compare and contrast maria montessori and eleanor gibson

Montessori VS Gibson : Education and Perception

Maria Montessori and Eleanor Gibson are two of the primary education theorists in the last 100 years . Both are female , which was rare in their fields at the time , and both contributed to education and learning theories in ways that are still widely used today . However , each has a different perspective on education , and a different and unique contribution to the field of educational research . Overall , there are many significant similarities and differences in the educational theories created and implemented by Montessori and Gibson

Montessori

was born in Italy in 1870 . She attended medical school there despite protests about her gender , and was the first woman to ever become a doctor in Italy . After medical school , Montessori went on to work with poor children . She noticed that many of these children could not necessarily benefit from medical care , but could benefit from educational opportunities that they did not have . After noticing this Montessori went on to teach children and develop a system of education that is used throughout the world today . Her early success in teaching was met with surprise , as even she had been skeptical that her methods would work . The progress that these economically poor children showed was amazing to her , and to others who came to see what they could do In fact , efforts were so successful that Montessori went on to open up other `poor houses ' around Italy , and later , in other countries Towards the end of her life , she traveled around , teaching the `Montessori method ' to other teachers in countries throughout the world (Cossentino

Gibson was born in America in 1910 . As a child , she was discouraged from attending school because of her gender , but persevered and attended anyway . After secondary school , she attended Yale and eventually earned a Ph .D . in developmental psychology . Gibson then began to work with children and animals , doing experiments to see what babies knew from birth and what was learned . Her most famous experiment is the visual cliff ' where a drop-off is set up and covered by glass . Babies aged 6 to 14 months are placed at the edge and encouraged to crawl onto the clear glass . However , all babies refused , suggesting that they could perceive depth from birth . Gibson used the information she gathered from these experiments to investigate the way people learn and perceive their environment . Gibson 's experiments are still being carried out by her students today (Gibson

Maria Montessori created a method for teaching children that today is used to educate children from birth through age 18 , although it is mostly commonly used for ages three to six . The general principle is to allow a child his freedom to work at his own pace , on the activities he chooses . Several age-appropriate activities are possible , and the child chooses what he is interested in and investigates it thoroughly Children at work are never interrupted , and individual work takes precedence over group work . Additionally , all groups are multi-age with three ages...