Contrary to the formal education theory, the substantive education theory maintains and advocates the practical education direction that began to rise at the beginning of18th century. On the basis of positivism, British educator Spencer put forward the comparative value of knowledge in 1950s. He insisted on practical education, while attacking classicism and scholasticism in British education at that time, thinking that the development of general intelligence was secondary and emphasizing the practicality of courses and textbooks. He linked his educational thoughts with the needs of bourgeois industrial development more directly than Herbart School. /kloc-for a long time after the mid-9th century, substantive education had a great influence on the teaching practice of primary and secondary schools in Europe and America.

Both substantive education theory and formal education theory belong to early bourgeois teaching theory. In the process of historical development, both of them have studied and demonstrated some aspects of teaching content. However, there is one-sidedness in both knowledge transmission and ability training (see formal education).