Principles of Ratke and Comenius for universal education - Abstract

For many years educators have tried to understand ancient educational practices in order to identify the requirements and needs of teaching in different contexts. Following the historical-descriptive methodology approach, it is the goal of this study to present aphorisms and some studies of Wolfgang Ratke and those of Jan Amos Comenius, as well as the similarities between their works, in order to prove Ratke’s influence on Comenius. The study of these classics in the field of education enables a clear perception of how the teaching method in that period was guided by a religious, economic, cultural and political thinking, and what educational practices such influences imposed. For this perception, it was necessary a brief characterization of the authors and their educational treaties in accordance with João Luiz Gasparin’s and Sandino Hoff’s studies. The core idea of this paper is to demonstrate how Comenius, in his Didactics Magna, expresses many propositions found in the fundamental principles of Ratke, who aimed, with his Art of Teaching, at universal education. Comenius systematized such a proposition.