Johann Herbart

Johann Herbart (1776-1841), German philosopher and educator. Born in Oldenburg, Herbart studied law at the University of Jena. During this period, he also studied philosophy under Johann Gottlieb Fichte, one of Europe's most influential scholars at the time. Rejecting the latter's idealism, Herbart left the university in 1794 to undertake work as a private tutor in Interlaken. While there, he made the acquaintance of the educator and philosopher Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, whose school he visited, and whose works he read. He then studied philosophy with special reference to education, earning his doctorate from Göttingen University in 1802, and accepting a post there as lecturer in philosophy and pedagogy. In 1809 Herbart succeeded Immanuel Kant as Professor of Philosophy at the University of Königsburg, where he later also conducted a teacher-training seminary. He returned to the University of Göttingen in 1833, remaining there until his death.

As a philosopher, Herbart described the human soul as being without innate tendencies, and subject to the impressions imposed upon it by the outside world. It was this basic human characteristic, therefore, that made education all-important—a well-rounded and moral education ensured an individual's proper moral growth and resistance to evil.

Herbart said that learning is facilitated by linking new information with pre-existing ideas. With this notion in mind, he proposed a four-step teaching method advocating: (1) review of old material; (2) clear presentation of new material or concepts; (3) formation of associations, that is, arrangement of the new material into a system; and (4) application of the new principles or concepts to problems in other contexts.

Herbart's theories are not only still popular with educators today, but he was also among the first to advocate a scientific approach to education. Among his works are: Pestalozzis Idee eines ABC der Anschauung (Pestalozzi's Idea of an ABC of Sense Perception, 1802); Allgemeine Pädagogik (Universal Pedagogy, 1806); and Psychologie als Wissenschaft neu gegrundet auf Erfahrung, Metaphysik, und Mathematik (Psychology as Knowledge Newly Founded on Experience, Metaphysics, and Mathematics, 1824-1825).