Jan Kulpa jako pedagog i dydaktyk

Abstract

The author of the article discusses the biography and works of Professor Dr. Hab. Jan Kulpa, one of the first academic employees of the Literature and Polish Language Didactics Department of the Higher School of Pedagogy (WSP) in Krakow, a distinguished teacher of teachers and scientist, a person of outstanding character, most of all – of enthusiasm, creative passion, empathy and unusual kindness. In his theoretical reflection on teaching adults, children and teenagers, Professor Kulpa took into consideration the elementary methodological problems concerning both the analysis of prose, poetry and popular scientific texts, and teaching language skills. He competently discussed issues in praxeology and regionalism; he was also an eager advocate of permanent education, propagated nowadays by leading pedagogues. Although in Professor’s huge legacy of writings (over 500 publications) the most numerous are the works popularizing the newest didactic and pedagogical knowledge, a clear and valuable area in his bibliography is constituted by scientific works dealing with the attempts to create foundations of scientific didactics of Polish in the elementary school. This area also includes many treatises on pedagogy, concerning, among others, the problems of teacher training, permanent education, problem-focused teaching, and acquisition of the skills necessary to learn and study.