With the development of Christianity, early Christian schools developed.

Monastery is the most typical church educational institution in the Middle Ages. At first, it only accepted those who were determined to serve God and were prepared to serve as priests. Later, it expanded its scope and accepted some people who did not make a living as priests. Students in monasteries usually enter school at the age of ten and study for about eight years.

Early monasteries mainly emphasized the cultivation of religious belief, and later the curriculum gradually deepened, and "Seven Arts" became the main curriculum system.

The teacher is a priest, and the teaching method is mainly a combination of teacher dictation and students' recitation and copying. Keywords individual teaching, students' admission time,

The learning progress and timetable vary from person to person. School discipline is divided into coastal areas, and corporal punishment is prevalent.

1. The educational forms, institutions and contents of Christianity

1. mission school

In the Middle Ages, there were three kinds of missionary schools in Western Europe: monastery schools, cathedral schools and parish schools. Among these three types of schools, monastery school has become the most important missionary school with its rich collection of books and strict management.

(1) Monastery School

Monastery schools mainly refer to educational institutions located in monasteries. As far as its occurrence is concerned, monastery school is the product of Christian practice system (or monastery system).

The monastery school is divided into two parts. One is "internal studies", which is mainly responsible for educating students who are about to serve as priests. One is "foreign studies", which is responsible for educating students who are not prepared to be priests.

The purpose of education in monastery schools is to cultivate students' obedience, chastity and poverty.

Monastery schools mainly study the Bible. The popular textbook is "Questions and Answers on Essentials", which is a textbook for the Christian church to impart basic teachings to early believers, and is written in question and answer genre.

Theology plus "seven arts" constitutes the main learning content of monastery schools, while theology becomes the "crown" of other disciplines.

Monastery schools are mostly composed of monks and other clergy.

Church schools are very strict with students, and sticks and whips are necessary for schools.

(2) Church schools and parochial schools

Cathedral schools, also known as bishop schools or cathedral schools, are generally located in the location of bishops. Their nature and level are similar to those of monastic schools, with better facilities and conditions and relatively complete subject contents.

Parish schools are generally located in the village where the pastor is located, which is a form of primary education for the children of ordinary residents.

(2) Christian educational thought

Thomas Aquinas (1224 ~ 1274) was a famous Christian theologian, scholastic philosopher, educator and university teacher in medieval western Europe. On the relationship between education and theology, Thomas Aquinas subordinated educational thought to theology, forming a mysterious, systematic and unique scholastic philosophy education thought.

Aquinas' teleology of education

The purpose of education is to develop human rationality and lead to the divinity of God. Education should make immortal souls communicate with God.

Generally speaking, Aquinas' knowledge view is perceptual knowledge view, rational knowledge view and divine knowledge view. Perceptual knowledge is the knowledge of material objects, which can be divided into external perceptual knowledge and internal perceptual knowledge.

On teaching

Aquinas attached great importance to the role of education and teaching. In the process of teaching, symbols must be used as the medium, and teaching can not be separated from language, characters, graphics and objects, and knowledge is in these symbols.

Thomas Aquinas' educational method

First, the pros and cons.

Second, openness and harmony.

Third, heuristic induction.

Aquinas' educational thought is in the era of theology, and its core already contains important elements of modern educational thought, emphasizing rationality and respecting science, which paved the way for the development of educational thought to the Renaissance era of respecting human nature.

Second, the secular education of feudal lords and nobles

(1) Palace School

In 78 1 year, Charlemagne invited Aqin (735 ~ 804), a British priest and famous scholar, to the Frankish Kingdom to help improve schools and develop education.

On the basis of the original court school, Arqin carried out a series of important reforms in teaching content and teaching methods. Under the management of Archin, the hearing school in the Frankish kingdom became the center of secular education at that time.

While reforming and developing the court school, Charlemagne also devoted himself to improving the missionary school. In about 787, Charlemagne issued an order that priests should not neglect the study of literature. Only by learning with an open mind and sincerity and not wanting to lag behind can we better explore the mysteries of Confucian classics.

(2) Knight education

In the late 9th century, the Frankish kingdom established the knight system, in which dukes, earl, viscount and baron followed the king, and knights were the lowest feudal lords. Knight education has become an important part of secular feudal education.

The goal of knight education is to cultivate knights with courage, devotion to God, loyalty to the monarch and patriotism, and pampering ladies as the standard.

Knight education is a special form of family education, which is usually divided into three stages: 1) From birth to 7-8 years old, this stage is a religious education stage. 2) After 7-8 years old, this stage is usually called "etiquette education stage". 3) From 14 years old to 15 years old to 2 1 year old, it is called "squire education stage".

In addition to the above, the basic content of knight education also has an important content, which is the "Ten Commandments of Knight".

Knight education aims at cultivating martial men who protect the secular interests of feudal lords. Although its content is mainly to cultivate religious moral quality, its main purpose is to cultivate the combat ability of non-commissioned officers, and their cultural knowledge is extremely poor.

Third, the formation and development of medieval universities

Since 12 century, the development of education in western Europe has entered a new historical period, and the establishment of medieval universities is the main symbol of this development.

1. The rise of medieval universities

The emergence of medieval universities in western Europe is the product of the interaction of various social factors. The development of industry and commerce, the rise of cities, the Crusades, the emergence of scholasticism, and so on, all played an important role in promoting to varying degrees. But as far as the establishment of each university is concerned, there are special and specific reasons.

Medieval universities originated in Italy, France and Britain in the12nd century. Universities in the early Middle Ages were usually established on the basis of the original cultural and educational institutions. There are two kinds of predecessors of universities, one is the original national education center and research institute; The other is the original bishop school, on which the earliest medieval universities were established and developed.

2. The characteristics of organization and management of medieval universities

According to the different management systems, medieval universities are usually divided into two categories. One is the "Southern" university represented by Bologna, also known as the "Student University". The other is a "northern" university with Paris University as a typical example, also known as "Mr. University".

However, whether it is a "student university" or a "gentleman university", it is not students and teachers who are responsible for educational affairs, but a group composed of them. At the beginning of the establishment of medieval universities, universities were actually a "consortium" composed of teachers' groups and students' groups.

In the "student combination", the "hometown association" is often formed according to the cadastre. With the passage of time, this kind of "hometown association" combined with each other and formed a larger regional organization. The main form of "teacher combination" is "department" or "professor association", which is a teacher organization formed according to the subjects taught.

The more important organization in medieval universities was the college. In medieval universities, there were generally four colleges according to disciplines, namely, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Law, the Medical College and the Theological Seminary. Among them, the College of Arts is a preparatory institution to prepare for entering the other three colleges. Theological seminary is the highest ranked college.

After the establishment of medieval universities, they became an important social force. In order to win the support of universities, churches and secular feudal lords often grant universities certain privileges.

At the beginning of the establishment of medieval universities, the teaching contents and courses were uncertain and were usually decided by the teachers of each university. Since the13rd century, determined by the Pope's orders and university regulations, the curriculum has gradually become interested in unity and stability. The teaching methods in medieval universities were mainly explanation and debate.

University study is generally divided into two main stages, which is directly related to the degree system. The first stage: you can get a "student degree", and on this basis, you can get a "master's degree" or a "doctor's degree".

3. Medieval University and Scholasticism

Scholasticism is the continuation and development of godfather philosophy and the product of the highest stage of medieval theological philosophy. It came into being in the 8th-9th century and prevailed in12 ~13rd century. After entering the13rd century, scholasticism gradually declined for various reasons.

The basic problem that scholasticism mainly solves is to reconcile the contradiction between philosophy and theology, reason and belief. In order to solve this problem, one of the tasks of scholastics is to philosophize theology.

2. Scholasticism and medieval universities

Scholasticism had a great influence on medieval education, which was closely related to medieval universities and was the soul of universities at that time.

First, it directly promoted the rise and development of medieval universities. Secondly, it objectively promoted the spread of Confucian classics and culture.

Thirdly, establish the legal status of rationality and put forward the educational goal of rational training.

Fourthly, the thinking method of scholasticism (syllogism reasoning of formal logic) is not only a method of academic research, but also a method of training thinking and teaching.

Fifthly, the debate between different factions in scholasticism promotes the free discussion of academics, thus contributing to the healthy development of university education. The academic discussion and contention of scholastic philosophers in universities had a beneficial influence on getting rid of narrow "vocational" education in medieval universities.

Fourthly, the formation of new citizen class and the development of urban schools.

The main difference between medieval cities and early Roman cities is that it is not a city centered on politics, but on economy. The urban economy in the Middle Ages had great development space and freedom. The relatively free and relaxed environment of medieval cities provided important conditions for the emergence and development of urban education and medieval universities.

In the process of the formation of medieval cities, the formation of the citizen class had an important impact on the development of cities, the rise of urban culture and urban education. The citizen class is mainly composed of businessmen and craftsmen. In order to protect their own interests and the needs of production and operation, guilds are generally organized.

The continuous growth of the citizen class has promoted the extensive demand of the citizen class for education. During this period, the city authorities were urged to establish new educational institutions, and city schools appeared.

Unlike other secular educational institutions in the Middle Ages, most urban schools in the Middle Ages were run and managed by city authorities or guilds. Therefore, it has the characteristics of secular education; Secondly, urban schools emphasize vocational and technical training; Third, although religious education is still an important teaching content in all urban schools, its status has obviously weakened; Fourth, the teaching level of urban schools is also relatively low.