Herbart attaches importance to children's interests and psychological characteristics in teaching, but this emphasis is subject to the premise of teacher-centered systematic knowledge transfer.

Children's interests and psychology

Herbart attaches importance to children's interests and psychology in order to make teachers teach more effectively, rather than let students learn from experience actively.

Dewey's criticism

Later, Dewey regarded Herbart as the representative of traditional education and criticized his psychology as "teacher psychology" rather than "child psychology", which was also reasonable.