Johann Friedrich Herbart was a renowned German philosopher and educator who led the nineteenth-century interest in Realism and is considered among the founders of modern scientific pedagogy. He studied under
Johann Gottlieb Fichte at Jena in 1794 and in 1808 became
Immanuel Kant’s successor as professor of philosophy at Königsberg. He developed a philosophy of mind and pioneered a new theory of education that became known as “Herbartianism.” He stressed the study of the psychological processes of learning as a means of devising educational programs based on the aptitudes, abilities, and interests of students. By maintaining that a science of education was possible, Herbart furthered the idea that education should be a subject for university study.