First, education is life, and the process of education is integrated with the process of life, rather than preparing for a certain life in the future;

Second, education is the continuous growth of students' individual experience, and education should not have other purposes; Third, the school is an embryonic society, in which students should learn the basic attitudes, skills and knowledge needed by the real society;

Fourth, the curriculum organization is centered on students' experience, not on the subject knowledge system; Fifth, the relationship between teachers and students is child-centered, not teacher-centered, and teachers are only helpers of students' growth, not leaders; Sixth, in the teaching process, students' independent discovery, performance and experience are emphasized, and the differences of students' development are respected. Pragmatic pedagogy, based on American pragmatic culture, profoundly criticized the rationalist educational idea represented by Herbart and promoted the development of pedagogy. Its shortcoming is that it ignores the study of systematic knowledge, the leading role of teachers in the process of education and teaching, and the characteristics of schools to a certain extent, so it has been criticized by people in American society and other societies in the 20th century.