INTERNATIONAL MONTESSORI SCHOOL COPENHAGEN

The Danish Fælles Mål (Common Goals) and the Montessori pedagogy share certain alignments, though their implementation and emphasis differ.

Here’s how they align in Montessori elementary education:

Shared Goals and Alignment

1. Holistic Development

   • The Fælles Mål emphasize both academic competencies and social skills, including collaboration, communication, and responsibility.

   • Montessori pedagogy also prioritizes holistic development, fostering independence, social responsibility, and emotional growth alongside academic learning.

2. Competency-Based Learning

   • The Danish system uses competency-based objectives (e.g., in Danish and Math) that mirror Montessori’s emphasis on achieving mastery at an individualized pace. Both systems recognize that different children may progress at different speeds.

3. Interdisciplinary Approach

   • Many aspects of the Fælles Mål encourage connections between subjects (e.g., science, history, and geography), which aligns well with Montessori's cosmic education approach, where subjects are interconnected and taught through broad, thematic lessons.

4. Individualized Learning

   • While the Fælles Mål provide a standardized framework, schools have flexibility in delivery, allowing Montessori schools to meet the objectives through child-led learning and individual work plans.

5. Hands-On Learning

   • Both frameworks value experiential learning. Montessori's use of tactile materials and real-world applications aligns with the Fælles Mål emphasis on practical and project-based learning, especially in science and mathematics.

6. Cultural and Democratic Values

   • Danish schools focus on fostering democracy, empathy, and inclusivity, core elements of Montessori education, which encourages respect for others and the environment.

Key Differences

While there are significant overlaps, some differences exist:

• Structured vs. Flexible Framework: The Fælles Mål provide structured, grade-specific guidelines detailing what students must achieve at each level. In contrast, Montessori education focuses on developmental stages, allowing children to progress at their own pace rather than being confined to grade-level benchmarks. However, experience demonstrates that when Montessori is implemented with fidelity to its pedagogy, children often surpass the expectations outlined in grade-specific frameworks, achieving a much broader and deeper understanding of the material by the end of their developmental cycle.

• Assessment: In Danish schools, formal evaluations are typically used to assess student outcomes. In contrast, Montessori schools emphasize continuous observation, detailed portfolios, and individualized progress tracking. At our school, every lesson and each child's progress are meticulously documented weekly in the Montessori Compass system. This approach ensures that our teachers have a precise understanding of where each student is in their development and what their next steps should be. Additionally, parents, the teaching team, and our school inspector can easily access and monitor each child's progression, providing full transparency and ensuring alignment with both Montessori principles and broader educational standards.

Danish as a Second Language

In our school, Danish is taught as a second language, which naturally differentiates it from the approach taken in traditional Danish state schools. Unlike a typical state school curriculum, which prioritizes advanced grammar and literary studies, our focus is on equipping students with practical language skills for everyday use. Danish lessons occur more frequently than in many other international schools, ensuring consistent exposure and practice. However, these lessons are not taught using Montessori methods; instead, they adopt a practical, communicative approach tailored to non-native speakers.

How Montessori Aligns Practically with Fælles Mål

Montessori education provides a flexible framework that can be effectively aligned with the Fælles Mål. Here’s how this alignment is achieved:

1. Mapping Montessori Lessons to Competencies:
   Montessori materials and lessons are mapped to specific competencies outlined in the Fælles Mål, ensuring students meet the prescribed objectives while enjoying the benefits of a child-centered, developmental approach.

2. Interdisciplinary Projects:
   Many objectives in subjects such as history, geography, and natural sciences can be covered through interdisciplinary projects that reflect real-world connections, a hallmark of Montessori pedagogy.

3. Individual Progress Documentation:
   Our Montessori school uses tools like Montessori Compass to track individual progress weekly. This meticulous documentation allows teachers to evaluate each child’s development against the learning outcomes, ensuring they meet or exceed expectations.

Examples of Alignment

• (Danish) Language:
  While our Danish lessons follow a practical, non-Montessori approach, broader language objectives in areas like grammar, sentence construction, and creative writing are seamlessly integrated into Montessori language materials for English. These materials provide a solid foundation for mastering linguistic structures.

• Math:
  Montessori math materials, such as golden beads for place value and operations, and fraction circles for understanding parts of a whole, inherently align with Fælles Mål objectives, offering both a tactile and conceptual grasp of mathematical concepts.

By emphasizing hands-on, interdisciplinary learning and maintaining thorough progress documentation, Montessori education not only meets but often surpasses the competency requirements of the Fælles Mål, particularly when aligned with its practical, real-life applications.

Conclusion: Montessori and the Fælles Mål

While we do not follow the Fælles Mål verbatim, the Montessori approach naturally supports and fulfills the broader goals of these national guidelines. Montessori pedagogy, by its very nature, fosters skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, independence, and problem-solving—skills that align with the outcomes outlined in the Fælles Mål.

Our Montessori framework allows us to meet these goals in a manner that fits seamlessly with our child-centered approach. Rather than rigidly adhering to prescribed grade-level competencies, we focus on ensuring that each child develops in accordance with their own pace, abilities, and needs. Through the use of hands-on materials, interdisciplinary learning, and a flexible environment, students naturally reach the competencies outlined in the Fælles Mål, though we don’t specifically advertise our alignment with them.

In essence, while Montessori does not follow the Fælles Mål word for word, our method leads students to achieve and often exceed the intended outcomes through individualized and practical learning experiences. This approach ensures that our children are prepared for the challenges of the future while remaining deeply engaged in their education.