DEVELOPMENTAL SUBJECT-SPATIAL ENVIRONMENT AS AN INNOVATIVE POTENTIAL OF MONTESSORI EDUCATION

• Ілона Дичківська

  Рівненський державний гуманітарний університет

The article describes the influence of the developmental environment on the development of a child in the first 3 years of Montessori education, where the child's free independent activity is the most important prerequisite for revealing his inner potential in the subject-spatial environment created by the teacher.

It is emphasized that an enriched environment provides for the unity of social and natural means of ensuring the child's full life. This includes architectural and landscape and natural and ecological objects; art studios; playgrounds and sports grounds; constructors; thematic sets of toys, manuals; audiovisual and informational means of education and training. It is emphasized that a mandatory condition for ensuring the effective development of a child is the creation of a developmental environment in the unity of all its components, namely: natural; subject-game; social; the child’s own “I”. It is emphasized that the environment is the socio-domestic, social, material and spiritual conditions of the child’s existence. When creating a developmental environment, important parameters for the personal development of a preschooler should be taken into account: his worldview, self-awareness, experiences, manifestations of volitional behavior, basic personal qualities, interests and needs.

The developmental prepared environment of Montessori education is characterized by the following features: connection with the idea of freedom; structure and order; compliance with reality and nature; beauty and atmosphere that evokes a positive response in the child's soul; development of social life skills.

1. Montessori's pedagogy does not separate the personality of the teacher and the child, it is based on the irequality in education and training.  The essence of Montessori education is the free activity of the child in the environment created by the teacher.  According to the Montessori method, the child builds his knowledge in the process of intensive interaction with the environment. A prepared environment, the atmosphere in the classroom,  when the child can freely choose what to do, attractive materials, the presence of children of different ages,  which stimulates social development and the ability to cooperate – all this generally creates ideal conditions for the process of self-development of the child.

In the context of the restructuring of the educational process in modern Ukrainian preschool education institutions, it seems urgent to give the child a free choice of work. The instinct of “choice”, like the instinct of “obedience”, is innate, which ensures that every living being chooses only what is really necessary to preserve his/her life in the diverse surrounding world.

• pdf (Ukrainian)