Herbart

Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776–1841) was a German philosopher, psychologist, and educator who helped establish pedagogy as a distinct scientific discipline. Building on Kantian and empirical psychology, he argued that education should be grounded in a systematic study of the mind and in the cultivation of moral character.

Herbart proposed that teaching should be organized around the teacher’s plan to form meaningful connections in the learner. He introduced the concept of apperception, the process by which new ideas are made intelligible by relating them to existing knowledge. He maintained that effective instruction proceeds from preparation of attention to presentation of new material, then to association, generalization, and application.

In his general pedagogy, he argued that schooling should be purposeful, the teacher shaping the learner’s interests, emotions, and will to form virtuous habits. Education, for Herbart, was not merely the transmission of facts but the formation of character through organized experiences and moral reflection.

Herbart’s ideas gave rise to the Herbartian school of pedagogy, which influenced teacher training and classroom practice in the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in Germany and the United States. His major works include Allgemeine Pädagogik (General Pedagogy), in which he outlined the theory of education as a science and the practical five-step method of instruction.

Today, Herbart is recognized for integrating philosophy, psychology, and education, and for laying the groundwork for later research into instructional design and the psychology of learning.