Montessori is not activity based learning

Because of the numerous activities used in Montessori method, Montessori is often confused with Activity based learning. However, Montessori method instead strives to re-configure the balance between EAN ( Execution Attention Network) and DMN ( Domain mode Network). EAN is used when the child does activities, while DMN is used with the child is doing internal focused tasks like, daydreaming, reflecting, and changing the perspective. When a child uses activity alone, it is considered to be autistic because he is using too much of EAN, and when a child uses DMN, we consider it to be schizophrenic. The key is balancing EAN and DMN.

Here is how Montessori method balances the EAN and DMN in a pre-school: 

1. Utilising Sense of order

Montessori method uses the time before and after an activity. That is why it stresses on the importance of taking the kit from the shelf as well as keeping it back on the shelf. It also uses the child's sense of keeping things in order such as when the child keeps the boots on the rack, hanging the bag on a specific place and so on. These 'non-activities' use the DMN network of a child.

2. Doing an activity end to end

In Montessori method, EPL activities for instance, have several steps before the activity and after the activity. For instance , pounding activity has several steps before the activity (taking the apron, using oil cloth, taking the nuts in a vessel, putting it in the pastle) of pounding. Similarly, there are activities after pounding. Infact one of the central activity is sharing the pounded nuts with other children. This series of activities enable the child to look at the 'purpose' of an activity and not just the key activity. Shifting the attention to the purpose of activity enables the child to balance between DMN and EAN networks.

3. Creating child-centric method

Unlike any ABL method, the child can 'chose' his own set of activity and perform it as many time as he wishes. As long as the child sits on the working mat, child has freedom of not doing anything in Montessori method. In Montessori, child's voluntary efforts to do any activity are considered to be important if his learning has to happen. Montessori method is student-driven method while ABL is teacher-driven method.

4. Focus on behavioural pattern of child to imbibe the learning habits 

In Montessori, there are EPL, Sensorial, Language and Mathematical activities arranged according to the age of child. These activities, although predetermined, are offered to the child according to his age and the challenge it offers to the child. The focus is not on teaching a 'concept' to a child like in ABL. The focus is on developing three 'behavioural habits/patterns' of a child that aid the child in deepen his learning such as choice, mistake-fearlessness, and patience. Montessori method is development centric method, while ABL is learning-centric method.

Summary

In short, Activity based learning is learning-centric teacher-driven methodology while Montessori method is development-centric student driven methodology.

On the surface, Montessori method looks like an activity based method. But if you scratch the surface and delve deeper, you will realise that activity is used as a 'tool' to serve a different 'end'. In Montessori, Activities are used to help the child to develop the foundation of the personality of a child while in Activity based method, activities are used to help the child learn something better and faster.

To alter child's behaviour, it is important to follow the child

If you have read the last month's blog on five levels of learning, you will understand that the school mainly helps the child in learning at a cognitive level ( Level 1 to 3). But some alternative schools, like Waldorf and Montessori, also help the child in developing the 'appropriate behaviours' by following the child.  Here is one example that happened in a Montessori.

In Montessori, adults ( or teachers) are taught to follow the child. This example of learning, described below, occurred at the dining table of a Montessori.

Courtesy: Sapience Montessori face book page

Two children, let us call them Neil and Saket, were eating their tiffin on the dining table. Neil had brought Sabudhana Khicdi , which Saket loves very much. Saket therefore asked for a tbsp of Khichdi to Neil. Neil refused. Saket asked the Montessori Adult to intervene. In such situations, Montessori adult takes a back seat and follows the child. So she asked Saket to directly request Neil. Saket again requested Neil for Khichdi. 

After sometime, Neil gave him a tbsp of khichdi. Saket ate it. But he asked for more. Saket was not eating his tiffin. He kept on looking at Neil's tiffin. He even tried once/twice to directly take the Khichdi from Neil's tiffin. Neil blocked Saket's hand. Saket continued to request, very emotionally. After sometime, Neil again gave him a tbsp of Khichdi. Saket ate it quickly and again asked for more. Then he waited for Neil to give him Khichdi. Neil again gave him a tbsp after some time. Again Saket ate and waited. This drama continued for 10-15 minutes. During this 10-15 minutes, Neil gave him 5-7 tbsp of Khichdi. Saket continued to ask for more but also waited. Neil, who normally does not finish his tiffin, ate his full tiffin that day. Saket waited until his Khichdi was over and then he opened his tiffin. 

What did Saket learn? First, he learnt to request for something which he wanted. Generally children do not learn this. When they want something, they grab it, pull it or cry when they do not get it. Saket avoided these three actions and continued to request in a very right tone. Two, Saket learnt to wait patiently for Neil until he gave. This is perhaps the most difficult habit to learn. Patience. Saket learnt to practice 'patience'. More than anything this habit determines the extent to which the 'potential' of a child unfolds.

What did Neil learn? First, he learnt to 'share'. Neil is an independent child when it comes to eating. He neither asks for any 'food item' from others, nor does he 'give' it to others. For the first time in 4 months, time he 'gave', even though it was little. Surprisingly, 3 days after the event, he brought in Khichdi and gave it to Saket without being requested. No amount of 'cajoling' would have helped Neil's behaviour to change to 'sharing'. Second, he also learnt that 'requesting' for some food item is OK. Next day, Neil asked for a 'cheese dosa' from another girl student. Neil had changed his behaviour.

Many parents want their children to change their child's behaviour, for instance, the habit of sharing, waiting for someone, or requesting before shouting. But they resort to wrong methods - instructing, cajoling, black-mailing, or exhorting. Parents do not know that they cannot change their child's behaviour just by 'instructing' the child. Parents can only 'enable' the conditions and hope that the child learns from it.

Unfortunately, parents are too biased to notice learning situations.  For instance, when i told the above example later to parents, many fathers and mothers said that they would have asked their child 'not to ask for any food item' ( like Saket did). They think that it is akin to begging. Some parents also said that they would have asked their child to 'share'.

Some parents have intuitive sense of what should be done in a situation. But most parents do not know how to enable such 'dense situations' that are ripe for learning. Such dense situations - where emotions and real events happen - are required for learning. Once the situation has been 'enabled', it is important to step back and not interfere in the learning process by letting the 'biases' interfere. In the above example, Montessori adult ( or teacher) watched the proceedings without making any comment. She just followed the children. She was careful to see that Saket did not 'put' his hand in the tiffin of Neil, for instance. Neither did she ask Saket to eat his own tiffin and not 'ask' for anything.

This is a paradox. If you want to change the child's behaviour, it is important to 'follow the child', instead of leading the child. Many parents want to inculcate the right 'culture' ( or what they call 'Sanskar' in marathi or Hindi) in their children, but they do not know how.  Instead of following the child, they constantly try to lead the child.

Learning is painful, individualistic and idiosyncratic

There is a huge difference between learning and teaching. To understand learning, one has to see it. But how can one see learning when learning happens in the head. So here is a chance to see learning 'happen'. See this video tape of live-learning of a young toddler, which will help us peep into the mind of a learner. 

After seeing this video ( of the child we shall call Adi), you will appreciate three characteristics of learning:

1. Learning is painful

We assume that learning is joy and fun. But contrary to this understanding, learning is painful. We watch this everyday in a Montessori. When a child is 'learning' something real, his face is taut and tense. When he cannot solve a problem, like Adi in the above video, the child is frustrated and often throws the 'items'. Sometimes the child yells and even beats someone closer to her.

Sometimes the pain of learning is seen differently. For instance, when the child works on something where he is learning, like Adi, the effort of learning is so high that he wants rest after doing the activity. Or if we praise 'right' outcome in activities, we have observed that the child avoids taking challenging activities later because he is more worried about performing poorly. 'Praising child for right performance' hampers the child learning. Carol Dweck has documented the effects of performance-anxiety and learning extensively.  Montessori therefore avoids praise.

As the child grows, he or she cannot show this pain easily to others. Instead of showing his frustration of learning, he shows it in more acceptable ways of defiance or disengagement. Without helping the child to assimilate the pain of learning, the child does not learn.

2. Learning is individualistic

Even if the classroom is full of students, every student learns at a different pace. If you see Adi's video above, one can imagine many different ways in which Adi could have been helped to finish the cylinder rods successfully and that too in lesser time. But would our help facilitate Adi's 'learning'? Help, at a wrong time in a wrong way, hampers learning.

In my working in a Montessori, I have realised that the 'right' timing of help is very very tricky. After many such attempts, I have discovered that Montessori's policy of 'not helping' is a better policy. As the child grows old, the policy of 'helping only when asked' is perhaps a better policy to facilitate learning. ( But that too requires planning by the teachers!) Helping a child definitely helps learning, but doing it without hurting the child's self-confidence is a bigger challenge. Help from other children is more effective than help from older adults for the child. And that is why, multi-age classrooms like that of Montessori are more helpful.

Homework system has got maligned in the education system. But due to homework, help from other sources is available to the child. In other words, if the parents can help the child do the homework with the right spirit, it actually helps the child get the right help before it is too late.

3. Learning is idiosyncratic

'Idiosyncrasy' means that learning can happen anytime anywhere. What is Adi learning while putting cylinders in the blocks? He is learning about the physical properties of length and diameters through his senses. He can learn the same 'properties' even when he is working with pink tower? Or trying to put screw in the right hole? Or when he is trying to put his legs in the right shoe? His learning of 'properties' can get 'completed' in any of this instances. Once the child 'sees' the problems, he uses other situations to connect with it. That is why even when the child fails in producing the right outcome, it does not matter.

In our normal coercive learning systems of schools, we always insist only on one 'right way' of learning. We do not help the child in connecting one 'learning problem' with other. When we are teaching latitude/longitude in Geography, for instance, we do not help him connect the same problem with 'Geometry'. Or we do not help him understand the concept of 'light' by showing how India has daylight when USA has night? When using arithmetic operations, you will observe some children struggling with subtraction and addition because of the difficulty in carrying forward 'the tens' in the decimal system. But the same child can easily calculate the amount of money he has to take from the vendor when he is buying toys. In short, Interconnections of concepts across subjects is a major source of learning that we miss in normal schools.

Here parents can immensely help their children. Life is interconnected; subjects in the schools are not. Parents can help their children learn if they can help the child interconnect the concepts in different subjects like geography to water management. Or demonstrate the relevance of concept in real life such as by showing how a bell works. Real-life demonstration like taking child to a real factory also helps.

Summary

Montessori method works because the environment is designed to be 'learning-friendly'. Right from the scientific kits to the method of teaching, everything is designed to help the child tackle the above learning difficulties. Every child is taught individually. That helps the child chose his own pace and convenience. When the child is stuck he learns from others while 'observing' others in the multi-age classroom, because the child can sit and 'do nothing' in Montessori . Because the child is not praised for right outcomes, the child is not afraid of poor performance.

And more importantly, the child is helped to connect his learning with day-to-day life in a continuous manner. For instance, the child connects 2D images of cards with 3D objects all the time. See this example of introducing vegetables with cards.

By laying proper foundation of learning-enabled child, child is helped for his life. It helps him use these practices of learning throughout his life even the external environment is less friendly.

Courtesy and copyright of video: Sapience Montessori House of Children 

How Montessori method helps a child to increase his attention span

Every teacher of play school and parent assumes that a child will always be active, dancing and moving. Infact some parents also believe that more the child is noisy, more the intelligent she is. But every teacher knows that learning cannot happen until the child sits still and can focus on something for a reasonable period of time. Not just psychologists, every parent also knows this. So it is surprising that only Montessori method has definite methods to increase the attention span of a child.

Montessori does this impossible-looking feat through some innovative 4 design elements of kits, methodology, and use of child psychology. 

1. Montessori Kits are designed to fulfill the innate need of sensitive period. 

This helps the child to do what he most needs. Initially a child takes up EPL activities like pouring water, buttoning, and other activities that makes him independent. Later, the child takes up sensorial activities that uses his senses of sound, taste and touch. No activity is introduced to child until she is ready. For instance, child is introduced to writing only when his readiness is 'measured and identified' by drawing Geometrical insets. Therefore child loves to perform activities because it fulfills his innate need. 

2. In each kit, multiple activities are designed with increasing complexity to prevent onset of boredom . 

If the activities are not challenging, the child leaves the material immediately. That is why children rarely play with toys. In Montessori, multiple activities in  a single kit are designed with increasing challenge. For instance, in a cylinder block, almost 120+ activities can be performed which are increasingly difficult. Because the activities are challenging, the child does not feel bored and remains engaged with the same kit. A child is able to maintain his attention for a longer time. 

3. A child's internal drive is invoked by offering him the full freedom . 

A child has a freedom to perform anything in a Montessori. He can eat at any time, play if he is bored, or just still and do nothing. He also has a choice to repeat an activity n number of times. Her wishes are respected in the Montessori fully. This makes a child feel that he or she can do anything in the Montessori. Because the child realises that he/she need not 'manipulate' anyone to do anything, he is in command. This calms him from inside. This helps him perform the activities without any compulsion for a long time. He is driven by his internal force, rather than by any external pressure of approval from the teacher. 

 4. A child's motivation is kept intact by avoiding the pointing of mistakes as well as praise.

When a child's mistakes are pointed, even though with good intention, he/she is embarrassed and avoids situations and challenges that leads him to make mistakes. In a Montessori, the material kits are self corrective. This enables the child to correct his own errors himself. On the other hand teachers are also trained not to point mistakes. This helps the child to avoid the embarrassment of failing. On the other hand teachers do not even praise. Because there is no praise for doing anything right, the child also does not chose easy activities to get approval. Child therefore performs an activity because of his internal motivation in this scenario.

Consequences of the above four factors: Initially when the child starts with Montessori the child barely sits still. But slowly and surely, helped by the factors  3 and 4 ( freedom and acceptance of mistakes policy), the child manages to use the designed kits and concentrate for 15 minutes to half an hour by the end of first year in Montessori. When the child starts learning English language and arithmetic in the second year, her attention span continues to increase beyond an hour.

Use Montessori method for developing your child's Will ( ability to choose)

As the child grows and nears 2 years or so, she/he becomes persistent and adamant in demanding something. Till that time, it is easier to divert his attention easily. But after a particular age, the child sticks to her claim and will not budge easily. This is an important phase of growing for a child.

As Montessorians like to say, this is a crucial period for the development of Will.  From 12 to 18 months old, your child understands you but cannot carry your instructions. From 18 to 36 months, child sometimes obeys, sometimes not. The way parents help the child in making his/her choices during this phase, can influence the child's own development of self discipline. After 3 years, the child learns self discipline provided you have managed these 18 months properly.

If the parents show too much 'willingness' to listen during this 18 months period, he is unable to subordinate other's will to his own. The child becomes more insistent and demanding trying to stamp his Will over every event. For this child, his choice is always right. On the other hand, if the parents use harsh strategies like beating or scolding loudly whenever she asks for something, the child is unable to develop her own Will ( choices) and always tends to listen to others. This child becomes over-compliant and waits for others direction.

 Here are five hints that can help you develop your Child's will during these 18 months ( in each of these five methods you are enabling the child to make a choice in different situations without dampening him):

1. Respect the child even when you are stopping the child from misbehaving: For instance, if you are restricting the child to rush on the road, do not catch her from behind. Instead, go around and stop her by facing her. If he is old enough to walk, then firmly hold his hand. Do not beat him or pick him. Be firm and redirect. And more importantly, if you are stopping your child from misbehaving, try to do it every time he or she does. The child is internalising your firmness. She takes time in understanding that 'never means never'. So repeat it until she gets it.

2. Substitute diversion of object with diversion of thought: Earlier, you could substitute a new object, and your child would forget about the old object. As she can remember her thoughts now, it is important to change this strategy. If your child is trying to 'pick' a nice glass that she might break, use thought to 'describe' a nearby object, say pen. Giving pen alone will not divert her. But opening the pen, and showing how it works on the paper, will interest her 'thinking'. So describe the pen to her in a language that she can understand. Try to select an alternate object that is truly interesting to her. But remember to not get into reasoning mode. The child under 3 is unable to understand the reasons. So do not use it. For instance, you cannot reason with the child that "if she takes the glass, the glass may break" and so on.

3. Give the child a clear either/or choice:  For instance, do not ask her 'if she would like to eat chapati'. Instead give her a clear choice. Ask her if she wants to eat chapati or bread ( or whatever she eats normally!). If you want her to use potty, do not ask her if she would like to go to potty. Instead ask her if she wants to 'use a bathroom in the ground floor or the upper floor'. Wherever possible, convert simple declarations into choices.

4. Do not expect immediate compliance:  At this age, the child's brain has half the neural speed of the adult. It is therefore necessary to repeat the words, choice or description, two to three times very patiently. Take care to ensure that there is no threat in your voice. If the child is not wearing the pant after going to the bathroom, you may say "Divya, you may wear the pants". With no response from her, after a minute, remind her again.

5. Follow a direct method to intervene sometimes : If the child still does not listen, then tell her to come near you and wear the pants. It is important not to wait until you get angry. If she senses a challenging note in your voice, the child's emotional response is triggered and overwhelms whatever 'willpower' she has managed to develop. So be insistent and firm in the behaviour which you want to redirect without using threatening tone or language. Please ensure that you 'repeat' it again and again. If you 'accept' her starting the TV late night, she will insist it again. She will not understand that you wanted to see TV that day. 

Why should you respond, and not react, to your child?

We had gone to one of our friend's house. His daughter of 4 years, Sakshi ,was playing out with friends. As we had gone to her house, her father called her up. He called her 5/6 times. At last, she came at the door. He explained to her that she should come home now and play inside. His tone was conciliatory and non-threatening. But Sakshi started crying. Her father could not understand. So he tried "What happened, Sakshi. Why are you crying?" No effect on her. So he changed the track." Do you want to play more?". Still she kept on crying. He tried another angle " It is OK if you do not want to come inside. Go and play." Still no impact on her. He was confused. Knowing me he asked 'What is happening to her?' I had the laptop with me. So i showed them this Dr Tronick's video. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apzXGEbZht0

Sakshi's father saw the video. He understood the reasons that were causing Sakshi to cry without any further discussion. Can you guess the reasons ?

Please see the video if you have not seen it. Because you are not Sakshi's mother or father, you may miss some of the variables involved in the interaction. So here is some help for you.

In the above video, the child is barely of six months. But did you watch his reaction, when his Mom stopped responding to his gestures, to his actions, and to his smiles. Even a child of six months need constant to-and-fro mode of communication. Sometimes you lead the communication, sometimes you respond to his communication. Until the child is a year or so, parents understand this intuitively and engage in to-and-fro communication with their child.

What happens as the child grows ? 

But as the child grows older,  to-and-fro communication between the parent and child slow down because of two reasons. Like Sakshi's father told me, the process perhaps  happens in the following manner.

On the one hand, parents want their child to be the best. In this quest, the parents do most of the talking. And more often that not, it is just set of instructions. Do this, Do not play for long, Take care of the glass, Do not watch TV for long, Sleep now, and so on. Barrage of one-way communication.

On the other hand, as the child is just learning to use the language, he finds it difficult to communicate what he is feeling. He struggles for words. He cannot put the sentence in cause>effect language. Sometimes he mixes the sequence of the events making it very difficult to decode what he is saying. Most of the parents, at this time, lose their patience. They are in hurry of knowing 'what happened'. They do not have time to hear long winding explanations so they cut short the child and ask 'So what?'.

If this continues for long, the child finds it more and more difficult to communicate her feelings, thoughts, fears, anxieties. Like the child in the above video, the child finds herself talking to a blank face, a face which is not responding to her. But unlike the child in video, she bottles her feeling most of the time to become a 'good girl'. But this cannot continue for long. She explodes like Sakshi, not at the event, but at the accumulation of the feeling of not having been heard. What is even worse is that even she does not know why is she crying. So her pain is even higher.

The result is that the communication becomes one-sided. The parents are just reacting to the child. The child needs responsive parents who can sense her inability to communicate, who can give her more time, who patiently prompts the child to explain her feelings, and then has the time to wait for the child to express herself properly. Naturally, not all children are expressive as Sakshi was at 4 years. Some child learn it slowly at a later age.

Summary

If the to-and-fro communication has stopped between you and your child, you will find many bottled up symptoms in your child. You will find that the child has become too rude. Or that he does not tell many things happening in his life, especially after he crosses the age of 13. Or he becomes too rigid of what he wants such as TV watching. Or that he stops listening to common-sense logic. Or he refuses to listen to some simple instructions.

If this has happened with you, you will have a deeper hole to fill. It will take more effort and time. Accumulated baggage will not make it easier to re-start the communication easily. You will have to spend considerable time in undoing the past damage , before you can re-built the bridges with your child ! It is better to be late, than to miss the connection. 

Montessori actively discourages praise

Until June 2011, my ideas of Montessori were based on what i saw in Montessori schools. I got fascinated by the kids in Montessori by watching their ability to focus on an activity for a long period, even for a hour, at the age of 5. So when I  formally started doing a diploma course in Montessori in Bangalore to understand the underlying principles of Montessori philosophy, i was surprised. Despite spending 7 years in researching the principles of developing a work-life career, I was surprised to note that the learning principles used in Montessori , which started in 1907, are also useful even in work-life learning. Here is one such principle: Praise is not useful for learning.

Unlike traditional schooling method, Montessori discourages praise. If the student does an activity well, the teacher ( or called as Adult in Montessori method) simply acknowledges the completion of activity by a nod, a smile and simply takes up the next activity. No further praise is offered.

According to the Montessori philosophy, praise is not offered to children because of three specific reasons.

1. Praise actively discourages  a child to pick up difficult activities

From the 300+ activities in a Montessori environment in Montessori school, a child chooses his own activity to do. If a child is praised for doing an activity well, the child is more likely to link the 'praise' with the 'completion of the activity'. And if he does so, he is not likely to choose a difficult activity, which he thinks he cannot do well. This discourages experimentation and challenge. The learning of child stops due to fear of failing.

2. Praise makes a child choose an activity for helping him look 'smart'. 

Because of praise, the child wants to chose an activity only if he can look smart. He is more concerned with looking smart than learning anything new. A Montessorian Adult watches his student carefully all the time. If a child is not choosing a new activity,  the Adult knows that he has to intervene subtly.

You can observe this in behaviour in a child if you are a teacher or parent. For instance, you will often find some children do activities 'at home' so that they can look smart in the 'class'. They are more likely to raise hands for any questions, even when they do not know the right answers. They are more likely to ask 'unrelated questions' in a class to look smart, instead of asking questions to learn anything new.

3. Praise develops a dysfunctional mind set in the child 

If praise continues for a longer time, the child starts considering his 'intelligence' as fixed.  He starts believing that he is good because his innate intelligence is high. He is brilliant because he is born brilliant. Psychologists call it development of fixed mindset visavis growth mindset. Carol Dweck has done a very good work on this aspect. For more details, see this website.

With fixed mind set, the child believes that his intelligence is fixed. If he fails in completing a difficult activity, he perceives his mistakes as failures.On the other hand, growth mindset helps the child take up a difficult activity, because he believes that his 'intelligence' can be grown by repeated attempts. He considers mistakes as part of the process of learning. If you want to check your own mind set or your child's mindset, go to this website and check it out.

Conclusion to be used later 

If you see your child is not performing a difficult activity, you should be really worried . If your child is more concerned of doing new activities to look smart, you should be concerned. At least you can start change the way you praise your child.

Start praising his effort, instead of praising his nature or intelligence. If he finishes some activity, praise him by saying 'You were good in finishing that activity', instead of praising him "You were brilliant'.Or say " You must have studied hard". This type of praise redirects his attention to 'controllable effort' , away from his 'innate intelligence'. That is the first step in helping your child get into the growth mindset.