A SCHOOL IN THE CLOUD

www.montessoricentrewales.com

Influencing GlobalEducational Reform

THE SCHOOL IN THE CLOUD

©Alan Evans 2012


The Average Child’s Brain


The Superior Teacher’s Brain


Waldorf, Montessori & Reggio are the three progressive approaches to early childhood education, which appear to be growing in influence around the world, Edwards (2002).

All three approaches represent an explicit idealism and turn away from war and violence towards peace and reconstruction.

They are built on coherent visions of how to improve human society by helping children realise their full potential as intelligent, creative whole persons.


In each approach children are viewed as

•active authors of their own development

• strongly influenced by natural, dynamic, self righting forces within themselves, opening the way towards growth and learning.

•Teachers depend on carefully prepared aesthetically pleasing environments that serve as a pedagogical tool and provide strong messages about the curriculum and respect for children.


Montessori Teaching Style

•Unobtrusive director observing children in self directed activity.

•Providing an atmosphere of productive calm for children to concentrate and recover, allowing them to develop confidence and inner discipline to the point of non intervention


Dr. Maria MontessoriMaria Montessori was a brilliant figure who was Italy's first woman physician.

Montessori reflected a late19th century vision of mental development and theoretical kin-ship with the great European progressive educational philosophers, such as Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Seguin and Itard.

She was convinced that children's natural intelligence involved three aspects from the very start:

• rational• Empirical - observation• spiritual


Sensorial Education - Multi Sensory Materials

Montessori’s approach was far in advance of the general psychological understanding of her time. Montessori developed materials and a prepared environment for the intellectual training through sensory motor modalities for children aged three to six years of age.


Look At The Child

Dr. Montessori discovered the child’s true nature by accident while observing young children in their free, self directed activity. Building on Seguin’s work and materials, Dr. Montessori found that young children came to acquire surprising new outward qualities of spontaneous self-discipline, love of order, and a perfect harmony with others.


I Do And I Understand

According to Montessori the understanding of the sensory motor nature of the young child’s intelligence stemmed from acute observations of children. Up until then the idea of intelligence was based on verbal development and the manipulation of visual images and ideas.


LOOK AT THE CHILD

Both Montessori and Piaget’s discoveries and insights into the mind of the child were achieved, not by what Piaget described as ‘adultmorphic’ thinking (seeing the child as a miniature adult), but by unbiased, astute, direct observations of the child.


Piaget and Montessori emphasized the necessity of active interaction between learner and the environment. Piaget and Montessori also emphasised the child’s relationship with peers as the principal means to overcoming

egocentrism in learning.

The Quality of the Environment Can Help or Hinder a Child’s Development


The Montessori method encourages accommodation to external reality rather than assimilation to the personalized motives and fantasies of the child (spontaneous play).

Montessori and Piaget observed that certain conditions were necessary for optimal cognitive growth. Among these conditions is the creation of learning situations that involve particular kinds

and qualities of autonomy.

Autonomous Environments Work


The child in the Montessori classroom is allowed to learn autonomously, which they receive from the teacher. It is a very special relationship based on the teacher’s trust in the child to reveal their true nature.


Piaget


Jean Piaget is considered to have been one of the worlds leading child psychologists. Piaget also spoke of sensory motor intelligence as the first period of intellectual development from age two to six years.

Sensory motor intelligence rests mainly on actions (doing) on movements and perceptions without language but coordinated in a relatively stable way.


According to Penn (2005) Piaget turned the tables on an approach to early childhood, which aimed at filling up the child’s head with knowledge.

Piaget argued that children had to find things out for themselves through experimentation and their own free thinking.


The Plowden Report

In 1967 the U.K. Government published a major review of primary and nursery education known as the Plowden Report. Richards (1984) suggests that the principles underlying Plowden’s reports were attacked by critics for being too ‘child centred’ and for neglecting the importance of teaching as a way of initiating the young into public forms of knowledge.

Bridget Horatia Plowden

Source: www.npg.org.uk


The members of the review board for the Plowden report were impressed with Piaget’s theories and suggested that schooling should be radically changed from a teacher in front of the class to many different areas from where a child could draw on concrete experiences with play and learning materials.


‘Underlying all educational questions is the nature of the child himself …’ (p.1) “At the heart of the educational process is the child. No (educational) advances … have their desired effect unless they are in harmony with the nature of the child, unless they are fundamentally acceptable to him …’ (p7).

Plowden (1967)


We may assert that all effective learning involves personal change and the most effective kinds of learning seem to be those in which the learner is the initiator of the change and involves himself in active commerce with the learning materials e.g. autonomous experiential learning through play.


A requirement for cognitive growth is the psychological climate in which the child is free to spend at least some of his time exploring his world with complete autonomy.

When we interfere with a child’s play, when we influence his modes of behaviour, when we impose our beliefs upon him, we may be performing a service but we may be unaware of the harm we are doing.

Children in school and at home are frequently forced to assume a purely passive position in which he is required to register and later reproduce material that has been imposed upon him.


We tend to treat children according to the group they are placed in by age, ability, socio economic background and many other factors.

‘It is as if the most important thing about them is their date of manufacture’, Sir Ken Robinson, (2012).


‘a return to a simple academic model of basic subjects taught in disciplined environments where children are regarded a vessels to be filled with knowledge,’ Gerver (2013).

According to an Adobe Creativity study (2012) Companies are looking for more than graduates who can do specific tasks so they want employees who can also think differently and innovate. To be successful, students need an education that emphasizes creative thinking, communication, and teamwork.

Richard Gerver

Leading academic thinkers Richard Gerver and Sir Ken Robinson are calling for reform in the education system.

Gerver (2012) believes that we are still basing our education system on the old model of time and motion developed by Taylor (1911). Robinson believes we should encourage creativity and divergent thinking. Both are involved in reforming education around the world through human potential and creativity but here in the U.K. the call is for


HOT MANAGEMENT IN EARLY YEARS AND SCHOOLS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck-KrObORfI

Children using a model of the lung. The children were given the tools to experiment and diagrams to make models including electrical circuitry. They also made and broadcast their own radio shows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck-KrObORfI


KEN ROBINSON, (2012)What we have in schools today is

• DIVERSITY V UNIFORMITY• CREATIVITY V COMPLIANCE• LINEARITY V ORGANIC• EMPATHY V UNIMAGINABLE HARM• THE ART OF PEDAGOGY V DELIVERY

SOLUTIONS

• PERSONALISE EDUCATION• OFFER A WIDE RANGING CURRICULUM• TEACHING IS AN ART FORM NOT A DISCIPLINE• ASSESSMENT BASED ON MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES• CULTURE ALLOWED TO FLOURISH

Sir Ken Robinson

Source: www.gvsu.edu/business/home-1.htm


Dr. Steven Hughes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcNvTPX4Q08

HIGHLY RECOMMEND VIEWING http://www.goodatdoingthings.com/GoodAtDoingThings/Selected_Screencasts.html

Dr. Maria Montessori and Dr.Steven Hughes - ‘The hands are the chief teacher of the child.’

Source: www.tovatest.com/news/Fall2008_Newsletter


“It appeared that he might be receiving training in the kind of veridical sequential perception we have called sharpening-that is, the experiencing of new stimuli in their own right, independent of what has happened before.” This research led Gardner to conclude, “The evidence has been so impressive that we hesitate to accept, without qualification, any view of child development that does not include recognition of this degree of individuality.”

Gardener’s (1966) research into individual differences in memory reveal that the individual differences in children can be constrained according to their early experiences especially in

relation to memory and cognitive skills.


Howard Gardener

Multiple Intelligence Theory

Intrapersonal

Interpersonal

Musical

Spatial

Kinesthetic

Verbal/Linguistic

Logical Mathematical

Credit: Peter Gregoire


The curriculum was thematic, and the centres provided seven different ways for the students to learn the subject matter. Each day began with a brief lecture and discussion explaining one aspect of the current theme. For example, during a unit on outer space, the morning’s lecture might focus on spiral galaxies.

After the morning lecture, a timer was set and students in groups of three or four started work at their centres, eventually rotating through all seven.

Bruce Campbell

Bruce Campbell (1999) implemented Gardner’s theory in an educational setting by organising his third grade classroom in Marysville, Washington, into seven learning centres, each dedicated to one of the seven intelligences. The students spent approximately two-thirds of each school day moving through the centres 15 to 20 minutes at each centre. Source: www.corwin.com/authors/528294


What kinds of learning activities take place at each centre?

All students learn each day’s lesson in seven ways. They build models, dance, make collaborative decisions, create songs, solve deductive reasoning problems, read, write, and illustrate all in one school day. Some more specific examples of activities at each centre follow:

In the Personal Work Centre (Intrapersonal Intelligence), students explore the present area of study through research, reflection, or individual projects.

In the Working Together Centre (Interpersonal Intelligence), they develop cooperative learning skills as they solve problems, answer questions, create learning games, brainstorm ideas and discuss that day’s topic collaboratively.

In the Music Centre (Musical Intelligence), students compose and sing songs about the subject matter, make their own instruments, and learn in rhythmical ways.

In the Art Centre (Spatial Intelligence), they explore a subject area using diverse art media, manipulables, puzzles, charts, and pictures.

In the Building Centre (Kinesthetic Intelligence), they build models, dramatize events, and dance, all in ways that relate to the content of that day’s subject matter.

In the Reading Centre (Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence), students read, write, and learn in many traditional modes. They analyze and organize information in written form.

In the Math & Science Centre (Logical/ Mathematical Intelligence), they work with math games, manipulatives, mathematical concepts, science experiments, deductive reasoning, and problem solving. and reasoning.


Self Organised Learning Environments - S.O.L.E.

Sugata Mitra placed a computer in a hole in a wall in a slum and replicated this experiment across India.

The hypothesis was whether education was effected by•Remoteness of education •Teachers•Infrastructure•Maintenance of infrastructure

The tests were carried out on children in communities across India.Measured performance was based on distance from Delhi.Results were not correlated to size of class, quality of infrastructureand not related to poverty.


Teachers were asked would you like to move?•69% yes•I wish I were in another school impacts on results

Conclusion. Teacher motivation effects children’s learning

ObservationsET is piloted in the best schoolsImpact is limited because they already have what they want

Conclusion ET is over hyped and underperforming

Take the same into a remote school and the impact is far greater

Conclusion. ET is better used at bottom of pyramid


The first hole in the wall experiment took place in New Delhi in 1999.Mitra’s office bordered a slum. He cut a hole in the wall and put in a PC a touch pad and high speed Internet.

Questions asked wereIs this real?Does the language matter?Will the computer last?Will they break it?Will they steal it?

Source: www.perceptum.nl


Mitra took the experiment to a number of poor areas where children taught each other to browse, use the computer.

Three months after leaving the computer in a rural area where no English was spoken children were using 200 English words. Mitra was funded to replicate the experiment. Children found a website to teach themselves the English alphabet. Younger children began teaching older children.

Results of experiment6 to 13 year olds can self construct - teach themselves in groups if you lift adult intervention.Results showed the same learning curve you would get in a school.300 children were computer literate within 6 months with one computer. 8 year olds live in a society, which says don’t do that don’t touch.


Can A Teacher Be Replaced By A Machine?

Source: http://lifestarstgeorge.com/blog/?p=489Source: http://www.montana.edu/ttt/school_admin.php


Conclusion•Primary education can happen independently•Not imposed from top down•Can be self organising•Natural systems are all self organising•Values are acquired doctrine and dogma are imposed

If They Can They Should Be

Source: lrnteach.com blog


Sugata Mitra is working on providing an alternative to traditional education through his ‘Granny Clouds’ where children teach themselves and tackle the big questions.

The results of his work are startling and challenge any educated mind into rethinking education.

Isn’t that why we became teachers?

Do we stop learning?

Do we dismiss the research in favour of maintaining the status quo?

Do we continue with a system, which has been overtaken by the rest of the world?


A CHANGE IS GONNA COME

Cultural change is organic from the ground up but people are desperately clinging on tothe old or suggesting we reinstate and update the old.

The future is with the alternativeRevolution does not require permissionIt does not start from the topIt is not politicians leading the way

There is a global shift feeding off child and parental unrest.

The effort of constraining talent is greater than the effort in releasing it.

‘All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, andthose that move.’ Benjamin Franklin

Don’t waste too much time, move around them. Work with the movable and the movers


In conclusion, Montessori education places the child firmly at the centre of the process and relies on observation of the child to lead and inform the adult. The relationship between child and adult is the key to the success or failure of the method.

The Plowden report was revolutionary and should have had a much stronger effect on nursery and primary provision given that its statement of overall aims included what we now know as the main premise of Montessori education, i.e.

“At the heart of the educational process is the child. No (educational) advances … have their desired effect unless they are in harmony with the nature of the child, unless they are fundamentally acceptable to him …’ .

Autonomy and individuality are also a key factors in the delivery of educational methods. How that autonomy and individuality transpires differs from place to place and again is dependent on the adults within the environment. Gardner goes so far as to hesitate to accept any view of child development that does not recognise the possibility of a high degree of individuality brought about through the skills that every individual uses to process, categorize and make sense out of what we see, hear, taste, smell, and touch. The Montessori provision is all about just that if delivered true to the original philosophy. Montessori has been providing self organised learning environments for over a century catering for multiple intelligences.


References

Adobe, 2012. http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pdfs/Adobe_Creativity_and_Education_Why_It_Matters_study.pdfCampbell, B. 1999. The Learning Revolution, Education innovations for global citizensEdwards, C. Gandini, L. & Forman, G. (Eds.). 1998. The hundred languages of children: Edwards, C. P. 2002, Katz & Cesarone, (1994) New (2000). Three Approaches from Europe: Waldorf, Montessori and Reggio Emilia. The Reggio Emillia approach-Advanced reflections (2nd ed.).Gardener, H. 1993. http://www.multipleintelligencetheory.co.ukGardner, W. R. 1966, The Elementary School Journal, Vol. 67, No. 2 pp. 72-83.Gerver, R. 2013 http://www.richardgerver.com/blog/Hughes, S. 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcNvTPX4Q08Mitra, S. 2013. http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud.htmlPenn, H. 2005, Understanding Early Childhood, Issues and controversies, Open University Press.Peters, R. S. (Ed.) 1969, A Critique of Plowden's ‘Recognisable Philosophy of Education.’Richards, C. 1984, The Study Of Primary Education, The Falmer Press.Robinson, K 2012. http://www.educationrevolution.org/blog/kenrobinsonTaylor, F. W. 1911, The Principles of scientific management. http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/fwt/ti.htmlWilson, P. 1974, Plowden’s ‘Facts’ About Children: A Child Centred-Critique.http://www.npgprints.com/image/70750/mayotte-magnus-bridget-horatia-nee-richmond-lady-plowden

ResourcesS.O.L.E. toolkit http://www.ted.com/pages/sole_toolkitRichard Gerver and Sir Ken Robinson http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creating-Tomorrows-Schools-TodayFree Montesori learning resources www.montessoricentrewales.ning.com

http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pdfs/Adobe_Creativity_and_Education_Why_It_Matters_study.pdf

http://www.richardgerver.com/blog/

http://www.npgprints.com/image/70750/mayotte-magnus-bridget-horatia-nee-richmond-lady-plowden

A SCHOOL IN THE CLOUD

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