Teacher Assistance Required and Classroom Administration.

The teacher assistance to be provided would follow the guidance provided by Maria Montessori. According to Elliott, Gettinger and Kratochwill (1992), "Like Froebel, Montessori implemented an early education curriculum that was founded on a developmental theory, employed play as the instructional method, and sequentially introduced developmentally appropriate materials designed to facilitate sensory and cognitive skills" (p. 8). This technique is clearly appropriate for a preschool environment where there will likely be a highly diverse group of children at various developmental stages. In the Montessori-guided classroom, though, a careful balance must be made between helping young children too little and helping them too much. For instance, according to Wentworth (1999), "Helping children too much, or providing them with ready answers to problems, is a negative factor because it prevents the child from using its own resources for knowledge acquisition, and deprives the child of the pleasure of discovery" (p. 16).

There is also a need for teachers to "keep an eye out" for children who may not be receiving the level of attention they need, for whatever reason. Some children, of course, do not want to do anything from time to time and this is an acceptable activity in the Montessori classroom, but teachers must be ready to assist them when and where they need assistance depending on the circumstances. If a child is acting out and needs some time to recover his or her composure, the teacher should direct this. Likewise, the teacher should ensure that children are provided with a wide range of activities that will promote their interaction. Indeed, interactions between children are considered essential for the development of cognitive, language, social, and play skills; however, while preschool programs provide a number of opportunities for social interactions, a child's presence in these environments does not ensure that interactions and learning will take place (Crocker & Orr, 1996).

Summary and Conclusion

This paper provided an overview of a proposed preschool program for children ages 3 to 5 years using the principles developed by Maria Montessori specifically for such programs. The preschool...

Although the classroom design and materials used in this program are fairly straightforward, the level of teacher commitment required to ensure it success is high but the potential rewards are truly enormous. Properly administered, a preschool program designed along the lines described above might well make the difference between young learners rushing to their parents enthusing, "Guess what I learned today!" And them complaining that, "I'm never going back there again!" Even more importantly for children's long-term outcomes, this preschool program could contribute to their transition to school, improve their ability to interact with their multicultural peers, and provide them with learning opportunities that will assist them across the board in later life. These are tall orders, of course, but children are not products are there is no room for experimentation or false starts. The preschool program envisioned herein has been shown to be effective in thousands of preschool settings, and it can be successful in thousands of others as well.