INDUSTRY INSIGHT
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
SPONSORED CONTENT
Montessori Centre Academy
B
rain research has grown significantly in regards to how
a child learns at different stages of development. This is
exciting, as it is no longer for scientists but also for educators
to embrace, understand, and meet the challenge of new
teaching methods.
Children think visually, right side of the brain. They take in and
judge the world holistically. Dr. Montessori recognized this a century
ago, and that is why many math programs today try to incorporate
her methodology of hands-on material. Montessori education is an
approach that takes into account how a child learns best by engaging
the child in hands-on active learning.
The brain is a muscle, each part a specialist in the visual, auditory,
and kinesthetically. All learning subsets that are hard wired. When
used together you are creating a multiplicity of complex synaptic
connections between brain cells, producing an intricate architecture
of neural networks that lead to higher thinking and problem solving.
Building Your Young Child’s
Mathematical Potential
requires movement and organization in laying out the rods (which
also develops executive skills versus cutting and pasting objects to a
numeral).
My favorite piece of material is the Bank Game. Here, a child uses
glass bead materials. Units are represented by each bead, 10 units
strung together becomes a 10 bar, 10 bars become a hundred square,
and finally 10 hundred squares become a CUBE of 1,000 beads.
What an amazing brain-based way to teach the decimal system,
each barically weighted. A child holding a unit in one hand and a
thousand in the other is given a sensory impression in contrast to a
one-dimensional worksheet. Imagine your child doing mathematical
operations with this material, learning to regroup, but still moving
and experiencing each number sensorally. Feeling a mathematical
operation, visually seeing the sum…what an impression on the brain
“Brain neurons that fire together wire together.”
Many math programs have manipulatives, but their efficiency for
learning may be inconsistent and not as sequential, brain based, or
unique in design as Montessori materials; this is important, as the
brain is a pattern seeker.
When a child has the opportunity to see, touch, explore, and
practice a concept on a sequential level, not only does it enrich
learning enjoyment but engages more neural connections, which
is most important. Research suggests that the use of sequenced,
manipulative material develops a child’s understanding of math,
and builds from the roots of preschool to upper elementary. With
manipulatives carefully and sequentially designed, a child’s brain
can become more sophisticated in understanding and interpreting
numeracy and geometric relationships, thus developing their
mathematical reasoning in a concrete forum that leads to abstract
thinking and understanding (which is required now in our technical
world).
In a Montessori classroom there is a vast array of enticing, color-
coded, sequential, and geometrically designed materials. Not only
do these materials promote active learning, and give the child
feedback, they are scaffolded in difficulty. The teaching instructions
are very explicit and move from the concrete understanding to the
abstract, which leads to long-term retention. This interaction of
explicit instruction and materials leads to long-term memory skills—
retention. Retention drives the intellectual possibility of theoretical
learning.
What do I mean by concrete?
A prime example, starting as early as 2-and-a-half, is the set of
number rods that alternate colors. The 3-year-old has to carry each
rod, and has sensorial
experiences: “Oh
my, I need to stretch
my arms wider for
a 10 rod verses a
4 rod.” Not only
is this a sensorial
message fired to
the brain, but also
for conceptualization! The culmination of learning holistically during
these formative years provides understanding and readies the child’s
mind to move to theoretical learning. Another unique material that
builds on previous concepts is the Stamp Game.
A sectioned box has small assorted, color-coded tiles. The green
“one” tiles, the blue “ten” tiles, the red “hundred” tiles and the green
“thousand” tiles. Instead of holding a golden cube, which shows
relative size of a thousand, the child now uses tiles that are all the
same size, but are differentiated by color. Additionally, this material is
also used to teach all four operations (addition, subtraction, division,
and multiplication).
In elementary, cognitively, not only do children need to experience
mathematical concepts in a concrete way, leading to abstraction,
but they also need a curriculum that appeals to their new stage of
development. “The Power of the Imagination” and their need to
socialize and collaborate with others creates a dynamic learning
environment.
Then, in entering lower elementary math, the student has worked
on material that is color coded in primary, so this is not a stressor
on the brain, because the same color coding continues when
teaching higher concepts. Now we work into the millions, billions…
with a variety of materials, each building on the child’s previous
knowledge to think and see holistically versus a mandated, time-
constrained curriculum. Our curriculum is carefully ordered to
follow each student’s development and our pedagogy facilitates
an understanding that builds upon previous knowledge, building
the child’s reasoning mind to facilitate integrations years later
such as revisiting the “a-ha” moment when introduced to higher
mathematical concepts in middle and high school.
Submitted by Fiona Guiser, a teacher in a 6 to 9-year-olds classroom at the Montessori
Centre Academy in Glenshaw. Schedule a Tour Today! 412.486.6239
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winter 2018
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