George Bernard Shaw couldn’t have been further from the truth when he wrote, “ “He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.” In fact, teaching assists you in acquiring “chains of connected ideas” that deepen your understanding of the material at hand! Teaching is a Set of Conditions When asked why I shifted…
You might have heard that really smart people talk to themselves. Wonder why? It might be because they use a neuro strategy of self-explanation that serves their learning and improves comprehension! Self-Explanation is Self-Instruction Self-explanation is simply a method of self-instruction of talking through a procedure or making connections of what is…
Rewards can shape behavior by providing incentives for performing certain behaviors. Use of extrinsic rewards, such as money, gold stars, or candy, can have unintended consequences. These include reducing performance by singularly focusing effort on the reward, or making behavior dependent on receiving a reward rather than increasing or enhancing understanding. Rewards are Either…
As a Montessori Upper Elementary guide of 9-12 year olds, I swear, my students likely thought I didn’t know anything! I was always asking questions and when an inquiry came my way from a student, whether or not I knew the answer, my response was usually, “I’m not sure, let’s go look that up.” What…
So much of what we do as Montessori educators is proscribed from the annals of Dr. Montessori and passed down generationally through our training to become certified guides. This entire blog series seeks to uncover why what we do works and how we might enhance our practices to improve student learning outcomes. This week’s focus…
Learning by watching others is called observational learning, something every Montessori practitioner experiences every day! Observation Through Millennia People can often learn a lot just by watching others perform a task. In fact, this kind of learning is what has propelled mankind for millennia and is thought to be behind the concept of…
Making involves producing something. Whether you write a poem, create a garden, or assemble an electronic kit, “making” is the idea is that you are engaged in an activity that requires creating something and learning takes place as one investigates how to do it, encounters roadblocks, and need to solve problems. Making Meets…
Listening is a Key Practice in Collaborative Learning Environments When students use the learning strategies of listening and sharing with others, their collaboration leads to problem solving and completed tasks. Better yet, effective collaborative learning environments can alleviate a student’s frustration and “allow group learning to surpass what would be possible by a single…
This week’s installment of The ABCs of Learning: Montessori Edition varies from the rest of my articles on learning strategies, as knowledge is more of an outcome than a neurostrategy. I’m including it in this series as I believe that when educators deepen their understanding of educational outcomes it can lead them to more mindful…
Imaginative Play is at Work in Montessori Environments Most people would agree that children naturally love to pretend play and use their imagination to create alternate worlds. Most people would agree that this imaginative play is a natural part of human development. What most people don’t agree upon though, is whether pretend play should…