This is my man on the road attempts at academic greatness....some of the lines don't make sense to me at all after I handed in my assignment. Oh well, I'm trying to learn.....
What is the distinction between a methodology and a philosophy of education?
Philosophy means the love of wisdom. John Dewey went a step further in defining philosophy of education as the process of forming fundamental disposition, intellectual and emotional, toward nature and fellow-men, philosophy may even be defined as the general theory of education. Unless a philosophy is to remain symbolic—or verbal-or a sentimental indulgence for a few, or else mere arbitrary dogma, its auditing of past experience and its program of values must take effect in conduct (MW 9: p. 338).
A less radical approach would be that the philosophy of education is the study of the purpose, process, nature and ideals of education. This can be within the context of education as a societal institution or more broadly as the process of human existential growth, i.e. how it is that our understanding of the world is continually transformed via physical, emotional, cognitive and transcendental experiences.It can naturally be considered a branch of both philosophy and education.
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_education )
Methodology of education can be defined as a set or system of methods, principles, and rules for regulating a branch of pedagogics dealing with analysis and evaluation of subjects to be taught and of the methods of teaching them.
( http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=methodology )
The methodology of education can be taken as a subset of the philosophy of education which is concerned with the principles and procedures of inquiry in gaining knowledge. Henceforth, the philosophy of education is the basis of the system which is the method.
When one carries out a method, it must thus be guided by the philosophy as in the case of the Montessori method which is for example, is always guided by the philosophy of following the child. We can make the child work on a didactic material but to have insisted that the child do a particular exercise would have gone against the philosophy of following the child and thus be in conflict too with the method of presenting the material when the child is ready to do so, for example.
Would you describe Montessori's philosophy of education as being metaphysical or existential? Explain your opinion.
The teacher must derive not only the capacity, but the desire, to observe natural phenomena. The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer: the activity must lie in the phenomenon. (The Montessori Method, ch. 5 )
Montessori's method can only be described as existential as they are based on her observations of the children. It does not seek only to explore ideas of what a child is but is based on pursuing personal meaning in existence because education is a natural process carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words, but by experiences in the environment.” ( Education in a New World )
From the beginning, even in her work with the less able students, Montessori had made extensive observations from which she would produce the didactic materials and the learning environment. Her 'method' thus came about as a response to what she has observed of the child and not purely from a theory that seeks to be applied to the child.
By observing the child, a teacher would know how and what is best to be presented to the child to capture the spark that would lead him to pursue knowledge because we are here to offer to this life, which came into the world by itself, the means necessary for its development, and having done that we must await this development with respect.
Perhaps the strongest sense that we get that Montessori's philosophy is existential can be seen in her words that "There was no method to be seen, what was seen was a child...acting according to its own nature." ( Secret of Childhood, p.136 )
What is the role of a child's intentionality in Montessori's understanding of education?
Intention begins to exist in a child when he is able to act out of his own accord. It is not something that suddenly exist in a child but needs to be developed in accordance with the laws of nature.
In the beginning, the child acts more out of instinct. To awaken his will, the child needs to go through a slow process that evolves through a continuous activity in relationship with the environment. The consciousness of choice needs to be constantly used and practiced before it can be fully developed.
The process however, can be a painfully long one if the educator tries to bend the will of the child to her own, seeing it as an expression of rebellion. Here, Montessori links the will or intentionality of the child with obedience. She believes that a child is not able to comply to instructions when she has not mastered the skills needed to do so.
Instead, the educator must realise that the child goes through three stages of obedience where at first it is dictated purely by the hormic impulse, then it rises to the level of consc, and thereafter it goes on developing, stage by stage, till it comes under the control of the conscious will.
He begins by being able to obey at times and moves on to the second stage where he is more able in his actions and can act according to not only his will but that of another. At the third stage, he obeys not only because he wants to but because he is in awe of the person who instructs him.
What influences did the anthropologist, Sergi, and the French physicians, Itard and Sequin, have on Montessori's way of educating children?
Sergi's most significant influence on Montessori was the idea of turning anthropology 'from the classification of abnormalities to the discovery of ways of preventing the abnormality, through the establishment of a scientific pedagogy based on the anthropological study of children' Montessori basically applied his methods of scientific observation to understanding the learning behaviour of children.(Maria Montessori , A Biography p. 71)
These scientific observations are however not the essence of how we should educate the child, according to Sergi, but it shows us the way to do so for we cannot educate anyone until we know him thoroughly '(Ibid, p. 98)
Itard, best known for his work on the Savage of Aveyron, was influential in the area of sensorial education where he set out to educate the mind through sensorial exercises in gradually increasing levels of difficulty. We can see this in Montessori's primary sensorial materials such as the rough and smooth boards and the baric tablets.
Itard's work on the mentally and physically challenged was to be continued by Seguin, his student, who would further develop the methods in educating these children in the belief that their inadequacies can be overcome somewhat by training. This was seen in Montessori's opinion that mental deficiency presented chiefly a pedagogical, rather than mainly a medical , problem ( The Montessori Method p. 31)
Another revolutionary aspect that could later be seen in Montessori's work was Seguin's unique treatment of the child for to him respect for individuality is the first test of a teacher. ( Idiocy & It's treatment by the Physiological Method p. 33)
What influences did Montessori's beginning educational work with idiot and wounded children have on her understanding of the learning process?
Montessori believed that children are the product of the educational system that they were in. When she began to be interested in the deficient children, she believed that they were at the lowly state they were in because there was nothing in the asylums that stimulated their already wounded mind and body.
The success of her methods with them, some of whom learnt to read and write and even passed the national exams, convinced her that even more could be achieved if the same methods were used with the normal children as they contained educational principles more rational than those in use' and ' that similar methods applied to normal children would develop or set free their personality in a marvelous and surprising way. ( The Montessori Method pp.32-33)
Montessori's work with the deficients were the building blocks of her work with the normal children such as the principle of the education of the senses and then the intellect, as seen in the walking exercises to the later programme of learning how to read from raised letters and teaching a skill by having the child repeat an exercise that prepares him for it, as in the practical and sensorial exercises found in Montessori classes that precedes writing.
References
Education for a New World
Maria Montessori, A Biography, Kramer, Rita
The Absorbent Mind
The Montessori Method
The Secret of Childhood, Montessori, M.,
