On Comenius's Educational Thoughts

Johann. Aoms. Comenius was a great educational theorist and practicer, who was respected as"the Father of Modern Education". Comenius lived during the transition period that Europe was proceeding from the Middle Age to the modern times. Due to this special phase, he applied with and summarized education and educational theories, and finally became a giant of educational theories.This paper is a systematic discussion and analysis of Comenius's educational thoughts and practice, and makes a thorough positive commentary about the greatness of all his work. On the basis of acknowledging the historical limits, we profoundly comprehend the modern significance of his educational thoughts.This paper consists of four parts.The first part probes Comenius's brief life and tries to analyze the forming factors of his theories. Comenius had a rough life , but he struggled and contributed all his life on education career. The various acute contradiction of the two totally different society and ideologies determined Comenius's contradictory in his world impressions which reflected on his educational ideology. He has plentiful works in his whole life and some were interpreted into several versions which were transmitted widely and served as typical models by the following great educationists. Comenius's theories are closely related to the western religion, philosophy and the time background. Meanwhile, his ideology could serve the following generations well. The second part expounds Comenius's educational ideology systematically from four perspectives, including thorough education, nature adaptation, moral education and life-long education.Thorough education is the nucleus of Comenius's educational theories,from which he proceed his educational practice and study. The theory of thorough education was embodied by giving all things to all the human beings that constituted two aspects. One is wide educational contents, the other one is universal beneficiary. It coordinated the benefits of new bourgeoisie and feed the demands of the development of productivity.Nature adaptation was a guiding principle of Comenius's educational system. There was a long tradition for western ideologists to probe the nature. Aristotle who was considered as'the Father of Modern science'initiated this perspective that it was a must for education to abide by the nature. His view influenced Comenius deeply and was developed as what was called nature adaptation. Two core meanings of this principle, there existed regularities to follow and educators should explore and obey these natural laws.Comenius considered highly of moral education, regarded which was more significant than intellectual education. Comenius also separated worldly moral from religion which was the part of the ancient moral definition and regard the foundation of moral education was utilitarianism and humanism rather than religious cannon. The object of education was from preschool infants to the students of all levels. The contents of moral education included wisdom, restraint, persistence, impartiality and also assimilated a new factor, labor education, into it.Comenius gave great emphasis on school education; therefore he advanced long-life educational system of seven grades in his senectitude which summarized his own education experience in his whole life. According to each growing period Comenius offered a specific education, foetuse education, family education, mother language school, Latin school, university and journey, adult education and senior education. Comenius was the earliest advocator of long-life education systematically in history.The third part mainly analyzes Comenius's educational practice under the guidance of his theories, i.e. the construction of modern educational system. On the basis of nature adaptation and universal education, Comenius posed a proceeding single school system, academic year system and educating system based on the unit of class. Furthermore, he emphasized the cultivation of teacher's faculty and the demands of teaching.The fourth part is a brief evaluation of Comenius's educational thoughts and practice, analyzing their historical value and impact on modern education .Comenius's educational ideology has significant historical value despite of its historical limits, which transcends the education of humanism and innovates philosophical epistemology and the realistic enlightenment lies in the quality of system, practicability, inheritance, transcendence of theory.The study of Comenius's educational theories could not only deepen and expand our comprehension about his ideology, richening the achievements of education history, but also could guide the practice of modern education.