System, on the other hand, calls for a more connected discourse, and the period of presentation must be separated more sharply from the period of repetition. By exhibiting and emphasizing the leading principles, system impresses upon the minds of pupils the value of organized knowledge; through its greater completeness it enriches their store of information. But pupils are incapable of appreciating either advantage when the systematic presentation is introduced too early.

Skill in systematic thinking the pupil will obtain through the solution of assigned tasks, his own independent attempts, and their correction. For such work will show whether he has fully grasped the general principles, and whether he is able to recognize them in and apply them to particulars.

[70.] These remarks on the initial analysis and the subsequent gradual uniting of the matter taught, hold true, in general and in detail, of the most diverse objects and branches of instruction. Much remains to be added, however, to define with precision the application of these principles to a given subject and to the age of the pupil. It will suffice, for the present, if we remind ourselves that instruction provides a portion of the occupations necessary to government ([56]). Now, instruction produces fatigue in proportion to its duration; more or less, of course, according to individual differences. But the more fatiguing it is, the less it accomplishes as employment. This fact alone shows clearly the necessity of intermissions and change of work. If the pupil has become actually tired, that is, has not lost merely inclination to work, this feeling must be allowed, as far as is practicable, to pass away, at any rate to diminish, before the same subject is resumed in a somewhat modified form. In order to have time enough for this, the systematic presentation must in many cases be postponed until long after the first lessons in the elements have begun, and conversely, the rudiments of a subject frequently have to be at least touched upon long before connected instruction can be thought of. Many a principle needs to be approached from a great distance.

Herbart found his basis for the four steps of method, viz. clearness, association, system, method, in the ideas of absorption and reflection, the alternate pulsation of consciousness in absorbing and assimilating knowledge. Others, adopting this classification as essentially correct, have related these steps to customary psychological analysis. Thus Dörpfeld and Wiget point out that the mind goes through three well-marked processes when it performs the complete act of learning, namely, perception of new facts; thought, or the bringing of ideas into logical relations; and application, or the exercise of the motor activities of the mind in putting knowledge into use. Perception gives the percept, thought gives the conception (or rule, principle, generalization), and application gives power. In other words, the receptive and reflective capacities of the mind come to their full fruition when they result in adequate motor activities. With respect to perception a good method will first prepare the mind for facts and will then present them so that they may be apperceived. The first two steps are therefore preparation and presentation. The first step, as Ziller pointed out, is essentially analytic in character, since it analyzes the present store of consciousness in order to bring facts to the front that are closely related to those of the present lesson; the second step, i.e., presentation, is essentially synthetic, since its function is to add the matter of the new lesson to related knowledge already in possession. Both together constitute the initial stages of apperception.

Thought consists of two processes that may also be termed steps, and that are more or less observable in all good teaching; they are (1) the association of newly apperceived facts with one another and with older and more firmly established ideas in order that rational connection may be established in what one knows, and especially in order that what is general and essential in given facts may be grasped by the mind; and (2) the condensation of knowledge into a system, such for instance as we see in the classifications of botany and zoölogy, or in the interdependence of principles as in arithmetic. Thought, in brief, involves the association of ideas and the derivation of generalizations such as are appropriate to the matter in hand and to the thought power of the pupils.

The third stage, that of application, is not subdivided. Most other followers of Herbart, both German and American, though varying in methods of approach, conform essentially to the results of this analysis, distinguishing five steps, as follows:—

1. Preparation—Analysis Apperception of percepts.
2. Presentation—Synthesis
3. Asso­ci­a­tion Thought. The der­i­va­tion and arrange­ment of rule, prin­ci­ple, or class.
4. System­i­za­tion
5. Application. From knowing to doing: use of motor powers.

The reader is referred to the following-named works for extended discussion of this topic: McMurray, “General Method”; [DeGarmo], “Essentials of Method”; Lange, “Apperception,” pp. 200–245; Rein (Van Liew’s translation), “Outlines of Pedagogy”; Herbart (Felkins’ translation), “Science of Education”; McMurray, C. A. & F. M., “The Method of the Recitation.” A comparative view of the treatment of the Steps of Instruction by various authors is found in Van Liew’s translation of Rein’s “Outlines of Pedagogy,” p. 145.