Montessori's teaching methods applied to the teaching of religious education to year 2 children

Abstract

Maria Montessori organized her teaching methods according to the child's needs. Her theory focused on adjusting the learning environment to the children's needs instead of the children adjusting to the adult's environment. This manner also stimulates the children to love learning. She also applied these pedagogies to the teaching of Religious Education. Moreover, Sofia Cavalletti, Gianna Gobbi and Jerome Berryman have applied Montessori's teaching methods to catechesis in a parish setting. Following these authors, I developed a resource pack to teach Religious Education at Year 2 level in a school setting. Moreover, a copy of this resource pack was given out to some teachers and LSAs, together with a questionnaire, so that the resource pack could be evaluated. The books that the children use today are outdated. Thus, drawing from the conclusions of this dissertation, if the Montessori pedagogies and this resource pack are taken into account when re-writing the new books, they might improve Religious Education.