John Amos Comenius - Father of Modern Education

John Amos Comenius was a seventeenth century visionary and innovator.
He tended to think in big pictures, and believed that much of life's learning should be woven together, a concept he called Via Lucis, or "way of light."

1. John Amos Comenius
Jan Amos Komenský
Father of Modern Education

2. •Philosopher's Background
•Education and Schooling
•Principles of Teaching and
Learning
•Influences on Educational
practices today
TOPICS:

3. Candice May B. Gamayon
Marybeth P. Cultura
Reporters:

4. John Amos Comenius

5. BIOGRAPHY
•(Czech) Jan Ámos Komenský
•Born March 28, 1592
Nivnice, Moravia, Habsburg domain [now in
Czech Republic]
•Died Nov. 15, 1670, Amsterdam, Netherlands
•His ancestors came from Hungary and his
original family name was Szeges.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Amos-Comenius

6. BIOGRAPHY
•Czech philosopher,
scientist, pedagogue
and theologian from
Margraviate of Moravia.
•served as the last bishop
of Unity of the Brethren
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Amos-Comenius

7. BIOGRAPHY
•religious refugee
–lived and worked in other regions of the
Holy Roman Empire, and other countries: Sweden,
the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,
Transylvania, England, the Netherlands and
Hungary.
•one of the earliest champions
of Universal Education
•wrote Orbis Pictus (1658) and
Didactica Magna
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Amos-Comenius

8. Father of Modern Education
1.an innovator who first introduced pictorial
textbooks
2.written in native language instead of Latin
3.applied effective teaching based on the
natural gradual growth from simple to
more comprehensive concepts
4.supported lifelong learning and
development of logical thinking by moving
from dull memorization

9. Father of Modern Education
5. presented and supported the idea of
equal opportunity for impoverished
children
6. opened doors to
education for women
7. made instruction
universal and practical

10. Philosopher and REALIST

11. Education, Schooling and travels
•He attended the Latin school in Přerov and
continued his studies in Herborn (Hesse) and
Heidelberg.
•Comenius became a pastor at age 24 and left
the Brethren into exile.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Comenius

12. Education, Schooling and travels
•greatly influenced by the Irish Jesuit William
Bathe, who wrote Janua Linguaram (The
Messe of Tongues)
•1614, returned to Moravia, first to teach, and
then to run a parish.
•compiled the very first Czech encyclopedia,
called The Theater of All Things.

13. •1628, Comenius left Czech lands for Lešno (Poland),
where he wrote his educational works (Velká
Didaktika).
•1641-42, he lived in England, where he had been
invited by English revolution parliament.
•1644-1645, he took part in peace
talks. (There was still 30-years
war.)

14. •He left to Amsterdam where he lived for
the next 14 years and where he
published Opera didactica omnia.
•He was trying to prepare for the great
task of rebuilding the land and the
society of Czech lands, which were
devastated by war, and he knew that
education would play a vital part in it.

15. His life and works

16. Reform Of The Educational System:
1. revolution in methods of teaching
–Teachers ought to “follow in the footsteps of
nature”
–Comenius made this the theme of The Great
Didactic and also of The School of Infancy—a
book for mothers on the early years of childhood

17. Reform Of The Educational System:
2. make European culture accessible to all
children
–advocated “nature’s way,”
–wrote Janua Linguarum Reserata (pupils could
compare the two languages and identify words
with things)

18. Principles of Teaching and Learning
•He was interested in “pansofia“, which is
scence about all phenomena in the world.His
ideas were very close to the teachings the
English philosopher, Francis Bacon.

19. What does “pansophism” actually refer to?
•Comenius believed there was only one truth.
•The light of reason must submit in obedience
to the will of God. (This is Comenius’s
fundamental pedagogical and pansophic
principle.)
•"the unification of all scientific, philosophical,
political, and religious knowledge into one all-
embracing, harmonious world view."

20. His philosophy
•"pansophism," emphasized political unity,
spiritual redemption, and religious
reconciliation, and cooperation in education.
•This philosophy of pansophism related
education to everyday life and called for
systematic harmonizing principles to be
developed for all knowledge.

21. Education
•the goal of education as the development of
universal knowledge among all people,
including women and children, and all nations.
•educated people are those who sought
knowledge from all sources in order to
become more like the God in whose image
they were made—omniscient and universally
compassionate.

22. Education
•education was not for the rich or other elite,
but for everyone.
•He advocated universal education, teaching
children both in their native language as well
as Latin, the universal language in Europe at
the time.
•his educational system retained the
uniqueness of individual culture while at the
same time promoting the unity of humankind.

23. Influences in Educational Practices Today
•Comenius used pictures, maps, charts, and
other visual aids.
•He even brought drama into the classroom.
•first to recognize that the play of childhood
was learning.

24. Influences in Educational Practices Today
•In his system, there were four grades,
equivalent to pre-school, grade school, high
school, and college.
•He was also an advocate of continuing
education, believing that learning should be a
lifelong process.

25. As the whole world is a school for
the human race… so every
individual's lifetime is a school
from the cradle to the grave.
(Comenius 1633)