MARIA MONTESSORI’S PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

Running head: MARIA MONTESSORI’S PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
Maria Montessori’s Philosophy of Education
Student’s name
University
Author’s note

MARIA MONTESSORI’S PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Maria Montessori: Biography and Groundwork for Montessori Education....................................3
Maria Montessori’s Philosophy of Education.................................................................................5
Background..................................................................................................................................5
Philosophy of Montessori Education...........................................................................................5
Four Planes of Child development..............................................................................................6
1st phase (0-6 years).................................................................................................................6
2nd Phase (6-12 years)..............................................................................................................7
3rd Phase (12-18 years).............................................................................................................7
4th Phase (18-24 Years)............................................................................................................8
Montessori Curriculum: Activities, Materials and Learning Environment.................................8
Montessori’s Philosophy of Education—Constructivist Framework............................................11
Montessori’s Philosophical Alignment......................................................................................11
Constructivism...........................................................................................................................11
Montessori and Constructivism.................................................................................................13
Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory......................................................................13
Lev Vygotsky’s theory..........................................................................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
Philosophy of education is a branch of study that deals with the objective, aim, methods
and nature of education. It is a form of practical or applied philosophy that includes development
and proliferation of theories pertaining to education. It also aims to address the problems rise
pertaining to the practices involved in education. Educational practices, as observed over time,
varies across human societies, aligning itself with the varied manifestation of social and
individual characteristics as found in different societies and culture. Furthermore, the influence
of such practices is nonetheless profound, encompassing all possible aspects of human life as
well as knowledge (Noddings, 2018).
To understand the nature of Philosophy of Education, it is important to grasp the
academic notion and implication of the term ‘education’. Education can be defined as
transmission of knowledge and values accumulated by a society. It includes both socialization
and enculturation, modelling children’s behaviour and worldviews. In its terminological sense,
education denotes a systemic discipline that is concerned with the methods of learning and
teaching in formal environment such as schools. As contrasted to various informal learning
environments, which is usually based on some form of socialization process (i.e. education
through parent-child support, rural development projects etc.), formal education adheres to
systematic methods of educational practices and theories (O'Connor, 2016). And this systematic
method is based on different theories of educational philosophy.
Over time, philosophy of education has evolved with theories and views from several
scholars and thinkers. In ancient Greece, the tradition of educational philosophy developed with
the theories of Plato. Gradually, philosophical traditions such as scholasticism, rationalism,
pragmatisms, existentialism, critical theory and other normative philosophies have shaped the

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philosophy of education. In recent times, thinkers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Dewey, Jean
Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Maria Montessori, Nel Noddings and such have furthered the tradition of
educational philosophy (Levinson et al., 2015).
Maria Montessori: Biography and Groundwork for Montessori Education
Among these thinkers, Maria Montessori had propounded a novel philosophy of
education, focusing especially on early childhood education. Maria Montessori was an Italian
educator and thinker. She was fundamentally a physician, being the first female medical graduate
of Italy. She practiced in the field of pediatrics and neuropsychiatry along with teaching at her
alma mater medical institution, and later served as a lecturer at Pedagogic School of the
University of Rome. As she served as the director of the Orthophrenic School for
developmentally challenged children during 1900, she started an extensive research on early
childhood development and education. She was deeply influenced by the works of Édouard
Séguin and Jean-Marc-Gaspard, French physicians of 18th and 19th Century. They also advanced
the research on the development of capabilities of disabled children. Based on their work, Maria
Montessori conceptualized her own educational methods, which she started applying on the
children at the Orthophrenic School. Gradually, she started receiving striking results pertaining
to children’s development, and she started to spread her research findings on child development
and education all over Europe. Through her speeches, she also advocated for children and
women’s rights (Bone, 2019).
Over time, as Montessori executed her educational theories on the disabled children of
the Ophrenic School, she recorded and published the results of children’s development. Further,
she expressed her desire to test her findings and teaching methods on ‘normal’ children, and was