Abstract/Notes: This paper aims to focus on certain aspects of two education methods: one initiated in the first half of the twentieth century by Maria Montessori, and the other in the second half of that century by Matthew Lipman. The aim – neither comparative nor analytical – is to shed light on the connections and, more specifically, the elements of the Montessori Method that reflect on Lipman’s proposal. The question this paper aims to answer is: can P4C find fertile ground in schools applying the Montessori Method? The paper will focus, among other elements: on the importance to give space to thinking experience from childhood and on the recognition of the value of childhood. Both Lipman and Montessori have systematically observed children of different ages – the former in the first half, the latter in the second half of the twentieth century. Both characterized, gave value, and focused their scientific contributions on children’s ability to think and express their thoughts through languages (purposely in the plural form). As educational researchers and professionals know, children have the ability to think, but such ability has not always been (still isn’t) considered to exist. Even when it is evoked in words, educational choices and proposals seem – still today – to express mistrust towards children’s thought. The two mentioned authors have repeatedly highlighted the importance of an essential right: the right to think and to be given a space – even as children – to exercise thinking with others. In particular, both authors – though envisaging different educational paths – identified the same categories functional to exercising thinking. Their interconnection may guide the actions of teachers, educators, and learning process experts. In fact, P4C might play a role in educational contexts in which the class is already considered a community of inquiry, in which the teacher is assigned the same role as a facilitator

Language: English

DOI: 10.12957/childphilo.2020.46784

ISSN: 1984-5987

Abstract/Notes: La presente ricerca, di impianto teorico, si prefigge lo scopo di indagare - all’interno della cornice teorica del problematicismo pedagogico - le connessioni tra due proposte educative che concorrono alla promozione dell’esercizio del pensiero complesso già nell’infanzia: il Metodo elaborato da Maria Montessori e la Philosophy for Children sviluppata da Matthew Lipman. Attingendo alla bibliografia scientifica di riferimento, sia nazionale sia internazionale, e a partire dalle connessioni individuate, si arrischiano sconfinamenti in saperi altri: sostando in ambiti di ricerche, apparentemente lontani, vengono interrogate le teorie dell’apprendimento, i rapporti con le tecnologie, fino al confronto con le interessanti conferme che emergono dalle recenti ricerche neuroscientifiche. La scelta dell’oggetto della ricerca nasce da una riflessione relativa all’emergere di fenomeni di negazione dell’infanzia e dei suoi diritti; ra gli altri, il diritto al pensiero. Sembra necessario richiamare alla responsabilità di accompagnare l’infanzia sulle strade della complessità nella cittadinanza GLocale. In questa direzione, le proposte educative prese in esame sembrano offrire, a partire dall’infanzia, modalità diversificate e divergenti delle esperienze di conoscere, sentire, comunicare alle quali poter attingere come bambini e bambine e nelle successive età della vita. Con il presente lavoro di ricerca, che mi ha vista impegnata in diverse forme per tre ricchi e intensi anni, ho tentato di mettere al centro della riflessione l’esercizio del pensiero che emerge come imprescindibile responsabilità educativa a cui i dispositivi propri del Metodo Montessori e della Philosophy for Children possono contribuire a corrispondere. [The research undertaken for this doctoral thesis - within the theoretical framework of pedagogical problematicism - explores the connections between two educational proposals that contribute to the promotion of the exercise of complex thought already since childhood: the Method elaborated by Maria Montessori and the Philosophy for Children developed by Matthew Lipman. With reference to the scientific bibliography, both national and international, this work matches Learning Theories, Studies on New Technologies and Practices in Education, comparing it with the interesting discoveries that emerge from recent neuroscientific research. It seems necessary to recall the responsibility of accompanying childhood on the roads of complexity in GLocal citizenship and, so, to offer children the tools and times for developing the capacity to think critically, to reason around events, and to undertake constructive relations with the environment and with others. With the present research, which has engaged me in different forms for three richly intense years, I have tried to centre my analysis on the exercise of thought as an indispensable educational responsibility to which the devices of the Montessori Method and of the Philosophy for Children can contribute.]

Language: Italian

Published: Bologna, Italy, 2018

Language: English

DOI: 10.5840/thinking20001516

ISSN: 0190-3330, 2380-6370

Abstract/Notes: This article draws on Martha Nussbaum's distinction between basic, internal, and external (or combined) capacities to better specify possible locations for children's ‘incapacity’ for autonomy. I then examine Maria Montessori's work on what she calls ‘normalization’, which involves a release of children's capacities for autonomy and self-governance made possible by being provided with the right kind of environment. Using Montessori, I argue that, in contrast to many ordinary and philosophical assumptions, children's incapacities for autonomy are best understood as consequences of an absence of external conditions necessary for children to exercise capacities they already have internally, rather than intrinsic limitations based on their stage of life. In a closing section, I show how Montessori proposes a model wherein both children and adults have autonomy, power, and responsibility, but over different spheres, and suggest implications of these differences for who has responsibility for establishing the conditions under which children can flourish.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1111/1467-9752.12134

ISSN: 1467-9752

Language: English

Published: Santa Rosa, California: Parent Child Press, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-939195-62-6 978-0-939195-63-3

Language: German

ISSN: 0944-2537

Abstract/Notes: Boken är en aktuell och mångfacetterad beskrivning av vårt pedagogiska arv och dagens skolverklighet. Viktiga frågor som rör utbildningens innehåll, form och mål har fått en särskilt framträdande plats. Kapitlet presenterar Montessoripedagogikens filosofiska idé och gör nedslag i den praktiska tillämpningen från förskola till grundskolans senare år. [The book is a current and multifaceted description of our pedagogical heritage and today's school reality. Important issues concerning the content, form and goals of the education have been given a particularly prominent place. The chapter presents the philosophical idea of Montessori pedagogy and reflects on the practical application from preschool to the later years of primary school.]

Language: Swedish

Published: Stockholm, Sweden: Liber, 2005

Edition: 7th

ISBN: 978-91-47-12288-2

Language: English

Language: English

ISSN: 0571-1142

Language: English

Published: Boston, Massachusetts: AMI-USA, 2000

Pages: 68-74