| Care of self and environment emphasized as integral to the learning experience. |
Less emphasis on self-care, spatial awareness, and care of the environment. |
| Child can work where he/she is comfortable and the child often has choices between working alone or with a group that is highly collaborative among older students. |
Child is usually assigned a specific work space; talking among peers discouraged. |
| Multi-disciplinary, interwoven curriculum. |
Curriculum areas usually taught as separate topics. |
| Child learns to share leadership; egalitarian interaction is encouraged. |
Hierarchical classroom structure is more prominent. |
| Progress is reported through multiple formats: conferences, narrative reports, checklists and portfolio of student's work. |
Progress is usually reported through conferences, report cards/grades, and test scores. |
| Children are encouraged to teach, collaborate, and help each other. |
Most teaching is done by teacher and collaboration is an alternative teaching strategy. |
| Child is provided opportunities to choose own work from interest and abilities, concepts taught within context of interest. |
Curricula organized and structured for child based on core curricula standards. |
| Goal is to foster a love of learning. |
Goal is to master core curricula objectives. |
