코메니우스의 교사상 연구

A study on the J. A. Comenius’ Perspective of Teacher

코메니우스에게 교육의 존재 근거는 기독교적인 하나님이다. 그의 교육의 방향은 하나님에게로 귀결되고, 학교의 지식은 하나님, 자연, 인간의 상호 관계성에서 획득하는 것으로 이해하고 있다. 그는 교육의 내용을 인간의 유기적인 속성과 자연사물과의 관계에서 분석하고 있다. 코메니우스의 교사상의 전제인 인간관은 자연의 모든 사물들을 알 수 있는 합리적 존재로서, 자기 자신과 자연의 모든 사물들을 제어할 수 있는 모든 피조물들의 지배자로서, 하나님의 형상을 입은 존재이다. 인간이 합리적 존재라는 것은 자연세계를 구성하고 있는 모든 사물들을 분별하며 숙고할 수 있는 ‘지성’, 다른 생명체들의 외적 내적 행위와 움직임과의 관계에서 조화와 자유를 보장하는 ‘덕성’, 그리고 하나님의 형상을 입은 인간은 인간의 원형인 창조주의 전지전능을 표현하는 ‘경건’을 소유하고 있다고 보았다. 코메니우스는 17세기 전통적이고 형식적인 교육이 비효율적임을 지적하며 이를 개선하기 위하여 과학적 관찰과 연구에 입각한 새 교수법을 창안하여 현대교육의 기반을 형성하였고, 비능률적이고 단편적인 교수법과 강제적이고 폭력적인 교사로부터 학생들이 보호를 받으며 학습할 수 있는 구체적인 교사상을 제시하였다. 이러한 교사는 자연 세계의 모든 사물들의 관계와 존재 이유를 과학정신에 근거한 합리적 탐구와 분석에 의하여 발견한 자연의 원리와 과학적 방법, 직관을 교수방법으로 삼고 있다. 코메니우스는 이와 같은 교육사상, 교육내용, 교수방법을 통해 청소년들에게 교육함으로써 세계변혁을 이룰 수 있다는 확신을 가진 ‘세계의 교사(teacher of nations)’였다. 본고는 이러한 코메니우스의 교사상을 기독교적인 측면과 전인교육적 측면, 그리고 교수방법적 측면에서 탐구하고 있다.

For Comenius, the foundation for the existence of this world is the Christian God. He understood that, as the systematical world, this world was created by God and so was moved by God, and then the direction of such movement resulted in God. On the interrelation among God, nature, and human beings, he regarded nature as “the school for the wisdoms of God”, so he recognized that human beings could learn the diverse knowledge in the school of nature. According to him, the human reason for the insight into this world was presented by God in order to identify the world of God, so that such human reason could not be separated from the religious belief. As the basis of Comenius’ educational philosophy, his views of religion, human being, and nature were closely related to the Protestant theological view of the world. Also, Comenius analyzed the contents of education in connection with human organic attributes and structures. He understood human beings from the theological viewpoint, so he had been deeply interested in the correlation between human original attributes and education. He recognized human beings as the rational beings, who could know all the things of nature, and as the rulers of all creatures, who could control human beings themselves and all the things of nature, and as the beings, who resembled the shape of God. According to him, here, that human beings are rational beings, means that they have their own “intelligence”, which can discern and deliberate all the things of the natural world. And that human beings control all the other creatures, means that human beings possess their own “morality”, which can guarantee harmony and liberty through their rational competence in relation to themselves, others, or even the external and internal actions and movements of other creatures. And also, that human beings resemble the shape of God, means that they contain their own “piety”, which can express the omniscience and omnipotence of the Creator as the archetype of human beings. Then, Comenius criticized the traditional and formal education of those days as inefficient. In order to improve such inefficient education, he created his new teaching method based on scientific observations and researches, so he established the basis of modern education. With firm confidence in this new teaching method, he presented his concrete learning theory, which could protect his students from inefficient and fragmentary teaching methods, and from compulsory and violent teachers. The characteristics of his teaching method focused on the principle of nature, the scientific method, and the method of intuition, which could discover the relations and the reason of being in all the things of the natural world through the rational inquiry and analysis based on scientific spirits. Therefore, he was the teacher of nations, who had confidence that he could reform the world by educating his adolescents through such educational philosophy, educational contents, and teaching method.