Gestalt 

(Plural „Gestalten”) is German for “pattern”, “figure”, “shape”, or “form” but not precisely translatable, just as „Angst” is not. It is used to refer to wholes, systems and complete structures rather than the reductionist approach of seeking ever smaller components of a phenomenon. In learning, opposed to the reductionism of behaviourism, it concentrates on the way in which the mind insists on finding patterns in things, and how this contributes to learning, especially the development of “insight”.

It originates from the work of Max Wertheimer and his students Köhler and Koffka

 Classic Gestalt image

A vase or two faces?

It's easy to see one or the other: almost impossible to see neither.

The classic Gestalt phenomenon is that of figure versus ground. Which is the image and which the background? And how does the brain decide?

 Puzzle Image 1

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for the solution

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Puzzle Image 2

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for the solution

The point of these rather silly examples is to note the usual reaction when you work them out: there is, however trivial, a release of tension because it has been possible to assimilate a previously non-sensical image into a frame of reference. Gestalt emphasises that the mind abhors non-sense.

The importance of the theory for real-world learning is the attention which it draws to wholes (and incidentally to problem-solving as a part of learning). Whereas behaviourism concentrates on breaking down a task into parts and how each is learned individually and incrementally, Gestalt acknowledges the “knack” element. It thus underpins all the cognitivist theories.

A "knack" is a psychomotor equivalent of cognitive "insight": the best example is probably learning to ride a bicycle. The learning "curve" (where x=time and y=skill) is more like a single step. The learning happens in a few moments, and is permanent—although it may have taken a long time to get to that step with little seeming progress.

Experimental work on Gestalt learning is primarily about the problem-solving capacities of animals: chimps spontaneously pile up boxes in order to climb on them to reach bananas, for example (Köhler, 1925). The learning element is shown by their ability to repeat the action later, without apparently having to pause and think about it as they did the first time. However, recent experiments have shown Betty the crow doing something just as ingenious and remarkable. See this link.

It also contributes to an account of some of the difficulties people have with learning: Gestalten (similar to schemata, in a different discourse), once formed, are not easily dislodged or replaced: see

[Assimilation and Accommodation][  Cognitive dissonance  ][ Resistance to Learning  ]