Montessori VS Gibson: Education and Perception

Maria Montessori and Eleanor Gibson atomic number 18 devil of the primary statement theorists in the last 100 divisions. twain ar female, which was r atomic number 18 in their fields at the time, and both contributed to didactics and discipline theories in dashs that argon still widely utilise today. However, each has a antithetical perspective on education, and a different and unique contribution to the field of educational research. Over exclusively in all, there be numerous signifi displacet similarities and differences in the educational theories created and implemented by Montessori and Gibson.Montessori was born in Italy in 1870. She att halted medical checkup school there despite protests close her gender, and was the first woman to ever become a doctor in Italy. After medical school, Montessori went on to break a office with vile children. She noticed that legion(predicate) of these children could not necessarily benefit from medical cargon, but could bene fit from educational opportunities that they did not have. After noticing this, Montessori went on to teach children and develop a carcass of education that is used through stunned the introduction today.Her early success in teaching was met with surprise, as even she had been skeptical that her regularitys would pass. The progress that these economically poor children showed was amazing to her, and to others who came to see what they could do. In fact, efforts were so successful that Montessori went on to wanton up other poor houses around Italy, and later, in other countries. Towards the end of her life, she traveled around, teaching the Montessori method to other teachers in countries throughout the human race (Cossentino).Gibson was born in America in 1910. As a child, she was demoralised from attending school because of her gender, but persevered and attend everyway. After secondary school, she attended Yale and eventually earned a Ph.D. in developmental psychology. Gib son then began to work with children and animals, doing experiments to see what babies knew from birth and what was find outed.Her nigh famous experiment is the visual cliff, where a drop-off is set up and coered by glass. Babies ripend 6 to 14 months argon primed(p) at the edge and encour historic periodd to go onto the clear glass. However, all babies refused, suggesting that they could grok depth from birth. Gibson used the information she garner from these experiments to investigate the way people look out and perceive their surroundings. Gibsons experiments ar still being carried out by her students today (Gibson).Maria Montessori created a method for teaching children that today is used to educate children from birth through days 18, although it is mostly commonly used for ages three to six. The general principle is to allot a child his freedom to work at his own pace, on the activities he chooses. Several age-appropriate activities are possible, and the child choo ses what he is interested in and investigates it thoroughly. Children at work are never interrupted, and individual work takes antecedence all over group work. Additionally, all groups are multi-age, with three ages in superstar group. The most common age group is the three to six year superannuated ages. These groupings exist so the older children will teach the progenyer children, advancing both of their study (www.montessori.edu).Gibsons approach to education is different. Her studies focussed on perceptual development and innate knowledge in babies alternatively than education later in life, although her theories had implications for education later in life. Gibson is cognise for starting the field of perceptual development in psychology, as bittie was known about it at the time. Most doctors and psychologists assumed that to babies, the military man was postal code much than a confusing buzz of sounds and sights, and that they could not make any sense of it or perce ive it at all in the way of adults.These doctors assumed that babies receiveed to perceive as they aged and were taught about the world around them. Gibson performed many experiments throughout her years as a detective that disproved this view and brought about a brand-new view of perceptual development. She wrote twain books, hotshot in 1967 on her research thus far, and one in 1991 that summed up what she had done in her lifetime (Gibson).The major difference mingled with Montessori and Gibson is that Montessori was a doctor who specialized in teaching children found on their individual needs throughout their lives, while Gibson primarily focused on what children already knew when they were born and was not overly concerned with later life, as older children had already been studied more. Gibson does, however, focus some on the processes of education throughout life, although primarily in what children know at birth and how this affects the way they chance upon later in lif e.They were similar, though, in their belief that children were different than others sight. Children were not stupid, were not blank slates, and did not need help in discipline everything. Children were born with innate abilities to name and to perceive. Gibson and Montessori both furthered this idea through their work. two women also helped to show that children could work seriously, even from a young age that their attention spans are long fair to middling and their perceptions are nigh(a) enough to learn on their own.Gibson did further experiments, mostly with infants, and often with animals, as original types of experiments are not ethical in piece. One significant determination was in how human children lettered to read and recognize letters. Gibson theorized that children would learn by seeking out the features that are different about the letters, or contrastive features. She came upon this system based on experiments with animals that showed this was how they le arned to recognize colors, patterns, and other objects. It dark out that this was, indeed, how children learned, by recognizing different features in the letters to distinguish one from another (Spelke).Also, Gibson was trying to focus on the mechanisms which operate in all learning (Gibson). Her goal was to discover, through her research on perception, how exactly humans learned, and how figuring this out could benefit them in some way. This research was authoritative later to show how oftentimes people really knew and were capable of learning at all ages.Montessori did not focus nearly as much on how children perceived, but on how they learned (which is, in general, what Montessori and Gibson have most in common). Montessori emphasized that all children learned differently and needed an environment which nurtured this. Children who are put in an environment and allowed to learn what they chose tended to choose to learn as much as possible. Montessori also emphasizes creativity through learning to do a number of different things, and to learn them correctly. For example, music lessons can be a part of Montessori if a child chooses but the teachers foster the students to learn to play an instrument correctly, not to use it for an unorthodox purposes, exchangeable using a violin as a hammer (www.montessori.edu).Additionally, Montessori focuses on work, rather than play in her education model. Most preschools believe that children learn through random play, while Montessori emphasizes purposeful work even from the young ages in order to investigate and learn about the world (Cossentino 63).Both methods are based on the premise that children know more than they are accustomed credit for. Gibson was sure that children could understand and perceive far more than psychologists thought they could, and her experiments showed that this was true. In fact, Gibson did experiments on animals that proved even further what the experiments with babies began to show. Gib son took newborn kids (baby goats) and placed them on the visual cliff, and even at birth they would not go over it.She also placed kittens on the cliff once they were old enough to move and see, and they would not go over it. Gibson reared some animals in complete darkness for awhile, and some would still not go over the cliff when they entered the light. Kittens were an exception to this. For a few days, they crawled across the whole lift and did not notice the cliff after that, they, too, stopped going over the edge. Gibson tried to place them on the cliff right away, so they would learn that crawling onto the glass was safe, but once kittens could see better, even though they knew the glass was safe from previous experience, they still would not go across it once they could see the cliff, suggesting that the perception of this drop is innate and not learned (Spelke).Innate ability is the key to Gibson and Montessori. Both believed that children had innate ability to learn, to recognize, and to know. Montessori built her schools on this premise. In fact, many schools have children who are discovering and understanding subjects that adults esteem are far beyond their capabilities at a young age. Elementary age students may teach themselves advanced mathematics or science concepts, ideas that are usually taught in high school. The Montessori method encourages children to use their innate infrequency and ability to investigate to find out about their world and learn as much as they can about it (www.montessori.edu).Children are unmistakably intelligent and have strong capabilities. They are not born with no knowledge, no skills, and no ability to learn. Both Gibson and Montessoris research showed that this is true. Children are born knowing things, and born with a thirst to know more things. Children learn by perceiving the world around them and continuing to try things out until they figure out how it works, and why.Montessori had an early idea about how children learned, and created a arranging to teach them in that natural way. Todays Montessori schools are all across the world, at every age group, public and private. Montessori still path that children learn individually, even when they are in high school. Students who study by the Montessori method tend to score above average on exchangeable tests (despite a complete lack of teaching to the test) and tend to get into good colleges and succeed well in life.This is because students are assumption the opportunity to work individually from a young age, which leads to self- pauperization. Self-motivation is the most crucial part of the theory children will learn far more if they are doing it on their own, based on intrinsic motivation, rather than extrinsic motivation. The Montessori method promotes this intrinsic motivation from the beginning (www.montessori.edu).Gibsons work, which came later, explained in psychological detail what Montessori seemed to innately know, yet as h er students innately knew about the world around them. Gibsons experiments confound light on the way children perceived their world and how much they actually knew and understood before anyone taught them.Today, many people are still a bit skeptical about the ideas put forth by these two women. However, many of the major educational and psychological movements are based on the work that both women did in their individual fields. Gibsons experiments have given way to a plethora of research in cognitive and perceptual psychology, specifically aimed at trying to figure out how infants and animals really think and understand.The result of all of these years of experiments and programs it that children are better prepared to learn about their world in a way that makes sense to them. Children are better focused, better behaved, and learn more, better, and more quickly when their natural abilities are recognized and respected. Children in Montessori classrooms or those with teachers who believe in their ability to think, learn, and perceive without explicit teaching thrive better than those who have teachers who think they are merely blank slates, empty vessels waiting to be taught to look, listen, think, and perceive.The educational world has both Gibson and Montessori to thank for their new insights into teaching young children. Both women do significant contributions to the field at a time when women were not welcomed into medical fields. Both women had to fight for their right to an education, and both women were intelligent enough and grasp enough to get their degrees and conduct their programs despite opposition. Without them, education would not be what it is today.BibliographyCossentino, Jacqueline M. (2006). Big take form Goodness, Vocation, and Engagement in the Montessori Method. Curriculum Inquiry. 36, 1, 63 92.Gibson, Eleanor J. (1940). A Systematic Application of the Concepts of Generalization and Differentiation to Verbal Learning. Psychological Review. 47, 196 229.Gibson, Eleanor J. (1934). safekeeping and the Interpolated Task. American Journal of Psychology. 46, 603 610.The International Montessori Index (2006). Accessed December 18, 2006. Website www.montessori.edu.Spelke, Elizabeth (2003). Gibsons Work An Extended Reply to Helmholtz. Association for Psychological Science, 16, 4.