ABSTRACT
The acquisition of knowledge is the main aim of any form or level of education, and at the level of early childhood, the worry is how children can acquire knowledge, owing to the fact that their brains are still tender and they cannot think abstractly. Educators like Rousseau, Piaget, Pestalozzi, Froebel and Vygotsky have suggested different views on child educational theories. Maria Montessori however harnessed the different views and propounded a child-initiated approach for teaching young learners in order to aid easy acquisition of knowledge of subject contents and make learning fun for the children. The study elucidated how Montessori child-initiated approach can assist pedagogically in acquiring knowledge easily among Nigerian young learners. Four research questions guided the study.
The study employed the speculative, analytic and prescriptive method of philosophical enquiry. These methods were used to give a clear understanding of concepts and issues in the study. These methods analysed, explained, evaluated and brought to bear, in a consistent and coherent manner, the purpose of understanding the epistemic essence of Montessori’s child-initiated approach as a pedagogical method for teaching young learners in Nigerian early childhood classrooms.
The study revealed that the application of Montessori’s child-initiated method is inadequate in the Nigerian setting due to schools owners’ inability to provide appropriate learning materials. Schools where the learning materials are available, the tuition fee is usually huge. The study thus proposed an improvised child-initiated learning model called the Bridget’s Montessori’s Child-Initiated Model which is better implementable in the Nigerian early childhood education classrooms.
