The Montessori Learning Environment
The Montessori-prepared learning environment is both physical and psychological. As Roopnarine & Johnson (2005) highlight 'the physical environment (in Montessori) is designed to be ordered, proportioned to be the child’s size, aesthetically pleasing, and visually harmonious. Although the environment is carefully prepared before the entry of children, it is constantly refined and adjusted to keep pace with the ongoing needs and interests of a particular group' (p. 371). The traditional Montessori learning environment reflects a number of prominent features of such a program, parallel to further types of early childhood settings, and some that are distinctive to Montessori.
Essentially, through such preparation of the Montessori learning environment, children’s unique learning needs and interests are catered for with the educator constantly seeking to refine the learning experience according to the pace, interests and curiosities of each individual child. For example, a child who is actively engaged in a play-based learning experience may indicate a need or interest about cars. The educator may observe this and refines the learning environment by contributing a toy or other object to add to the environment and hence enhance the learning experience. In such a learning environment, educators are evidently facilitators and children are seen as ‘constant inquirers who “absorb their environment, takes everything, and incarnates it in them self’ (Roopnarine & Johnson, 2005, p. 371). Thus, the Montessori learning environment contributes the freedom to choose and use materials with purpose and care, in order to direct one’s own learning; reflecting a child-centered, teacher guided approach to learning.
Essentially, through such preparation of the Montessori learning environment, children’s unique learning needs and interests are catered for with the educator constantly seeking to refine the learning experience according to the pace, interests and curiosities of each individual child. For example, a child who is actively engaged in a play-based learning experience may indicate a need or interest about cars. The educator may observe this and refines the learning environment by contributing a toy or other object to add to the environment and hence enhance the learning experience. In such a learning environment, educators are evidently facilitators and children are seen as ‘constant inquirers who “absorb their environment, takes everything, and incarnates it in them self’ (Roopnarine & Johnson, 2005, p. 371). Thus, the Montessori learning environment contributes the freedom to choose and use materials with purpose and care, in order to direct one’s own learning; reflecting a child-centered, teacher guided approach to learning.