Pestalozzi Educational Thought

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827)was a well-known democratic Swiss educator in the 19th century. He dedicated his weary life to education from improving people's quality of education, seeking the path out of poverty for farmers, to promoting the improvement of society. During his whole life, he had been working on teaching practice by setting up orphanages, teaching in kindergartens, secondary schools and colleges. Furthermore, he was one of the world educational thinkers who were fruitful with educational theories. He put forward the harmonious development of educational thinking, did research on the theory of the educational element of the theory and laid the basis for a variety of teaching methods. He, F. W. A. Frobel and J. F. Herbat were acclaimed as the three "great masters of education" in Europe in the nineteenth century.Mainly originated from his teaching practice, the core of his teaching theory is ability training, basically aimed at a comprehensive and harmonious development of all the strength and ability of humans, and the nature of their approach is to arouse the most intrinsic of all kinds of natural ability.His main educational thinking is as follows: (1) to improve the community through education and enable people to acquire freedom and independence. (2) to point out that the Swiss education was lagging behind the needs of the times and propose the democratization and psychology of education. (3) to put forward the combination of production with labor. (4) to initiate that the first thing is to arouse the moral feelings, and make it into good behavior; motherly love is the element of moral education; family education is the basis for it.Pestalozzi's experiences made this great educator. His theory and practice have a far-reaching historical impact on many countries, especially meeting the needs of China's socialist modernization. On the basis of Marxist philosophy and its methodology, this study is intended to systematically elaborate Pestalozzi's teaching thinking and practice, confirming his achievements to the development of the world education.The thesis consists of three parts:Part One is an introduction to Pestalozzi's life and also an attempt to analyze the factors contributing to his educational thinking.Part Two elaborates Pestalozzi's educational thinking systematically and fully from the following six aspects: education of adaptability to nature, love of education, "Educational Psychology", education of elements, ideological and moral education, and education of production combined with labor.Part Three gives a brief analysis of the history of the value of his educational thinking and then discusses the implications of it.The study of Pestalozzi's educational theory not only deepens and expands the understanding of the ideological education, enriching the historical education achievements, but also guides the practice of contemporary education.