17. Introduction to Long Division ● Using Colored Bead-Bars
17. Introduction to Long Division ● Using Colored Bead-Bars
In this presentation, Dr. Montessori taught her student teachers how to reason out for the child the process of carrying out a long division using a box of colored bead-bars from 1 to 10.
A division operation, Montessori explained, is essentially a process of distribution of a quantity shared equally among a number of entities or people. I have 10 chocolate bars to share with 5 children, I distribute them equally and each child receives 2 of them. That’s what 10 divided by 5 means. But long divisions come with larger numbers at the dividend and at the divisor. For example, if I wanted to divide 6,354 by distributing that quantity of anything among 9 people, the method of physical distribution would take a very long time, and if the people were at different locations far away, it would make it virtually impossible to do. In this presentation, the Montessori method clarifies the difference between two concepts: distributive division and group division.
Only by using the process of group division we can easily teach the child how to carry out complex divisions in minutes, just with paper and pencil and, at the same time, teach the child the conceptual reasoning behind the mechanical procedure.
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