In this new series of blog posts, we are going to introduce you to several women who have had a significant impact within the worlds of STEM, coding, and education. Here, you’re going to
meet them and even realize that nowadays, we apply many of the rules these women created or invented, in order to make our lives much easier.
To begin with, we want to introduce you to Maria Montessori; one of the most important people in the way we approach, or should approach, education
When understanding the paradigm of STEM education, we need to have our minds wide open to completely comprehend that this entire revolution began many decades ago. When the traditional educational system was what everyone looked for, an inspiring woman created a new way to educate; a way in which critical thinking, teamwork, inclusiveness, and project-based learning would guide the educational process itself. This woman was Maria Montessori.
Maria Montessori was an Italian educator and physician, who created the educational system and philosophy that bears her name. She was a single mother who wrote tons of books and papers about scientific pedagogy and about her approach to teaching and learning.
Maria Montessori’s inspiration
Everybody needs an inspiration! Maria Montessori based her theory, her method and her system on the praiseworthy work of Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, Edouard Seguin, Friederich Frobel, and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. All of these people, wrote, researched and emphasized sensory exploration in education.
Interacting with a number of children in the Casa dei Bambini at the beginning of the 1900s, Maria started to develop her very own pedagogy. Through observation, she came to the conclusion that the children’s spontaneous activity in the environment showed an internal program of development. Also, she saw that the appropriate role of the educator was to actually remove the barriers to this natural development, unlike traditional education, providing students with the chance to develop and create better versions of themselves.
The Montessori educational system
Nowadays, many private and public schools around the world use parts, or even the complete philosophy and method Maria Montessori founded. Her method for young kids stresses the development of a child’s own natural abilities, encouraging initiative through practical play. This method allows children to develop skills and abilities at their own pace and provides teachers and educators with a whole new concept of child development.
One of the keys of the Montessori method in order to succeed, is to divide students into age groups and allow the older kids of the group to become teachers of the younger members. This creates a unique and beautiful way of interacting with our pairs and with the world.
In the Montessori method, students learn through exploration, manipulations, order, repetition, abstraction, and communication. Teachers, who are called “guides” in most Montessori schools around the world, encourage kids in the first two age groups to use their senses to explore and manipulate material in their immediate environment. Children in the last age group deal with
abstract concepts based on their newly developed powers of reasoning, imagination, and lots of creativity.
What does the Montessori method have to do with coding
When this spectacular woman created the Montessori system, computers and coding weren’t even something people had access to. Without even knowing the many industrial revolutions that would come after the foundation of this method, some of its guidelines apply to what coding tries to deliver today.
Critical thinking, exploration, understanding abstract concepts and applying self-initiative and inclusiveness are only a few of the similarities the Montessori method has with the way Tekkie Uni teaches coding. Learning by doing and by interacting in pairs, can enable our kids to grasp
new information and make it part of their core thoughts, their behavior and the way they communicate with the world around them.
This isn’t only about creating a successful App, or about learning how to use Alice a programming interface for kids, for example. Learning how to code, in a good environment can also help our kids be better prepared to face both the present and the unknown future.
Enable your children to discover how to code today, and allow them to receive all of these tools, and many more. Maybe, you will put them on the path to building the best version of themselves.
