Comparing Montessori and traditional curricula

Comparing a Montessori curriculum with that of a traditional school can help parents to identify differences between the two and evaluate the benefits for their children. Some differences include the following:

Montessori:		Traditional
1. Emphasis on cognitive structures & social development		1. Emphasis on rote knowledge and social development
2. While the teacher guides the learning process, the student is an active and primary participant		2. Teacher's role is dominant and student is a passive participant
3. Environment and method encourage internal self-discipline		3. Teacher is primary enforcer of external discipline
4. Individual and group instruction adapts to each student's learning style		4. Group instruction that conforms to adult's teaching style
5. Mixed age grouping		5. Same age grouping
6. Children encouraged to teach, collaborate, and help one another		6. Most teaching done by teacher and collaboration is discouraged
7. Child formulates concepts from self-teaching materials		7. Child is given concepts by teacher rather than by self-discovery
8. Concentrated work time on a single subject		8. Child sits in assigned seat, not allowed to move about classroom
9. Child sets own learning pace to internalize information		9. Instruction pace set by group norm or teacher
10. Child spots own errors through self-correcting materials		10. Errors corrected by teacher
11. Learning is reinforced through child's own repetition of activity, internal feelings of successful repetition		11. Learning reinforced externally by rewards, punishments
12. Multi-sensory materials		12. Few materials for sensory, concrete manipulation
13. Child can work where he or she is comfortable, is allowed to move around classroom as long as he or she is not disruptive to others		13. Child is given specific time for work in one subject and then moved on to another subject perhaps before subject has been adequately covered

Prospective Parent?

Comparing Montessori and traditional curricula