(CZ) K modernímu pojetí základního vzdělání
(EN) Modern Conception of Basic Education

In the first part of the study the author analyses the question of what the substance of the teacher‘s pedagogical work consists in. In opposition to one-sided views according to which pedagogical work is either a kind of art or a practical application of theory, the author looks upon it as a kind of complicated, composite activities, in which both rational and irrational elements mix the level of their synthesis depends on the qualities of the teacher’s personality. All round formation of the teacher's personality is, therefore, the central task of the teacher's training. The genesis of the teacher's personality, however, can only be realised by a combination of both theoretical and practical training, which are to form, therefore, two basic, organically linked lines of the teachers’ education. The second part deals with the question of what role is played in pedagogical practice by pedagogical theory. In opposition to the views of some Western educationists, according to whom pedagogical theory is not able to provide the teacher effective guidance in his practical work, the authors points out, on the basis of the Marxist conception of relationship between the general and the special, the practical significance of theory for solving concrete pedagogical situations. There is a condition, however: it requires the future teacher to master pedagogical theory in such a way as to become living subject-matter for him and a method of imaginative pedagogical approach, and to acquire, at the same time, also pedagogical skills. The author goes on to criticise the traditional system of pedagogical preparation of future teachers at universities, in which the formality of instruction in theory divorced from pedagogical practice results in the graduates abandoning the theory altogether and depending in the end merely on practice without theoretical foundations. In the third part the author draws conclusions for the general conception of pedagogical preparation of future teachers. He proposes a revision of the composition and subject-matter of pedagogical branches of instruction and some basic changes in the manner of instruction so that pedagogical studies may provide a better training for practical pedagogical activities. From this viewpoint the authors distinguishes three areas in pedagogical theory, which differ from each other by their degree of generality and consequently by their function in the teacher's training course. One — the most general one — is to aim at forming the professional consciousness of the future teachers and is to give the students ideological and methodological starting points for understanding pedagogical reality. The second — on the medium level of generality — is to lead to a rational knowledge of pedagogical processes and to an imaginative analysis and solution of concrete pedagogical situations. The third group of elements of pedagogical theory, which is most closely linked with practice, is to lead to the acquisition of typical models of elements of pedagogical technique and thereby create pre-requisites for the students to acquire practical pedagogical skills. Then the author deals in detail with methodological consequences resulting from this conception.