Saturday, September 24, 2011

Use rewards carefully & sparingly

In Montessori schools ( 3rd year to 12th year), there are no stars, merits, honor rolls or grades. It is believed that offering rewards to motivate a child is not useful for long term development of child. If you  understand why, it will help you decide when to reward and how.

Rewards are of two types: intrinsic & extrinsic. Extrinsic rewards motivate when someone is not motivated to do something. However, if a person is intrinsically motivated, expected extrinsic rewards actually interfere with the subsequent interest.(**) As young children are 'intrinsically motivated' in Montessori, they therefore do not need any extrinsic reward. Have you seen a four year old 'motivationally-deficient' child?

In a Montessori this can be observed whenever an inexperienced Montessori Adult (teacher is called an adult) repeatedly offers an extrinsic reward such as patting on the back or praising a child. When such an adult  pats on the back after a successful performance of an activity, the child takes up 'easy' activities which he believes he can accomplish with certainty.  He keeps on repeating the same activities that he can do easily to get the extrinsic reward. More detrimentally, the child avoids 'new activities' because they are inherently challenging. When he takes up new activities, he gives up easily when he encounters the smallest of difficulty. He has to be persuaded to take it again. Even if the Montessori adult repeatedly requests him to take up the new activity by using innovative methods, the child sensing the adult's urgency, resists it more.  In a Montessori house, where a child is supposed to choose his own activities, this can derail the child's development. Therefore, any form of extrinsic rewards is are not offered to the child in a Montessori house.

In a Montessori, if you watch a child finishing an activity successfully, you will find him contended and satisfied. For him, accomplishing a purposeful activity through his barely developed coordinated movement is a great intrinsic reward. His first reaction after accomplishing a purposeful activity in Montessori is therefore to do nothing for a while or take a tiffin break, or do a relaxing activity such as drawing with a metal inset . He does not 'seek' any extrinsic reward, because he is intrinsically motivated.


Metal insets ( also called as Drawing insets) used in Montessori House of Children

After understanding the dynamics of reward and how it affects the child's behaviour, following rules may be helpful in deciding when and how to reward child's behaviour at home:

1. Do not offer rewards to the child for normal expected routine behaviour

Offering rewards for normal work like waking up early from the bed, brushing teeth, or eating food sets up a a vicious loop of behaviour, as the child starts expecting reward for every normal activity. For instance, if the parents offer reward for eating food, you will find that the child wants reward for eating food every time. Vicious loop sets in. Changing the behaviour of child now is very difficult ! Later, we shall see how to alter such patterns of behaviour.

Parents also offer rewards for doing homework in a traditional school. Research has shown that child's intrinsic motivation in traditional school declines every year. In such a low-motivation situation, extrinsic reward paradoxically do tend to motivate the child to perform the homework. This is a catch-22 situation for parents whose children are in traditional school.

2. For performing a challenging activity, like walking on a rope or walking stairs downwards, offer 'smart help' to the child.

Here the intrinsic reward rule applies. For the child, doing the challenging activity itself is a big intrinsic reward. Do not spoil his real enjoyment. At the most, give a tap on his shoulder or show your affection that is commonly used.  If you want to encourage him, praise his 'act' to others subtly in his presence.

3.  Use rewards to show your 'affection' and love, not for producing successful outcome in an activity

By their very nature, efforts is not linearly proportional to outcome. Sometimes, effort produce the desired outcomes, sometimes it does not. There is a whole 'science' to explain why. But, by offering 'rewards' for successful outcomes, we unknowingly push the child in believing that  'outcomes are entirely in his control', which is not true. This belief causes so much 'stress' in the child that it directly impacts his performance.

In other words, give rewards as 'gifts', not as rewards. Find occassions to give gifts and let the child know that you 'love' him irrespective of anything. That assurance to child is more helpful than any other  reward.

4.  If you want to shower praise on your child, always praise the 'behaviour'.

Very often we praise the child by saying he is 'good boy' or a 'good girl'.  Such 'global praise' does more harm to the child, because it makes him see himself as either 'white' or 'black'. Instead, praise the child's behaviour, such as ' I liked your sharing of chocolate with Rinky'.

Girl using metal inset for drawing


** This is surprising to many, but the research support is very strong. For more details, read this summary in Angelina Lillard's book " Montessori, the science behind Genius" 

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Unique feature of Montessori

There are many features in Montessori. However, if I was asked to name just one feature and leave the rest, i would name this one: Montessori method is development-centric as compared to learning-centric methods of other traditional pre-schools.






Dr Maria Montessori's ( 1870-1952)
 Source: http://www.michaelolaf.net/maria.html

Learning-centric method promotes intelligence building. In these schools, the primary emphasis is on learning language, arithmetic, or any other subject. Although intelligence facilitates development, not all learning results in development. For instance, when a child between 2-5 is taught A to Z, or 1 to 100, the child 'absorbs' this content indiscriminately and may also repeat everything without a mistake. We call this 'mugging' in common parlance. This kind of learning does not promote development.  Secondly, learning-centric methods rely more on 'direct' learning. That is why you see traditional schools use instruction and blackboard as its major tool.


Development-centric method like Montessori, on the other hand, primarily focus on developing a child's personality. That is why, you will find, the method focusses on developing traits like concentration, patience and others. Development-centric methods rely on 'indirect' tools to promote development, because one cannot 'teach' patience and concentration by exhorting or urging children. For instance, in the earlier blog, we saw the amount of effort the montessori invests in creating the right environment for the child to promote his social development.


Out of different traits, Montessori method specifically focuses on developing 'concentration' in children by coordinating different variables in a Montessori environment such as letting child chose his activities, designing material ( and its activities) that progressively challenge a child to perform the activity repeatedly, and letting the child be with an activity for as long as he wishes. By the way, developmental psychologists believe that long attention-span (in other words, concentration) is a biggest differentiator that separates talented from average individuals. Montessori prepares this foundation at a young age. 

Development-centric methods also approach learning in a very different way. For instance, Montessori uses these three variables to promote learning: 

1. Active engagement: A child can learn only when he performs his own activities and repeats them ad infinitum. That is why Montessori materials are designed in a way that keeps on throwing challenges to a child and keeps him engaged in performing activities repeatedly. A set of 4 cylinder blocks enable a child to perform 100+ different activities, each with a different type of challenge.

3. Isolating one concept at a time: In order to avoid confusion, the child is always introduced with one concept at at one time in Montessori. For instance, one set of  cylinder blocks isolates 'thick and thin' diameters of cylinder by keeping the length of a cylinder block same, another set of cylinder blocks isolate 'short and long' cylinders by keeping the 'diameter' same. If you see this video of cylinder block on You tube, you will understand what i am saying. Only after the child is introduced to varying diameters and lengths, the child is introduced to third set of cylinder blocks  that changes both the diameters and lengths at the same time. 


In language-learning, this method causes confusion in the parent's mind. Out of five different sounds of 'a', the child is initially introduced to only one sound of 'a' vowel  ( which is  'a' as in cat). Because of this, the child pronounces some words 'wrongly' where 'a' is pronounced differently. For instance, until the child is introduced to other four sounds of 'a', child pronounces even the 'a' in ball as 'a' in cat. Montessorians have to often caution parents to avoid correcting the child at this stage. 

3. Making unconscious conscious : A child of less than 5 can learn anything unconsciously, because his mind absorbs everything like a sponge. Dr Maria Montessori calls it an absorbent mind. Learning however happens only when the child converts 'unconscious impressions into conscious'. For instance, a child learns to  speak a word unconsciously. But he learns only when he consciously distinguishes the sound of each syllable and then convert those sounds into 'words'. Montessori follows this method everywhere.


Because of the money in education, many chains have entered this pre-school segment at a national level. Today, as parents, it is therefore necessary to understand different methods of education and not get drowned in the 'jargon' of education. As parents, you are today compelled to separate wheat from chaff and take an informed decision for your child, because your child's future is at stake. 


Which approach do you think is a better approach to develop and teach your child? Montessori or other Pre-schools ? If you have any doubts, please feel free to ask.



Wednesday, September 7, 2011

How Montessori promotes social development of a child



If Montessori promotes individual work, many parents ask, does it not prevent or retard social development of a child. Let us understand how Montessori promotes social development of child through it's well crafted design of environment. 

Before understanding how, let us clarify what is social development? Social development is not sitting with someone else and listening others talk, joke, blabber, or pat each other’s back. That is called 'gregarious'. Social development, more specifically, is being able to sit with others to solve common problems and pursue aims acceptable to all. 

With the latter definition of social development, fostering social development requires developing five traits: Acquiring self discipline to speak what is necessary, respecting others time and presence, taking care of common resources that belong to all, listening to others with patience, and utilizing each other's strengths to seek help or help others when necessary. 

Let us see how these traits are encouraged indirectly in a Montessori design.  No scholastic material is prepared to develop social skills of a child; instead, in a Montessori, an environment is created that invokes specific experiences in a child, which in turn promotes social development.

For instance, in a Montessori, as many of the Montessori apparatus are found in only single sets, the child, who does not find what he wants to work with, needs to wait for it to come back to the shelf. This fosters patience and tolerance towards other children in the environment. The child learns to control the urge to grab the material from others and has to instead learn to be patient with others.

Unlike in traditional school, a child in a Montessori has the freedom to move and work wherever he wants to. To work, he has to place his work-mat anywhere he wishes in the class ( in Montessori, a class is called an environment), and carry the material to his work mat. However, he quickly finds out that his freedom is not limitless. Like others can disturb him, he also realizes that he can be a source of disturbance to others. He has to therefore learn to inhibit his impulse to disturb others if he has to enjoy his own freedom of working himself. Unknowingly he learns to respect others. A child is not taught to respect others, instead he learns this through his own experience in a Montessori.

In a Montessori, a child has to take care of the material himself.  Because everyone shares one set of material, the child understands that the materials are common resources used by everyone.  He not only has to take care of the material while working, but also has to keep it back  in the same state of preparedness and completeness that he fetched the material, after finishing his activity. This itself promotes self-discipline and acute awareness of other’s needs, an important trait of social development

In a Montessori, children with mixed age group work together. Children with 3-6 age work together in one class in Montessori, not in separate classes. In such a set up, a junior child seeks help from senior child because a child can communicate better with other child, than with the adult ( in Montessori, teachers are called adults). A child initiates speaking with each other whenver he wishes, instead of being indirectly pushed to do so. Older children therefore become heroes and teachers of the younger children, as younger children intuitively understand that when they will become older they will be able to do what older children can do. This social experience of helping each other in a Montessori strongly promotes social development. Additionally the diversity in a Montessori enables  the child to interact with different type of children: boisterous, silent, bubbly, demanding, whining etc.

Due to the brilliant design of environment, a child in Montessori develops socially through experiencing different situations , instead of intellectual reasoning or by given constant instructions of 'Be patient'. In other words, careful design of environment of a Montessori promotes social development. A play school may help gregarious development, but it is not enough to promote social development.  

Which do you think is a more powerful method to promote social development: Montessori or a traditional play school? 



Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Parenting in a montessori way

Parents have scanty information on how to develop their children of less than 5 years.We will keep on writing about it. Here are few ideas that can be used from Montessori:  http://build-a-corporate-career.blogspot.com/2011/08/parenting-in-montessori-way.html

Enjoy Parenting. 

What is a Montessori school?


Even a playschool today calls itself a Montessori school. So let us pause and understand the background of Montessori school.

In the year 1939, the Theosophical Society of India extended an invitation to the Dr Maria Montessori, who had started her first Montessori school in Rome, Italy in 1907 as part of a slum development project due to very fortuitous circumstances. The outbreak of World War II made Maria extend her stay in India till 1949, although she returned to Europe for a brief period. Over this period, Maria Montessori conducted sixteen Montessori Training Courses, laying a very sound foundation for the Montessori movement in India. Because she made Adayar, Chennai her home, Montessori schools are perhaps more popular in Chennai and Bengalaru.

Bengalaru today has two accredited training centers and supposed to have 500+ Montessori schools till the age of 6, four Montessori schools till the primary grade, and two till 8th grade. By the way, US has more than 2000 Montessori schools. Larry Page and Sergie Brown (founders of Google), the two most vocal and popular Montessorians, have probably made Montessori more a household name than anyone else, I guess. 

Montessori method of education originated for children between 3-6 years. At this age, the child cannot be developed through 'verbal instructions' because of the nature of his mind, what is called as absorbent mind. At this age, the child absorbs everything indiscriminately like a sponge. So what can one do at this age to develop a child?


Montessori method uses about 600+ activities to help the child between three and six. Because a child at this age primarily uses body and finger movements at this age, Dr Maria Montessori designed 150+ scientific material kits to engage a child's interest and attention. These material kits classified in four categories: exercises of practical life, sensorial, language and arithmetic, each meant to serve a specific purpose, have been perfected over a long period of trials. Please note that the primary purpose of Montessori method is not to teach  the child something, but to develop him.  


Dr Montessori designed these material kits after about 10 years of study. She had a academic background of medicine. Working in a Psychiatry department of a hospital, she ran a school for mentally challenged children without any experience, because she believed that ‘mentally challenged children require developmental or educational treatment, and not medicinal treatment’. When these students fared better than normal students in the state-administered tests,  the world noticed Dr Montessori's work for the first time.

Dr Montessori however felt that these methods can be used for normal children. She studied and incorporated the scientific work of Dr Seguin and Dr Itard , two developmental psychologists, to develop the Montessori method. Her first lab to test her approach, however, could be initiated only when she was invited by a building contractor to start a school for the children of his construction workers in 1907. 

The world took notice of Dr Montessori's work when visitors like Mayor, Kings and Queens, educationists and other experts visited the school and got surprised at what they saw. They observed that children of 3-6 years worked on their own without any 'teacher' to supervise them, greeted outsiders gracefully and concentrated on an activity without anyone overseeing their work. (Montessori class does not have a blackboard and does not follow group teaching).

At the age of 6, a Montessori child is self-disciplined, can concentrate on an activity for a long time, and is well-balanced. In short, the foundation of his personality is laid. Other benefits of Montessori method are supposed to be a bonus. Because of his self-control (not externally-imposed control), a Montessori child also learns faster. For instance, by six he can write a 1-page essay in English language on a subject and can perform fractions in arithmetic.