GUSTAL LEARNING

Gestalt Learning Theory Overview

Gestalt became one of the main theories of learning. The three main Gestalt theorists (Wertheimer, Kohler, and Koffka) were all Germans, and received their training and did their early work in Germany, but all three ended their careers in the US. The term "Gestalt" was coined by Graf Christian von Ehrenfels. His ideas influenced the trio of theorists.

Gestalt was a holistic approach and rejected the mechanistic perspectives of the stimulus - response models. Numerous new concepts and approaches emerged from this different philosophical perspective. The Gestalt theory proposes that learning consists of the grasping of a structural whole and not just a mechanistic response to a stimulus.

• A "Gestalt" is an integrated whole system with it's parts enmeshed. The whole is greater than just the sum of the parts.
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• The "PHI" phenomenon described a characteristic of things wherein they have a recognizability inherent in their nature. Examples include the recognizability of a melody, no matter how it is arranged or what instrument plays it, or the recognizability of a letter rendered in a wide variety of different fonts or type styles. Other examples include the apparent motion created by a rapid sequence of stills in motion pictures, and the sequences of illminating elements in neon signs which give the illusion of movement. Visual and auditory examples are numerous. This phenomenon leads to the conclusion that elements sensed are not the only reality.
• "Phenomenology" is the acceptance of first hand experience as it is found in human consciousness.
• Gestalt Learning Theory proposed several laws of organization, which are innate ways that human beings organized perceptions. A gestalt factor is a condition that aids in perceiving situations as a whole or totality. Isomorphism refers to the Doctrine of Psychophysical parallelism and depicts the cerebral cortex as "mapping these gestalt fields of stimuli.
• The Factor of Closure suggests that perception tends to complete incomplete objects. When only part of an image, sound, thought or feeling is presented as a stimulus, the brain attempts to complete it to generate the whole.
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• The Factor of Proximity suggests that when elements are grouped closely together, they are percieved as wholes. This has relevance in reading, visual arts, and music.
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• The Factor of Similarity proposes that like parts tend to be grouped together in cognition. This has implications for instruction, suggesting that learning is facilitated if similar ideas are treated and linked together and then contrasted with opposing or complementary sets of ideas.

The Figure-Ground Effect suggests that the eye tends to see the objects, rather than the spaces or holes between them.

Trace Theory - This proposes a mechanism for learning in which neruological changes occur as connections are made in the brain. These changes, called traces, represent links between thoughts, ideas, concepts, images, etc. REpetition and uniqueness reinforce a trace. Thus, learning is the creation of traces. Traces group together to form maps. Instructional methods relating to repetition and to making items to be learned somehow distinctive to make learning (trace formation) quicker and more lasting.

From the early theorys of Gestalt, there also emerged a branch of therapeutic interventions, called Gestalt Therapy. Fritz Perls went through psychoanalytic training with Karen Horney and then with Wilhelm Reich. He also adapted existentialist philosophy along with Zen and Taoist views to therapeutic work, and was strongly influenced by Freud.

Learning Theory Bibliography

Sahakian, 1976

Wulf, 1996