GESTALT

PSYCHOLOG
Y
THE FOUNDERS
OF GESTALT
PSYCHOLOGY
 (22 January 1887 – 11 June 1967)

WOLFGANG
KÖHLER He was a German Psychologist and phenomenologist who, like
Max Wertheimer, and Kurt Kofka, contributed to the creation of
Gestalt Psychology During the Nazi regime in Germany, he
protested against the dismissal of Jewish professors from
universities, as well as the requirement that professors give a
Nazi salute at the beginning of their classes. In 1935 he left the
country for the United States, where Swarthmore College in
Pennsylvania offered him a professorship. He taught with its
faculty for 20 years, and did continuing research.
 (April 15, 1880 – October 12, 1943)

He was an Austro-Hungarian-born psychologist who was one of

the three founders of Gestalt psychology, along with Kurt

MAX Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler.

WERTHEIMER Wertheimer obtained his PhD in 1904 under Oswald Kϋlper, and
then began his intellectual career teaching in Frankfurt. For a
short time he left Frankfurt to work at the Berlin Psychological
Institute, but returned in 1929 as a full professor.

Wertheimer eventually ended up at the New School for Social Research

in New York, a position he held until his death. Max Wertheimer is known
for his work Productive Thinking, as well as his idea of Phi Phenomenon.
Both contributed to his collaboration on Gestalt Psychology.
 (March 18, 1886 – November 22, 1941) He was a German
psychologist. He was born and educated in Berlin. Along with
Max Wertheimer and his close associates Wolfgang Köhler they
established Gestalt psychology.

Koffka’s interests were wide-ranging, and they included:

Perception, hearing impairments in brain-damaged patients,

KURT interpretation, learning, and the extension of Gestalt theory to

development psychology.

KOFFKA During the First World War, he worked for the Military in a
position that later lead him to a Professorship in Experimental
psychology.

In 1927, he accepted a position at the Smith College in

Norththamton, Masschusetts where he remained until his
death in 1941 from Coronary thrombosis.
 It is a school of psychology founded in the 20th century that
provided the foundation for the modern study of perception.

WHAT IS Gestalt theory emphasizes that the whole of anything is greater

GESTALT than its parts.

PSYCHOLOG That is, the attributes of the whole are not deducible from
analysis of the parts in isolation. The word Gestalt is used in

Y
modern German to mean the way a thing has been “placed,” or
“put together.”

There is no exact equivalent in English. “Form” and “shape” are

the usual translations; in psychology the word is often
interpreted as “pattern” or “configuration.”
 Gestalt theory was the
initial cognitive response to
behaviorism. It emphasized
the importance of sensory
wholes and the dynamic
I. GESTALT nature of visual perception.

PSYCHOLOG
Y
The term Gestalt, means
“form” or
“configuration.”
 Psychologists Max Wertheimer,
Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt
Koffka who studied perception,
concluded that;

I. GESTALT Learners were not passive, but rather

active.Learners do not just collect
PSYCHOLOG information as is but they actively
process and restructure data in order to
Y understand it.

Factors like past experiences,

needs, attitudes and one’s
present situation can affect their
perception.
II. GESTALT
PRINCIPLES
• According to the gestalt psychologists,
the way we form our perceptions are
guided by certain principles or laws.
These principles or laws determine
what we see or make of things or
situation.
III. INSIGHT
LEARNING
• In each of these problems, the
important aspect of learning was not
reinforcement, but the coordination of
thinking to create new organization (of
material. Kohler referred to this
behavior as insight or discovery
learning.. Kohler proposed the view
that insight follows from the
characteristics of objects under
consideration.
III. INSIGHT
LEARNING
• His theory suggested that learning
could occur when an individual
perceives the relationships of the
elements before him and reorganizes
these elements and comes to a greater
understanding or insight. Learning
could occur without reinforcement,
and once it occurs, no review, training,
or investigation necessary.
IV. GESTALT PRINCIPLES
& THE TEACHING-
LEARNING PROCESS
 An individual has inner and
outer forces that affect his
perceptions.

Kurt Lewin’s Inner forces include his own

motivation, attitudes, and
Theory feelings.

Outer forces may include the

attitude and behavior of the
teacher and classmates.
 (September 9, 1890 – February 12, 1947)

Kurt Zadek
Lewin
He was a German American psychologist, known as one of the
modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied
psychology in the United States.

Theory
Lewin is often recognized as the “founder of social psychology”
and was one of the first to study group dynamics and
organization al developments.
 Ø Gestalt psychology is focused on the experience of contact that occurs in the here and now.

Relevance of
Gestalt Ø It takes interest in the complexity of experience, without neglecting anything, but accepting
and amplifying all that emerges.

Psychology to Ø It stimulates learning as experience and the experience as a source of learning.

education Ø Knowledge is conceived as a continuous organization and rearrangement of information

according to
according to needs, purposes and meanings.

Marion Polito. Ø Autonomy and freedom of the student is stimulated by the teacher.

Ø The contact experience between the teachers and students is given value: an authentic
meeting based on sharing ideas and affections.
How to apply
Gestalt Theory in
Teaching and
Learning
• Gestalt is a theory of learning that
focuses on the minds perspective. It is
useful as a behavioral tool as it enables
the teacher to channel the pupil’s
energy into thinking of an item or
subject as parts of a whole, e.g. a car,
being metal, paint, wheels etc. By
thinking of components and breaking
down a situation it enables for a more
psychological process to take place
and over time will broaden a pupils
mind into thinking of the sum of the
whole rather than just a complete thing
of situation.
Reference/citations:
• Facilitating Learning: A Meta Cognitive
Process Lucas and Corpuz (Pages 106 –
109) Google Images Wikipedia.org
youtube.com answers.com
Thank you!