MONTESSORY PEDAGOGY AND THE STEM APPROACH: THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSTRUCTIVISM IDEAS IN MODERN EDUCATION

Abstract

M. Montessori’s pedagogical system remains popular in the XXI century. An important problem of the STEM approach in education is the early formation and maintenance of curiosity, identification and development of research and engineering skills. The statistics confirm the growing attention to these two areas in pedagogy, which may be due to their general scientific connection. The aim of the article is to analyze the common features of Montessori pedagogy and teaching methods based on the STEM (STEAM-STREAM) approach. The scientific and pedagogical data from open sources, and statistical materials, in particular, obtained by web-mapping tools Google Maps are analyzed. The common features of educational environments of education of M. Montessori and STEM (STEAM-STREAM) education are revealed. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of data obtained using Google Maps was committed. The regional distribution of the studied types of educational centers is described and the content analysis of Montessori educational institutions of several online resources is carried out to identify the features of the teaching methods used in them. It was found that the modern interpretation of pedagogical postulates is able to solve the difficulties of implementation in practice of the basic requirements for the modern educational process. It is concluded that the M. Montessori method and the STEM (STEAM-STREAM) approach in education have common features of constructivism. The organizational and pedagogical condition of their functioning is the creation of a special environment for learning and teaching, favorable in the context of the development of a wide range of skills, curiosity, changing the role of participants in the educational process, and others. Both pedagogical systems were evaluated using “The Gartner: Hype Cycle for Education approach”. It is concluded that they are mutually enriched in the context of forming the ability to successful continuous self-development based on maintaining the relationship between the child and the developmental subject-spatial environment.