Towards a Constructivist Montessori Education.
Year: 2004
Type: article
Abstract: This article argues that the Montessori method can be recast as a viable contemporary, constructivist programme for early childhood Montessori believed that children in
the crucial years from birth to age six possess extraordinary, innate mental powers to absorb
the environment. This view was typical of the now outdated zeitgeist within which Montessori
developed her innatist account of learning in children and put forward the concept of sensorial
activity. Critiques of Montessori along anti-innatist lines developed by both Piaget and Vygotsky
in the 1930s provide the possibility of a break with static, innatist conceptions of learning. The
suggestion here is that while Piaget and Vygotsky both held Montessori in high regard, they
were unhappy with her construal of sensory education. Each wanted to use her method and
materials as a vehicle for the constructive activity that children engage in when they learn. The
paper argues that Montessori's early notion of activity can be the basis for a contemporary reappropriation
of her work in the terms of cognitive developmental constructivism.
Source: Perspectives in Education
Author: Ian Moll
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $190
OpenAlex ID: W204989501