Gestalt psychology was seen as an alternative to behaviorism and structuralism. The early Gestalt thinkers felt that behaviorism dealt too much with collecting, tallying, and treating only specific problems, or parts of a whole.

2. Examine the picture
below.

3. Gestalt
PsychologyGestalt theory was the initial
cognitive response to behaviorism. It
emphasized the importance of
sensory wholes and the dynamic
nature of visual perception.
The term Gestalt, means “form” or
“configuration”

4. Psychologists Max Wertheimer,
Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt
Koffka who studied perception,
concluded that;Learners were not passive, but rather
active.
Factors like past experiences, needs
attitudes and one’s present situation can
affect their perception.

5. 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 things or situation.

6. Law of
Proximit
y
Law of
Figure/Gr
ound
Gestal
t
Princip
les
Law of
Similari
ty
Law of
Closure
Law of
Good
Continua
tion
Law of
Good
Pragnanz

7. Law of Proximity
 Elements that are
closer together will
perceived as coherent
object.

8. Law of Similarity
 The Law of
Similarity captures
the idea that when we
look at objects that
are similar to each
other, we tend to
group them together.

9. Law of Closure
 We tend to fill the
gaps or “close” the
figures we perceive.
We enclose a space
by completing a
contour and ignoring
gaps in the figure.

10. Law of Good
Continuation Individuals have the
tendency to continue
contours whenever
the elements of the
pattern establish an
implied direction.
People tend to draw a
good continuous line.

11. Law of Good
Pragnanz The word pragnanz, is
a German term
meaning “good
figure”. The law of
Pragnanz is sometimes
referred to as the law
of good figure or the
law of simplicity
 This law holds that
objects in the
environment are seen
in a way that makes
them appear as a
simple as possible.

12. Law of
Figure/Ground We tend to pay
attention and
perceive things in the
foreground first. A
stimulus will be
perceived as separate
from its ground.

13. Insight Learning
The idea of insight learning was first
developed by Wolfgang Kohler in which he
describes experiments with apes where the
apes could use boxes and sticks as tools to
solve problems.
In each of these problems, the important
aspect of learning was not reinforcement, but
the coordination of thinking to create new
organizations(of material). Kohler referred to
this behavior as insights or discovery
learning.

14. His theory suggested that learning could
occur when the 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 is
necessary.

15. Gestalt Principles and
Teaching-Learning
ProcessOther Psychologists like Kurt Lewin
expounded on gestalt psychology. He said
that an individual has inner and outer
forces that affects his perceptions and also
his learnings.

16. Relevance of Gestalt
Psychology to Education
according to Mario PolitoGestalt Psychology is focused on the
experience of contact that occurs in here and
now.
It takes interest in complexity of experience,
without neglecting anything but accepting
and amplifying all that emerges.
It stimulates learning as experience and the
experience as a source of learning.
Knowledge is conceived as a continuous
organization and rearrangement of
information according to needs, purposes and
meanings.

17. Autonomy and freedom of students
stimulated by the teachers.
The contact experience between teachers
and students is given value: an authentic
meeting based on sharing ideas and
affections.