Browsing by Subject "http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p3166"

Mikael Soininen (1860–1924) and Matti Koskenniemi (1908–2001) were two of the most distinguished thinkers in Finnish educational thought in the 20th century. Soininen's books Yleinen kasvatusoppi (General Pedagogy) and Opetusoppi I and II (Didactics I and II) dominated Finnish teacher education from the turn of the 19th and 20th century until World War II. Then Koskenniemi's Kansakoulun opetusoppi (Elementary School Didactics) abolished Soininen's former works. This denoted a major change in Finnish educational thought. This Master's Thesis is a historical and philosophical analysis of the educational systems of Soininen ja Koskenniemi. I compare and assess Soininen's and Koskenniemi's views on the nature and history of pedagogy as well as their worldviews, anthropology and views on education in order to find out what this paradigmatic change in Finnish educational thought consisted of. Soininen's approach is philosophical whereas Koskenniemi's is more pragmatic. According to Soininen, the task of pedagogy is to combine psychology with ethics in order to generate moral human beings. Both Soininen and Koskenniemi see pedagogy as consisting of an old bad and a new good one while both seeing themselves as representing the latter. Soininen focuses on the moral upbringing of the individual whereas Koskenniemi stresses the inseparable connection of the individual and the community (school class, home, nation). Soininen wants to foster first moral and then patriotic human beings while Koskenniemi wants to foster first patriotic and then moral human beings. Despite their many differences, Soininen and Koskenniemi agree on many basic educational principles. Former research has not adequately stressed this point.