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Dear Parents,

Thank you to all those who shared their thoughts and

provided constructive ideas on how to better meet your needs

and understanding.

This month’s newsletter will focus on the second of six

principles that all SAMA member schools are required to

follow, which is that Montessori schools accommodate an

extended period of uninterrupted self-chosen activity – a

period during which children can choose their own activity and

work undisturbed for a minimum of three hours.

A well-functioning Montessori community requires the

following to ensure the children attending receive the full

benefit of the programme:

- An appropriately trained and prepared adult to teach at

the relevant age level they engage with;

- A prepared environment that has been specifically

furnished and equipped to cater for the developmental

needs of the children in it;

- An uninterrupted three-hour work period where the

children can freely choose stimulating tasks that are

developmentally appropriate.

Flow Theory

Modern research has affirmed the importance of long,

uninterrupted blocks of time for optimal learning and

development.

In 2007, Rathunde and Csikszentmihalyi, authors of The

Developing Person: An Experiential Perspective delve into

how episodes of deep engagement facilitate learning and

development.

A person may experience one of eight mental states during

the learning process. When learning, one experiences a

combination of skill and challenge levels of a task (Figure 1).

In non-optimal combinations, an experience of mental states

including anxiety, apathy, arousal, boredom, control,

relaxation, and worry is negative and therefore not

supportive of optimal learning.

Flow is the most optimal mental state to experience for

learning. This is where this skill level and challenge level of

a task are both at their highest, which creates an opportunity

for learning and intense focus. Those learning in this state

become so immersed in a task that they feel as though they

lose track of time.

Est. 2003 www.samontessori.org.za September 2016 2016

The Montessori Messenger

Montessori 101 Principle 2: The uninterrupted three-hour work cycle.

Figure 1: SOURCE: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

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One can experience relaxation in completing a task when

the skill level is very high and the task challenge is very low.

Conversely, one can experience anxiety when the skill level

is very low and the task challenge is very high. Neither of

these states is supportive of optimal learning.

This pattern of healthy self-regulation, which is also referred

to as psychological complexity, instigates development by

allowing the person to actively respond to aversive

experiential states (e.g. boredom and anxiety – Figure 2) in

ways that enhance their inspiration (intrinsic motivation) and

therefore full engagement.

The flow theory examines how the capacity to regulate

experience, and the likelihood of finding flow, are affected by

socialization and the levels of support and challenge

children receive in family and school contexts.

Flow can be experienced in any task in any field of activity.

Three-Hour Work-Cycle

The ideal in a Montessori classroom is that each child

receives opportunity to create their own personal three-hour

work cycle. Prominent Montessorian, Maren Schmidt,

describes a work cycle consisting of choosing an activity,

doing it, achieving some internal satisfaction, returning the

activity to original order, followed by the selection of the next

activity.

She elaborates further in saying that the Montessori

classroom is a vibrant and dynamic learning environment,

with each child selecting his or her activity, doing it, and

returning the activity to the shelf. After successful completion

of a task, there is a period of self-satisfaction and reflection,

after which the child chooses the next activity. This creates

an endless rhythm for the child which is free of interruptions,

thereby supporting optimal learning as skill and challenge

are matched by the child. The adult in the environment

keeps a close eye on the children, offering support when

required or presenting activities that slightly increase the

challenge experienced.

Upward Spiral of Growth

In his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,

Steven Covey refers to this phenomenon as a vital

ingredient of the upward spiral of growth and change (figure

3).

He describes this growth in the following way: “Moving along

the upward spiral requires us to learn, commit, and do on

increasingly higher planes. We deceive ourselves if we think

that any one of these is sufficient. To keep progressing, we

must learn, commit, and do - learn, commit, and do - and

learn, commit, and do again”.

Montessori saw the three-hour work cycle as a critical

vehicle for aiding normal development in the human being, a

way to foster this dynamic process, described by Covey, as

Figure 2: SOURCE: http://www.enterprise-

gamification.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=File:FlowTheory.png

Figure 3 SOURCE: Jairo Gonzalez; 7 Habits of highly effective people”

Stephen R. Covey. www Slideshare.net

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Figure 4: SOURCE: The Advanced Montessori Method Volume 1. By Maria

Montessori

Figure 5: SOURCE: The Observers Notebook. By Paul

Epstein Ph.D

“learn-commit-do”. This process empowers us to move

toward continuous improvement, both as children and

adults: A process Montessori called normalization.

Schmidt confirms that children, as well as adults, develop

concentration in two ways: Firstly, by doing a series of short

activities for longer periods.

Secondly, doing one activity for

successively longer periods.

Very often adults assume that

the child is expected to spend

three hours engaged with one

activity and are concerned that is

unreasonable to expect a child to

concentrate for that length of

time.

A three-hour work period in a Montessori school is a

protected time where they can complete multiple cycles of

activity, eventually creating a three-hour or longer work

cycle.

In a Montessori school the focus is on the children and their

development rather than merely delivering content. By

providing an opportunity where the child is free to choose

tasks that are useful to their own development and by

presenting new materials for the child to match skill and

challenge, a state of ‘flow’ can be reached. Ergo, optimal

learning!

The Montessori Difference

Traditional preschools are structured with a multitude of

group activities filling the day - usually 15 to 20 minutes per

activity. This assumes that young children have attention

spans that are limited to 15 to 20 minutes.

What Montessori discovered through observation, and what

Montessori guides today are able replicate through their own

note taking, is that given a consistent uninterrupted three-

hour work period, young children will choose three or four

familiar activities, each lasting 15 to 20 minutes each and

then enter into a period of restlessness, which Montessori

termed ‘false fatigue’.

In traditional schools this is when a break period is often

scheduled. Montessori noticed if the adults working with the

children waited out this period of false fatigue, which

usually lasts ten to fifteen minutes, the children progress to

select an activity that constitutes challenging work or new

learning, and are able to concentrate on that activity for an

hour or more. (Figure 4)

Montessori teachers appreciate that at the end of the three-

hour work cycle the child experiences a period of calm and

peaceful sociability because they have reached a state of

flow.

The five-year-old child who has developed a morning three-

hour work cycle will begin a second work period in the

afternoon. Adults, elementary students, and teens, may

have developed two, three, or even four three-hour work

cycles during their day.

Another later phenomenon of the work cycle is that the older

child’s concentration level begins at the point where false

fatigue initially began and that level may be maintained for

over three hours. This development of concentration (Figure

5) can be observed and charted.

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Example of a child’s work cycle

A four-and-a-half-year-old’s three-hour work cycle might look

like this:

• Button Frame, 10 minutes. (builds confidence, easy task)

• Explore and try extensions with Pink tower, 15 minutes.

•Water plants, 20 minutes.

•Sweep floor, 10 minutes.

•Walk up and down steps, 5 minutes (false fatigue)

•Prepare and eat own snack, 15 minutes

•Visit with classmate, 10 minutes.

•Build 100 piece puzzle, 45 minutes.

•Practice tying shoes, 45 minutes.

•Help younger students put shoes on, 15 minutes (Period of

sociability)

Completing a three-hour work cycle gives the child, or adult,

a sense of accomplishment followed by calm composure,

along with the desire to do more work

Example of an adult’s work cycle

The following is an example of what an adult’s three-hour

work cycle could look like on a Saturday morning.

•Check schedule. See that the morning is free until 1 pm.

•Clean kitchen, 15 minutes.

•Start laundry, 15 minutes.

•Make phone calls for appointments, 20 minutes.

•Vacuum, 20 minutes.

•Feeling of restlessness, What to do next? (False fatigue)

•Cup of coffee, 10 minutes.

•Balance bank statements, pay bills, 90 minutes.

•Fix lunch, 15 minutes. Eat with family and visit 30 minutes.

(Period of sociability.)

Why do some schools not offer this?

Some Montessori schools do not offer a three-hour work

period for the children. These schools may very well have

happy children and families but negating the importance of

this principle shows a lack understanding of the philosophy

and therefore an inability to offer an environment that helps

the children learn in optimal conditions.

There are some activities that have become common

practice in schools and are thought to be part of the three-

hour cycle. These activities, particularly if adult driven,

actually break the cycle and deny the child the opportunity to

experience flow or an upward spiral of growth. Such

activities include:

• Group snack

• Ring time or any other whole group lesson

• Extra mural activities

• Taking the whole group out to play

• Any group announcements

• Interrupting individual work for presentations.

• Aftercare / holiday care programmes that deny

purposeful work opportunity or break routine.

• Short week programmes, where children attend

inconsistently (2 or 3 days per week)

• School administration and policies

• Too many children new to the environment, starting

at the same time.

The achievement of

“normalisation” is dependent on

the removal of interruptions and

disturbances from the environment

Montessori, Advanced method 1 1965/1918, 58

Warm regards,

Kym

PS: I look forward to your feedback and any questions you may

have on the content of this newsletter.

president@samontessori.org.za