Montessori Method
The Montessori Method is widely known and implemented all over the world. It was developed in Italy by the pedagogue Maria Montessori and is based on 5 main principles.
1) Respect for the child: Teachers show respect for children when they help them do things and learn for themselves. When children have choices, they are able to develop the skills and abilities necessary for effective learning autonomy, and positive self-esteem
2) The absorbent mind: Children educate themselves and learn from their environments. But what they learn depends greatly on their teachers, experiences, and environments.
3) Sensitive periods: Montessori believed there are sensitive periods when children are more susceptible to certain behaviors and can learn specific skills more easily. Although all children experience the same sensitive periods (e.g., a sensitive period for writing), the sequence and timing vary for each child. One role of the teacher is to use observation to detect times of sensitivity and provide the setting for optimum fulfillment.
4) The prepared environment: Montessori believed that children learn best in a prepared environment, a place in which children can do things for themselves. Freedom is the essential characteristic of the prepared environment. Since children within the environment are free to explore materials of their own choosing, they absorb what they find there.
5) Self-education: Children who are actively involved in a prepared environment and who exercise freedom of choice literally educate themselves.
The term ‘Creative Technologies’ is very general and can be approached from different perspectives. In the framework of the MonTech project, when we refer to Creative Technologies, we mean Technologies for Creative Learning, so what we are proposing is a vision of technology as a medium of creative expression.
To explain this concept, its main ideas, and the methods arising from them, we will introduce six topics, all of them related to creative technologies and interconnected with each other: Constructionism, Maker Education, Computational Thinking, Creative Computing, STEAM and Tinkering.
