Cosmic Education: A Curriculum for Children aged from Six to Twelve  Years

The curriculum offered in the Montessori environment prepared for the second plane of development is called, by Montessori educators, Cosmic Education. This curriculum presents children with a full range of educational disciplines, including mathematics and language, as well as the arts, sciences and social sciences.

The materials and exercises for each discipline area help children build a conceptual order, and classification materials associated with each discipline help children construct a mental order. The educational disciplines, however, are not presented to children as discrete areas in defined blocks of time, but in the form of an interconnected, interrelated and open-ended curriculum. The children are shown how each topic is related to other topics in the same subject area and to other subject areas. The interconnections between the disciplines happen at different points of time and in different ways for different children.

In this way, the curriculum is experienced as a coherent whole, individualised to each child’s interests and learning style, rather than as an assortment of unrelated pieces of information. This approach can be adjusted to match the learning styles of both global and linear thinkers and helps individual children to relate their predominant style of thinking to the thinking styles of others. The range of the Cosmic Education curriculum is very broad, and covers topics not always offered in primary school.

The Montessori curriculum for children in the second plane of development has evolved over the past one hundred years as, first, Dr Montessori, and later, educators within the Montessori movement, experimented and observed:

• what children of this age want to learn

• when they want to learn it

• how they want to learn it

• what materials and activities can best help them to learn.

In the Montessori environment prepared for children in this plane of development, most lessons are given to small groups of children. Children spend a great deal of time working with others. Individual children, nevertheless, progress at their own rate.

There are two main types of lessons:

• great lessons

• key lessons

The great lessons are fable-like stories that provide children with an expansive and imaginative overview of a whole area of the curriculum. Key lessons are brief lessons that provide students with just enough information about a certain area of knowledge, or a skill, principle or technique they need to master in order for them to explore independently an area of interest emerging from a great lesson.

As an individual-centred and constructivist practice, Montessori educational philosophy and practice recognises that students may achieve at points that differ from their peers. Montessori classrooms /learning environments, with their 3-year-age range known as cycles that correspond to developmental stages, provide students with the experiences detailed within the Montessori curriculum. Whilst these experiences are not based on the expectation that all students will achieve at the same time or by a specified end point, teachers use their knowledge of the child and the curriculum and the suggested achievement bands within their state or country to inform their support and monitoring of student progress. 

Careful records are kept of all lessons each child receives and the work that each child does. Children participate in regular, individual conferences with the teacher. These conferences are conducted so that children learn to evaluate their own level of mastery of materials and activities presented in previous lessons and their readiness for new lessons. In this way they become co-evaluators of their own work with the teacher. At the end of each conference, the teacher asks if there are any lessons the child would like to receive that have not yet been mentioned. This helps the children take ownership of their own learning.

Information collected at individual conferences is added to the record of lessons for each child. The teacher uses these records to plan future lessons, and groupings of children for these lessons. Occasionally a child needs to repeat a lesson. In this case the child may join the next group of children to be given the lesson or the child may receive an individual lesson if no one else needs the lesson at that time.

Dr Montessori observed that children in the second plane of development ask questions about the universe, the earth, life that has evolved on earth, and their place in this universe. In response to their questions she developed five great stories, or great lessons, that set the stage for an integrated approach to the curriculum offered to answer those questions. The first three great lessons introduce children to:

• the formation of the universe, the solar system and the earth

• the evolution of life on earth

• the coming of human beings to the earth.

The fourth and fifth great lessons are about the two great human inventions around which the curriculum is structured:

• communication through signs, in particular, the alphabet

• development of numbers

These five great lessons create a whole view, or overview, of the curriculum, into which details, provided by subsequent lessons, may be placed in relation to the whole and to one another. In this way, education becomes a coherent, interrelated whole rather than an assortment of unrelated pieces of information.

The Cosmic Education curriculum begins with the great lessons. Instead of giving children tiny, disconnected details, these stories give children the broad vision their expanding intellectual power demands. They become the framework for all subsequent lessons and activities, ensuring the coherence of the curriculum. In response to the children’s interests sparked by the great lessons the teacher prepares lessons to harness those interests. The environment is designed to provide children with space and uninterrupted time to follow these interests, for example, in a great work.

Because children in the second plane of development like to exert maximum effort, they often initiate a great work, in other words, a work that completely absorbs them for an extended period of time. During such work children develop their ability to cooperate with others as well as to concentrate for longer periods of time.

The follow-up work children complete after each lesson does not take the form of work sheets because, when children come to the end of a worksheet, psychologically they perceive the work as finished. Without the arbitrary limit set by a worksheet, children become very inventive in designing ways to work with the information or to practise the skill. Through invention of this sort, the information becomes their own, or the skill is mastered. When children are free to work in this way, they become completely absorbed in large endeavours. Exerting maximum effort and being creative become habits. This phenomenon has been observed in Montessori environments for children of this age so frequently that it has been named great work. For this reason, the Montessori environment prepared for children of this age provides both the space and the uninterrupted time for this kind of activity to occur.

During a great work, children build and expand their understanding, repeating the original lesson in a variety of ways. With each new understanding children appear to enjoy ‘flexing their mental muscles’, and often strive to exercise that understanding in a big way. An important aspect of this type of work is the opportunity to talk with their peers. Children of this age love to share and discuss ideas with their friends. This talk is important because it helps children develop their reasoning, the reasoning mind being a distinguishing characteristic of this plane of development. Children of this age want to know the reasons for things. When they are investigating a particular topic, they research and discuss using questions such as: Why is this like this?  How did this happen?

In the Montessori curriculum for children in the second plane of development two environments are offered to the children. The first environment is the classroom and the second is the world outside the classroom. The two environments together are used to:

·                deliver the Cosmic Education curriculum

·                give children the opportunity to engage actively with the curriculum.

The Cosmic Education curriculum follows the principle of ‘just enough’. This means that the environment      provides ‘just enough’ in the way of lessons, materials and information to equip children to proceed on their own. It is not the responsibility of the Montessori teacher to satisfy the vast curiosity children of this age have to know and to learn. Instead the teacher’s responsibility is to supply just enough information so the children will be eager to know more and to search for that knowledge and skill independently. The teacher helps them learn how to find out more on their own as well as how to interact with the material, information or skill in order to make it their own.

In summary, the Montessori environment for this age group is not designed to contain all the answers to the children’s questions. In fact Dr Montessori warned that offering children too much in the learning environment can be as detrimental as offering too little. Instead the environment provides reasons for children to go out into the world in order to learn more. This is why the second environment for primary children is the world outside of the classroom. The world is made part of the children’s environment through the going out programme.

While occasional field trips planned by the teacher and involving the whole class are one element of the Montessori Cosmic Education curriculum, the going out programme is something different. Going out is initiated, planned and carried out by the children themselves. This generally involves small groups of children who have a common interest. Activities of this kind begin simply and then grow in complexity over the primary years. If the class has a fish tank, for example, younger children may arrange for a trip to the pet shop to buy fish food. Initially, the teacher helps children with the planning process and shows them how to find out when the shop is open and how to get to and from the shop. By the time the children are older, they engage in a more complex process that includes:

• establishing that they have a need to go out

• deciding what kind of outing would serve their purpose

• obtaining the necessary information

• finding out where to go

• finding out how to get there

• researching the costs involved

• establishing the amount of time needed

• planning what needs to be taken on the outing

• inviting chaperones.

The prepared environment includes a range of resources for children to use as they plan an excursion beyond the classroom. These might include:

• brochures and other information about places to go for particular kinds of experiences

• phone books and a telephone

• maps and a street directory

• email and Internet access

To help children prepare for going out, they are given how to lessons, including:

• how to telephone for information or to make appointments

• how to read a map or street directory,

• how to search for information on the Internet

• how to use email

• how to use public transport

• how to conduct interviews

• how to take notes

• how to write letters of inquiry and thank you notes.

At no time do children leave the school unaccompanied; one or more adults always accompany children when they go out. The role of the adult/s is to ensure the children come to no harm. The children themselves take responsibility for all aspects of the trip.

The resources and activities in the Montessori learning environment for this plane of development are designed to aid the progression to abstraction. Many Montessori materials represent abstract concepts in concrete form. Children manipulate these materials to discover the concepts, working with the materials for as long as they need. They cease using the materials when they can manipulate the concepts abstractly.

The ability to abstract is interwoven with the ability to imagine. With their imagination children of this age can experience and learn about all aspects of our universe, whether phenomena far out in space, places on the other side of the world, or particles too small for the human eye to see. When, for example, children of this age have seen a lake and understand what a lake is, they can imagine lakes anywhere in the world. If they have experienced snow, they can imagine the South Pole.

Imagination also gives them the power to go backwards in time and imagine what life must have been like before there were grocery shops, a time when human beings had to find all their own food in order to survive. The Montessori learning environment for this age offers children an extensive array of images of this type in the form of stories, charts and experiments.

The learning environment also accommodates the hero worship so common to this age group by telling true stories of people from diverse times and places, stories that reveal the characteristics of these people, what they have done and the service they have given. Such stories inspire a sense of gratitude in the children for the contribution of others and may show them ways of contributing to the community and serving humanity themselves.

At the same time, children of this age are developing a sense of right and wrong, a sense of morality. This area of development is supported in the Montessori learning environment where children are free to make their own choices and to choose their own workspace and work companions. This freedom carries with it responsibilities. Socialising and working within a community of peers teaches children how to live and work together. Lessons in grace and courtesy provide the knowledge and support children need to succeed in social interactions.

At the same time, the great story of the formation of the universe introduces children to the laws of physics that operate in the universe. The story demonstrates how these laws preserve and protect the earth and make it possible for life to exist. Children also learn about past civilisations and how they developed laws that enabled them to live together. Through these stories, and the work that follows, children come to understand the benefit of laws and rules in all contexts, natural and social.

Children at this age have a heightened sense of justice and want everything to be fair. They practise negotiation and mediation skills among their own society of peers. There are regular class meetings for children of this age. Topics discussed at these meetings often include the concept of fairness along with issues of right and wrong. The interest children of this age have in understanding morality often leads to a deep sense of justice, as well as compassion for less assertive or younger children and people everywhere who are in need of help.

The Cosmic Education curriculum reveals to children the gifts they have received from the natural environment and from human society. The curriculum is designed to develop a sense of gratitude and of responsibility in relation to the care of the earth and to the care of people on the earth. Through their engagement with this curriculum some children may discover their own life’s vocation, for example, preserving the natural environment, or attending to the needs of others. As children increasingly understand how richly they are blessed both by the natural world and the work of other humans, their response is often an ambition to offer service of their own.

The Montessori environment prepared for the second plane of development prepares children for adolescence by fostering self-regulation, social and intellectual skills and a vision of the place of humanity in the universe. This approach provides a framework that supports young people when they are faced with critical choices in the future.

As children pursue their research interests across the Cosmic Education curriculum, they draw on a vast array of resources, including face-to-face contact with teachers and experts, planning and participating in excursions and going out activities, as well as using paper-based, digital and web-based technologies. As new digital technologies are developed, these are added to the resources available to children in Montessori classrooms in ways that match the children’s capacities and interests. Children use a range of technologies as research and production tools, including email, Internet-based communication and computer programs that enable manipulation of words, images and sound. They develop skills in using the technology as they apply it to relevant areas of the curriculum. In this way digital technologies become part of a balanced programme, without displacing paper-based skills, such as using reference books, finding books in a library, handwriting and technical drawing. It is also important that the use of digital technologies does not replace activities involving face-to-face communication and exact physical movement, for example, listening to guest speakers, preparing spoken presentations, interviewing experts, artwork and model-making, visiting museums and field work.

The use of digital technologies across the curriculum incorporates development of the following skills:

• experience with a range of computer programs to achieve a variety of goals e.g., producing text, managing data, multimedia presentations, research

• combining text, sound and images to design presentations

• collecting, interpreting, evaluating and managing information gathered through a range of electronic resources

• developing an ethical approach to the use of information and communication technologies

• applying appropriate occupational, health and safety principles to computer use.

The Montessori great lessons about the two great human inventions, communication with signs and mathematics, include information to account for advances in technology. Children can research the development of these technologies over time, and in this way build understanding about how the work of earlier generations has enabled humans of today to benefit from technological advances unimaginable to the people who have gone before us. Children can also use their reason and imagination to consider the directions new technologies might take us in the future, and what opportunities and challenges these advances might have in store for us.

Like educators everywhere, since the advent of the digital revolution, Montessori educators have been exploring the consequences of this revolution for children at different stages of their development (See, for example, Gebhardt-Seele 1985). They do this by applying Montessori principles to decisions made about the introduction of digital technologies into learning environments, and by ensuring that the technology matches the children’s stage of development and interests. More than two decades ago, Lillard (1996: 78-79) wrote about the use of computers in Montessori environments prepared for children aged from six to twelve:

The use of computers in the children’s research and subsequent projects is a new component in Montessori education. To date it appears that children six to nine years old develop best when their hands are more directly involved with manipulating materials in their work. It is essential during this period that the children learn to think clearly and read and write in an organized manner. Computers are therefore not included in the prepared environment for use in research studies and creative writing until the upper elementary level where the children are nine to twelve years old. By this time, the children’s thinking, reading, and writing abilities have a solid foundation. They are ready to make full use of the practical advantages of computers.

Since that time, advances in digital technologies have meant that Montessori educators are reviewing the role these technologies might play in the education of children six to nine years of age, as well as children over the age of nine. While digital technologies are now more likely to be used in Montessori classrooms for children aged from six to nine, for example, digital photography, Montessori educators strive to ensure that computer use does not detract from, but rather, enhances children’s learning. It remains the case that older children in Montessori classrooms make greater use of digital technology in their research and project work for the reasons outlined by Lillard above. Lillard (1996: 79) continues by explaining how other Montessori principles have been applied to computer use in Montessori classrooms:

The principle of limitation, however, still holds. Even if funds and space are available, there should be only a few computers in the prepared environment. These computers can function for each type of use: one which is part of the Internet or other connecting system for doing research; one for writing; and perhaps another for developing multidimensional images (CAD/CAM) such as might contribute to architectural or design work. This minimal number of computers assures that the children become familiar with the capabilities of computers without missing the intellectual and social development that the other materials in the environment are meant to facilitate.

Again, the advance of technology suggests that tying individual computers to separate functions is no longer relevant, but the same principles apply. Children need to master each function separately if they are to become expert users of these technologies, while at the same time they need to participate in a learning programme that balances computer use with other modes of intellectual and social development.

The Cosmic Education curriculum for the second plane of development covers the following interrelated discipline areas:

• Language

• Mathematics, with Geometry and Measurement as distinct areas of study

• History and Social Sciences

• Science, with Geography and Biology as distinct areas of study

• Creative Arts

• Physical Education

• Languages other than English

The way the discipline areas of Montessori Cosmic Education are interwoven to create an integrated curriculum for children in the second plane of development is represented in the following diagram.

The main content areas of the curriculum are outlined briefly below:

Language is the ability to symbolise in an abstract form objects, ideas, emotions, and events, taking them out of the immediate context, and holding them in the mind. Language work in the Montessori environment prepared for children in the second plane of development is an exploration of a great human achievement that has made possible the creation of culture and the continuation of societies. Children in the second plane of development strive to put language in context, to explore the reasons for a variety of phenomena, and to use language beyond its literal use. The study of language must therefore be presented very imaginatively; it must appeal to imagination and reason, rather than to surface reality alone.

Areas of study in the Montessori language curriculum include:

• spoken and written language

• the history of language (symbols, etymology and spelling)

• the functions of words (grammar)

• effective communication (listening and speaking, reading and writing).

Using stories, pictures, books and technology children trace the development of language through the ages. Presentations, activities and resources help them understand:

• how humans have named everything found or made and that this process continues

• how and why language constantly changes

• how language is used to express the creative impulse of humanity.

Studying the origins and historical development of words fascinates children of this age. This study becomes a foundation for spelling knowledge and contributes to understanding the history of cultures. The learning environment is a place where children continue to learn to read, to write creatively and to perfect the art of handwriting.

The power of the human mathematical mind is its ability to quantify with precision and to reason through logic and abstract pattern. The versatility of the mathematical mind is as great as its potential to order and understand. Since the mathematical mind is universal, it belongs to every child as a birthright, and mathematics is part of our human heritage. In addition, human beings have a tremendous capacity for reason. Children who are learning to reason need, therefore, a larger quantity of information about which to reason.

The Montessori learning environment for children in the second plane of development offers new mathematical challenges beyond those found in the Children’s House. Children in the second plane of development do not want to be tied to concrete materials. They strive for the freedom to work at the level of abstraction. While the Montessori mathematics materials are concrete representations of abstract mathematical concepts, in this environment they are used as stepping-stones, as keys only. In the presentation of these materials difficulties are isolated and, in the more complex activities, concepts are synthesised. In this way children are guided towards abstraction, but the actual transition to abstraction itself is achieved by children independently. When children work abstractly without prior concrete experience, they can face obstacles to comprehension. The Montessori approach allows children to grasp mathematical concepts by first experiencing and manipulating them in concrete form. Children are given as much time as they need to learn from their successes and their mistakes, while also discovering the rewards of perseverance.

Children of this age love to reach back into history with their imaginations to reconstruct the creation of knowledge systems. Mathematics is a language used to explore and manipulate, to create and measure real objects in a real world. Children learn that mathematics has evolved from a practical need, for example, graphs and fractions as tools for recording and measuring, and algebra for problem solving. Children are encouraged to invent their own problems—especially real-life story problems—for themselves and for their friends, in order to apply and practise their mathematical understanding in practical ways.

When children work with the Montessori mathematics materials, they are presented with concrete images of abstract concepts and processes. Children use the materials to undertake quite complex mathematical processes, for example, long division or square root, much earlier than if the work were introduced using paper and pencil only. As they manipulate the concrete materials, children internalise mathematical concepts, processes and rules embodied in the materials. These are concepts, processes and rules they might otherwise have to learn by rote but without the depth of understanding developed while working with the Montessori materials.

When presenting children with new material, a Montessori teacher first orients children to the material and what it represents. The teacher then guides the children through a sequence of steps or exercises, progressing gradually, one small step at a time, from highly concrete to completely abstract representations. The exercises are sequenced in a manner that introduces a variation in use, or an additional detail, with each step. These new variations and details hold the children’s interest.

At some point in the process, each child comes to the realisation that the same steps can be completed much more efficiently without the material, that is they can be completed abstractly, using only numbers, and other mathematical symbols, on paper, to find the answer. Montessori educators call this transition the passage to abstraction. In this way each child arrives at abstraction precisely when they are prepared for it. In many cases children come to the realisation on their own and inform the teacher; in other cases, the teacher assists a child by asking questions that lead to the realisation. By allowing abstraction to ‘arrive’ for each child, in the child’s own time, the teacher can be assured that the knowledge is now stored in long-term memory, rather than being temporarily memorised, and can be understood and explained by the child.

Children first encounter the study of geometry in the Children’s House during the exercises of the senses. In the Children’s House they are given as much language to talk about geometric shapes as possible. This prepares them for the next level of geometry study they encounter in the environment prepared for children in the second plane of development. In this new environment the study of geometry gives children the tools to explore, understand and measure the world.

In the Montessori geometry curriculum children follow the historical development of the discipline of geometry. Because geometry emerged from concrete experience, with abstractions following at a later time, children study geometry by following the same sequence. Students’ initial ideas about shapes and space are based on activity with concrete objects. The work uses the guided discovery approach so that the children discover the relationships, theorems and formulae for themselves.

The field of geometry provides opportunities for both inductive and deductive learning. As the children make their own discoveries, they are interested in learning about the people who first made these discoveries. Throughout the geometry curriculum they are told stories about, and are given opportunities to research, the people behind the geometry we use today. In addition to the enjoyment children exhibit in studying geometry, this work also provides them with a stimulus for intellectual development by giving them experience with logical reasoning, deduction, classification and abstract concepts.

Creative expression in art through geometry is also an integral part of its study. The Montessori geometry materials foster creative activity that involves construction of various two- and three-dimensional forms, artistic drawings and decoration.

The study of measurement in learning environments prepared for six to twelve year olds also has its origins in the exercises of the senses in the Children’s House, specifically, in the discrimination, judgement and precision children apply as they contrast, compare and grade differences and similarities in, for example, size, shape, volume and mass isolated in the sensorial materials. When children begin the study of measurement in the environment prepared for six to nine year olds, they learn to attach a number of ‘units’ to concrete objects, first non-standard and ancient units of measurement based on the parts of the body, and later the standard units of the International Metric System.

Because the Montessori approach integrates the study of history, geography and science, including biology and technology, these subject areas comprise one area of the Cosmic Education curriculum.

History

The Montessori history curriculum begins with the ‘big picture’, from the development of the universe, the solar system and the earth, to the evolution of life on earth and the coming of human beings, early civilisations and recorded history. The long labour of humans to accomplish all that is here for us to enjoy in the present is revealed to the children. The history curriculum provides a chronological framework that orders the information presented in the companion areas of study: geology, biology and science. In fact, history is considered to be the foundation of the Cosmic Education curriculum. Studies of geography, science and all the related disciplines flow naturally from the study of history. The starting point in any educational discipline extends back in time, and in this way can be linked to any other discipline area, in this interdisciplinary approach.

Geography

The Montessori geography curriculum is designed to show how the physical configuration of the earth contributes to the history of all people. The study of physical geography (including geology) is the basis for the study of economic geography, which reveals the interdependence of all nations and people. Geography study comprises several interconnecting areas, including:

• physical geography

• scientific understanding of geological formations/geology

• economic geography

• political geography

• mapping and graphing

Biology

The Montessori biology curriculum includes both botany and zoology. In this study children are given the means to classify plants and animals, and to understand the reasons behind the classification. The study of biology reveals that the classification of living things follows the path of evolution. The ultimate aim of this area of the curriculum is to develop an ecological understanding of the web of life, and a sense of responsibility for the natural environment. Learning systems for classifying plant and animal life also provide children with intellectual tools for ordering and relating information.

Science and Technology

In the Cosmic Education curriculum, the study of science and technology is interwoven into the study of history, geography and biology.

• When children study geology and geography, they are also discovering how the universe and the earth were formed. During this study children build foundation knowledge in the fields of physics and chemistry.

• When children explore biology, they are also discovering the history of life on earth.

• The history of human progress is a history of scientific discovery and technological development.

All these areas of study are accompanied by relevant demonstrations, including science experiments, and the use of impressionistic charts and timelines to generate discussion and create mental pictures.