MRAVNÁ VÝCHOVA V ŠKOLÁCH NA SLOVENSKU A V ZAHRANI ČÍ

eing essentially different from animals, who can be described in several dimensions (body, soul and
mind) and reflects on himself/herself. Although the psychological, sociological, ethical and
philosophical anthropological viewpoints appear in all themes, in these three themes the psychological
approach is first among equals. 2) The topic of the chapter Individual and Person is the human who
lives in its language, recognises and thinks, fulfils itself, appraises and is capable of making a decision.
In the three subdivisions of the chapter the philosophical, then the psychological, finally the ethical
approaches are dominant. 3) The topics of the first three subdivisions of the fourth chapter (Social
Relations) are the most frequent types of relationships, the most important forms of connections, in
particular the male-female relationship. In these chapters the social psychological and ethical
approaches are dominant. In the second part of the chapter the horizon widens and from the world of
companions we go over to the world of society, namely to the world of community, work, culture and
everyday life. In these parts the approach of social sciences is dominant, but in the subdivision
Standard of Living, Life Style, Quality of Life, which ends with the purport of life, strongly appears
the philosophical approach as well. In the following chapters the horizon widens once more: first
towards nature and the universe, then towards the supernatural (faith and religion). The last chapter
helps in portraying the virtuous citizen from the points of view of sociology, political science and
socio-ethics. This subdivision − after the chapter Standard of Living, Life Style, Quality of Life − can
be discussed at the end of the subdivisions dealing with society.
4. Forms of learning activities
It results from the peculiarity of Learning about man that usually several kinds of adequate learning
activities can be connected to various types of knowledge. Compared to the other subjects Learning
about man is characteristic in several ways. Since its subject, the human being is, after all mysterious,
or if you like, very much complicated, we know quite little about man in spite of the efforts of human
sciences, which are novel compared to the other sciences, yet showing significant results. Therefore in
addition to epistemological knowledge we have considerable doxa-like knowledge, besides
regularities we have hypotheses, more or less established opinions; experiences, presentiments and
feelings get significant role; besides the knowledge matter of human sciences, the human image of
myths and the expressive representation of arts take a prominent part, the latter one both in the form of
realistic representation and in the form of metaphorical narration. Thematic syllabus includes as much
material to be got to know (most part of which can scarcely become known completely) as knowledge,
consequently the activities are often built on experiences rather than on knowledge, and an account of
one's experiences can be just as adequate activity as fact-finding or logical deduction, and a role-play
can be just as adequate as a sociological or psychological experiment. The other characteristic is that
the various fields of knowledge or types of knowledge get in the light of several different human
sciences, viewpoints, which, of course entails the use of several types of 'lighting equipment', that is
activity.
Apart from the perceptive-observing, appraising and cognitive (generalisation, definition, deduction,
analysing, summarising, finding part and whole, cause and effect relations, pointing out possibilities,
probabilities and regularities) functions − since these are connected to all to some extent — studying
Learning about man can be realised in the following operative activities: 1 listening to tales (5–6),
watching films, reading (5–12), listening to explanations and taking notes (5–12), conversation (free
associations) (5–12) bringing to the surface and clashing opinions (8–12), refuting and proving
hypotheses (10–12), discussing and analysing texts (5–12), play, role-play, social-drama (5–12), doing
research in libraries, giving presentations, making bibliographies (5–12), visual representation (5–12)
reflection (7–12), keeping a diary (of work, readings, events, inner actions) (7–12), press monitoring
(7–12), preparing pieces of writing (notes, reviews, summaries, studies, essays) (7–12), students'
lectures (7–12), organising exhibitions (7–12), visiting and helping the injured, people in need of
assistance and sufferers (7–12), observing and analysing themselves, events, situations (7–12),
preparing programs of action (for themselves, for companions, for the environment and society) (9–
12), meditation, contemplation (9–12), creating a work of art on a given subject (visual
1 The most important are indicated by cursive, in parentheses the Year is shown where it can be applied best.
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