Montessori teaches proto-metacognition

The Montessori approach appears geared at building self-regulation, which is essentially proto-metacognition in young pre-reasoning children.

Crucially, kids are allowed to freely choose their own goals within the prepared environment, but the prepared environment takes on metacognitive load:

• Very determinate curriculum
• Materials isolate a single concept & provide immediate feedback, making it easy to understand causation of action -> outcome
• Non-controlling teachers/guide model lessons (and then walk away)

But the aim is to do this minimally. “Help as much as needed, but as little as possible.”

Also, age-mixed classrooms mean older children teach younger children, and it clearly requires metacognitive awareness to be able to teach something.

Indeed, many say that attending Montessori schools is what taught them how to learn.