1. Herbart attaches importance to the important role of psychology in education. He was the first person to introduce psychology into pedagogy. He suggested that everyone should understand the basis of psychology. His exploration of psychological science is not only related to the purpose of developing intelligence, but also related to metaphysics and ethics, which most effectively stimulated the scientific research of modern psychology.
Secondly, Herbart clearly put forward the idea of "education and teaching" for the first time in the history of western education. Before Herbart, educators usually studied and expounded moral education and teaching respectively, and education and teaching were usually given different purposes and tasks. Herbart's pioneering contribution lies in clarifying the connection between education and teaching. He clearly pointed out that "there is no concept of" teaching without teaching ",just as on the other hand, I don't admit that there is any" teaching without teaching ",and pointed out that" moral education cannot be separated from the whole education, but is inevitably, extensively and profoundly linked with other educational issues ". Therefore, moral education is implemented on the solid foundation of subject teaching, which has the task of moral education, which has become the basic principle of education and promoted the development of educational theory.
Thirdly, the "teacher-centered theory", represented by Herbart, advocates studying people's psychological activities from the perspective of apperception, and holds that students can truly master knowledge only by linking the concepts in the apperception group formed by new experiences in the learning process. Therefore, the teacher's task is to select suitable materials, prompt students with appropriate procedures, and form their learning background. Herbart emphasizes the authoritative role and the central position of teachers, forming the characteristics of traditional education teacher center, teaching material center and classroom center.
Fourthly, Herbart also emphasized that teaching should be a unified process according to the theory of apperception, and put forward the theory of formal teaching stage. He divided the teaching process into four stages: clarity, association, system and method. Among them, "clarity" means clearly perceiving new textbooks; "Association" means that students apply systematic knowledge to practice through certain forms of exercises and homework to check whether they correctly understand and master the new knowledge they have learned. Later, Balter's impressive students Ziller and Ryan developed into five stages: preparation, prompting, association, generalization and application, which provided the front-line teachers with a teaching model that was easier to understand, master and apply.