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reform movement began, influenced by a number of educators including Maria
Montessori and John Dewey (Howe et al., 2000).
Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952) was an Italian physician who gleaned much of
her ideas about early childhood education from her careful observations of infants and
their caregivers (Nourot, 2000). She believed that the child was capable of independent
and self-directed learning and should be an active explorer of the environment. The
teacher’s role was to guide and prepare the environment for learning. To meet that end,
Montessori developed child-sized and functional furniture, neat and orderly classrooms,
activities and didactic materials that promoted development and were easily accessible.
Children could make choices from activities broken down into small, sequential steps
involving hands-on learning. There was little emphasis on group or teacher-led activities
(Howe et al., 2000).
Most early childhood educators working in child care centres do not follow the
philosophy of Montessori as it has a heavy emphasis on structured, didactic materials
(with one right answer) and lack of attention to creative development (art and music).
However, because Montessori preschools offer an alternative to the modern child care
facility, they are currently popular with the middle class (Howe et al., 2000). In the
modern child care centre, although the philosophy of Montessori is not followed, the
physical environment bears the most resemblance to Montessori’s ideas with its childsized
furniture and accessibility of materials (Howe et al., 2000).
Many child care programs throughout the United States and other countries use
the High/Scope curriculum to guide their classroom practices. Based on the child
development theories of Piaget, High/Scope views children as active learners, who learn