Pedagogy from ethics and psychology
Herbart derives educational aims from ethics (what the goal should be) and its methods from psychology (how minds learn). This grounding founds pedagogy as a systematic scientific discipline.
The Science of Education: Back to School
6 ideas
The formal steps of instruction
Herbartian teaching proceeds through preparation, presentation, association, generalization, and application of new material. The sequence turns lessons into a repeatable structured method.
Apperception
New ideas are grasped only by connecting to the existing mass of prior ideas already in the mind. Teaching must therefore first activate relevant prior knowledge before introducing the new.
Many-sided interest is the aim
Herbart holds that cultivating broad, many-sided interest, not mere transfer of facts, is instruction's central objective. Interest is the engine that drives learning and moral character.
Ideas as dynamic mental forces
His psychology models the mind as ideas (Vorstellungen) that compete, combine, and rise or sink below consciousness. Learning is sequenced to help desired ideas gain strength.
Moral character as the end of education
Instruction ultimately aims to form a virtuous will, integrating knowledge with ethical volition. Teaching is judged by the character it builds, not only the knowledge it imparts.