Mapping the Montessori mathematics curriculum to Dehaene's four pillars of learning

Abstraction is a crucial characteristic of human learning, and a fundamental question for education concerns how teachers can support learners to acquire abstract knowledge. We tackle this question through one particular case: the mathematics curriculum devised for 3 to 6-year-olds by Maria Montessori. We map this curriculum to Dehaene's Four Pillars of Learning (attention, active engagement, error feedback, consolidation), and we argue that the Montessori mathematics curriculum is aligned with well-established cognitive principles known to support learning.