The Prepared Environment
Montessori education seeks to provide children with environments that are ideally suited to each stage of development. This method allows them to respond to the inner call of specific “sensitivities” and gives them the freedom to act in accordance with their innate human tendencies. As such, if education is viewed as a method of fulfilling the optimum potential of the child in every stage of his emerging personality, the “prepared environment” provides a secure and permanent foundation on which to base education.
The prepared environment is different for each developmental plane but is always guided by the same principles. The prepared environment and the role of the teachers set Montessori apart from other educational approaches. As an example, independent activity constitutes about 80% of the work in a Montessori environment and teacher-directed activity accounts for the remaining 20%. The special environments enable children to perform various tasks that induce thinking about relationships. The logical sequential nature of the environment provides orderly structures which guide discovery. Through this theorems are discovered rather than presented: spelling rules, for instance, are derived through the recognition of patterns, instead of simply being memorized. Every part of the curriculum involves creative invention and careful, thoughtful analysis. The Montessori approach emphasizes that the why and how students arrive at understanding and knowledge in each Montessori level is just as important as what they know.
The most well-known example of a Montessori prepared environment is the environment for 3–6 year olds, called the “Casa dei Bambini” or “Children’s House.” At this formative age the child is consolidating the formation of the self as an individual being that began at birth. The environment is set up as a bridge between the home and the wider world.
In the prepared environment, there are a variety of activities as well as a great deal of movement. In a Children’s House, for instance, a three-year-old may be washing clothes by hand while a four-year-old is performing multiplication by using a specially-designed set of beads. In an elementary classroom, a small group of six to nine-year-old children may be using a timeline to learn about extinct animals while another child chooses to work alone, analyzing a poem using special grammar symbols. Sometimes an entire class may be involved in a group activity, such as storytelling, singing, or movement.
Referenced from:
http://montessoricentenary.org/briefins/WhatIsMontessoriEducation.pdf