JOHANN HERBART

        Education is the methods by which a society gets from one
generation to the next. This includes knowledge, culture, and values. 
Individually the student develops physically, mentally, emotionally,
morally, and socially. Johann Herbart is known as a German philosopher and
educator, born in Oldenburg, and educated at the University of Jena.
Herbart's system of philosophy stems from the analysis of experience
(Microsoft Encarta 96 Encyclopedia).  He did not believe that all concepts
are of separate mental ideas, but instead suggested that all mental
activity results from interaction of elementary ideas. 

	Herbart's belief was that educational methods should be based on
psychology and ethics. He suggested that psychology would furnish
necessary knowledge of the mind and ethics would be used as a basis for
determining the social ends of education. 

	He became interested in the work of the Swiss educator reformer
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi when he left Jena to tutor in Switzerland.
Herbart liked the Pestalozzian system, "in which the child is guided to
learn through the natural employment of the senses"(Encarta 96). 

	In 1805 Herbart was appointed to be a professor of philosophy at
the University of Gottingen. Then in 1809 he left to fill a similar
position in Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia).

	In 1833 Herbart returned to Gottingen where he remained until his
death. The success of Herbart's methods led to their adoption in the
teacher-training systems of numerous countries (Encarta 96). His stress on
the study of the psychological processes of learning as a means of
devising educational programs based on the aptitudes, abilities, and
interests of students has a huge impact on modern day education. 

Prepared by Nick Jankoviak