Lesson 16 The Gestalt Theory

 Gestalt is a German word which means "configuration," or the process of putting elements together to produce a whole object. Holism, or the concept that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, is a key Gestalt psychology belief ( Jäkel et al., 2016).

            Max Wertheimer concluded that humans see things by looking at the overall picture, not by cracking individual components. When we see flashing lights at a police mobile or ambulance, we see one light moving swiftly between two spots; however, the fact is that two independent lights are blinking rapidly without moving at all.

            Below are some of the most important principles of Gestalt theory as identified and explained by Wagemans et al. (2012) and application in teaching-learning process as described by Losabia (2012):

  1.      Prägnanz: This foundational principle states that you will naturally perceive things in their simplest form or organization. For example, on this image, you can describe that there is a square, a triangle and a circle instead of saying there’s two semi-circles, irregular pentagon, etc.


Pragnanz states that when things are grasped as wholes, the minimal amount of energy is exerted in thinking. In short, we should make our lesson holistic, complete and most of all simple.

 

  1.      Similarity: This principle suggests that we naturally group similar items together based on elements like color, size, or orientation. Below, you tend to group the objects on the first and third figures based on their similar colors but on the second one you did by means of their shape.


    Similar lessons or contents should be grouped together to make learners develop understanding more efficiently and effectively. This is the reason why lessons are grouped into units: Unit I is for human body, Unit II is for energy and motion, so on and so forth.

 

  1.      Proximity: The principle of proximity states that objects near each other tend to be viewed as a group. As seen on the figures at the right portion below, our brain tends to group the circles first by the horizontal rows since they are closer than the vertical column. Meanwhile, on the second figure we prefer to group the circle by six vertically instead of by three horizontally.


    Related concepts or lessons should be taught aligned or closely to each other. This is the reason why subtraction is taught after addition, multiplication after subtraction then division after multiplication. Imagine teaching addition then jumping directly to polygons.

 

  1.      Continuity: According to this principle, we will perceive elements arranged on a line or curve as related to each other, while elements that are not on the line or curve are seen as separate.

Lessons should be presented in such a way that learners will see these as connected and continuous. Now you know why we have the "Review" part of the lesson plan. This way, students will realize that their new lesson actually has continuity and is related to what they already know or to the previous lesson.

 

  1.     Closure: This suggests that elements that form a closed object will be perceived as a group. We will even fill in missing information to create closure and make sense of an object.


When a concept or topic is incomplete thus isn't "closed", incomplete information may make learners want to discover what’s missing, rather than concentrating on the given instruction. If students find the lesson confusing because a certain question is left unanswered or a step isn't clear, they will tend to concentrate on that confused part of the process rather than the total process as a whole. This is why students get "lost". Thus, make the lesson complete. Present it clearly, simply and always be ready for students' clarifications.

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