Comenius

This is the third volume of Dr Murphy's trilogy on Slavic educators. Following on previous studies of the educational writings of Buber and Tolstoy, the present volumes examines the life and writings of the famous Czech educator, Jan Amos Komensky, better known to the world as 'Comenius'. The work has been extensively researched in Eastern Europe and has benefitted significantly from the reappraisal of their cultural traditions that has been undertaken by Slavic scholars since the collapse of communism in the late 1980s.Arguing that Comenius' ideas have been distorted by Marxist and pragmatist thinkers alike, the present work seeks to relocate them in the Judaeo-Christian traditions from which they sprang.It re-examines the principles of Comenius' pedagogic philosophy, giving particular attention to the learner-centred methods of teaching which constitute his main legacy to world education.It also explores his radical and far-seeing ideas on moral and religious education, peace education, language teaching, the purposes of scholarly research, and the goals of higher learning.