ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the 20th century, the educational reform movement had its great representatives in many European countries: Decroly in Belgium, Ferriere in Switzerland, Freinet in France, Gaudig and Kerschensteiner in Germany, Ellen Key in Sweden, Montessori in Italy, to name only a few (Roehrs, 1965). Up to the present, these innovators have been in the main considered as inventors of new teaching methods. A closer look, however, shows that their attempts reached far beyond teaching method in a narrower sense. What we call "teaching method" is only the instructional core of what we may call a new "teaching-learning culture." This instructional core of these new learning cultures had its significant cultural background, which implied specific assumptions about educational values, educational knowledge, social relations, and the organization of learning time and learning space. Moreover, each of these learning cultures was embedded in a certain world view making specific assumptions about human existence.
