Evaluation in Montessori Classroom
Montessori Schools celebrate Graduation Days with as much pomp and grandeur as in Universities. Almost all parents will be present on the day to witness their child’s performance. However, the Graduation Day at a Montessori school is different from those of Universities and other schools. Since Montessori schools have no exams and tests, Graduation Day is an occasion for the children to showcase what they have learnt in the past three years. But the question is why there are no tests and exams in Montessori schools.
Tests and Examinations
The Montessori classes do not have exams and tests since Maria Montessori strongly believed that learning is internal and takes place not because of some external force like reward, punishment or fear of examination but with personal effort. She asserted that the child has an innate ability to evaluate his own work and doesn’t depend on the exams conducted by the adults.
Child, a natural evaluator
Montessori believed that the child is a natural evaluator and has the capacity to check his work. It is strange but true. Let us consider a child buttoning a shirt. He tries to button. He knows exactly when he is not buttoned. Similarly, a child tying a lace knows when the lace is not knotted. He himself can evaluate whether his work is correct or not. He doesn’t ask the mother to check. Definitely, he doesn’t appreciate the mother interfering and teaching. He throws a tantrum when his mother touches the shirt or the lace he is holding.
Child as an Expert
Many adults reason out that exams will make the child proficient. The child masters a skill better by himself than through exams. In the above case of buttoning, it is true that the child fails several times, but he doesn’t give up buttoning and keeps trying until he succeeds. Finally, when he succeeds, he won’t stop buttoning immediately either. To our astonishment, he unbuttons all the buttons and rebuttons all over again. This process repeats several times. This repetition is for mastering his buttoning skill. When all this is completed, he appears to be happy, contented and serenely peaceful, which no reward would result in. Without any teacher to supervise his work or exam to evaluate his skill he becomes an expert.
Reward has no value
In her classic book Absorbent Mind, Montessori narrates an incident. One of the teachers in the first Montessori house of children had a habit of giving a big pompous golden cross to be worn by the well-behaved children as a reward. One day, a boy was rewarded with the cross and made to wear it. It was quite big and obstructing his work. So, he gave it to another child who was sitting in the corner doing nothing. In fact, he was punished. After some time, this boy, saw a small girl crying, removed the cross from his neck and adorned the girl. At the end of the day, the reward lay on a chair without anybody’s care. This shows that the children neither understand the significance of the reward nor their learning depends on it, at least at a lower level of schooling.
Corrections
A Montessori classroom is a special set-up where many things are possible which are not feasible in a regular classroom set-up. For instance, in a lower elementary classroom when children intend to find out the circumference of the circle to arrive at the formula, they go on finding the circumference of every available material that is circular in shape. It requires space for movement, space for carrying out the activity when other children are involved with other activities. Such activities are not possible in a regular school. The teachers in regular schools allow the children to imagine the whole process while sitting in one place. In this condition, the chances of probable mistakes are less since the teacher is leading the complete class. Whereas the Montessori classroom gives a lot of scope for learning through mistakes. Ten children may measure the circumference of the same circular object and get different measurements. This gives them an opportunity to discuss the reasons for the error.
There is a difference between learning through mistakes and learning through trial and error. In learning through mistakes there is guidance, enough support from the teacher and a rule to follow. Whereas, learning through trial and error doesn’t have all of these and is therefore dangerous. Every mistake enables the child to exercise his intelligence in different ways and achieve the goal. As a rule, the Montessori teacher doesn’t interfere in the child’s mistake unless the mistake injures him or other children or damages the equipment. Montessori stressed that corrections not only humiliate but also discourage the children and their learning.
Control of Error
Most Montessori materials have an in-built mechanism to control the error, which is normally called ‘control of error’. For example – in the activity, arranging as many counters as the card shows, the box contains exactly 55 counters. Any excess or shortage of counter indicates something is wrong. The number of counters acts as a control of error. Most activities have the control of error, the teachers explain the control of error to the children and demonstrate what to expect when the activity is correctly performed. It is as simple as a statement, “When we sweep (correctly) we will not find even a speck of dust” or “When we pour water from a jug to a glass, not even a drop of water is seen on the chowki and floor”.
Maria Montessori did not come up with the control of error overnight. She discovered it from her work with children for 22 years. Montessori noticed that the young children seem to be driven towards perfection irresistibly, which she called ‘Criterion of Perfection’. The control of error in the material aided the criterion of perfection, enabling the child to master the activity through repetition. This repetition leads the child to achieve the goal of education without the teacher’s interference, without him being aware.
Progress Report
It is said that one of the reasons for conducting examinations in regular school is to convey the child’s progress to parents. In Montessori schools, there are three ways to convey the child’s progress – Parent Observations, Montessori Report Cards and Graduation Day.
Parent Observation
Parents are allowed to observe the Montessori classroom twice a year. They can sit inside the classroom and watch how their children work. The aim of parent observation is to perceive how a Montessori class works instead of how a particular child works. Some schools have a peephole through which the parents can observe. Some schools allow the parents to observe throughout the school year. In most Montessori schools the parent observation is scheduled twice a year just before the close of each term.
Montessori Report Cards
Montessori Report Cards are different from regular school report cards as they do not have grades or marks. Some schools mention the names of the materials with which children are working at that point. Most Montessori schools indicate the ability which the child has achieved or is trying to achieve. For example – The child is able to count up to 10. Can associate the numbers from 1 to 5 with their symbols. Can recognise all the sounds in a word etc. Usually, Montessori Report Cards are issued twice a year at the end of each term.
Graduation Day
In any Montessori classroom either Montessori pre-primary, Montessori Lower Elementary or Montessori Upper Elementary the child stays for three years. When he completes three years in one environment, he graduates to the next successive environment. To mark this special event, Graduation Day is celebrated in most Montessori Schools. Graduation Ceremony is the event when the senior children exhibit their knowledge, skills and everything that he has learnt in his three years of stay in the Montessori environment to the parents. Although the event is mainly conducted by the senior children, the second and first-year parents also benefit from the Graduation Day as the parents understand what to expect from the school in the next two years.
In Montessori schools, there are no tests, exams, rewards or punishments. The children are respected and allowed to correct themselves. The Parent Observation, Montessori Report Card and Graduation Ceremony help parents understand what is happening in the Montessori classroom and where the child has learnt. The Montessori method does not merely train the child to study a book or pass an exam. It trains him for life, how to live life – moment to moment, from birth to death. It is about the process of learning – not an end.