In this lecture, the following points will be covered:
1.) The concept 'didactics'.
2.) The numerous relationships between Gestalt psychology and didactics in the 1950's
and 1960's.
3.) Developments in didactics oriented to and based on Gestalt theory.
4.) Some aspect of didactics based on a Gestalt psychological foundation.
5.) Causes for the stagnation of the development in the 1970's and 1980's.
ad 1)
Didactics should be understood as the science of and operating theories for teaching.
Teaching is dependent on situational and institutional conditions. In this connection,
teaching refers to the various types of instruction as the specific form of teaching
which appears in school institution. I shall present and discuss three approaches
to the concept of didactics as a theory of planned teaching in schools (instructing):
the education-theoretical approach, the instruction-analytical approach and the
learning-theoretical approach.
Various problems have to be solved in order to organize successful learning processes
in school; the Gestalt psychological theory of learning can contribute to solve
these problems.
ad 2.)
In Gestalt psychology, learning which leads to insight and recognition is viewed
as the specifically human form of learning. Processes of learning are understood
as the structuring and organizing of the field of perception and imagination , accordingly,
as cognitive occurrences. Learning and thinking are seen as closely interrelated.
A new organization of behaviour is considered to come as a result of a new organization
of the field of perception.
Under the term organizational change one should understand, "that in the course
of a learning or thinking process, an already existent organisation is transformed
into a higher level of organization.." (MÜLLER, 1964). The formation and
change of psychic organizations follows on the basis of the Praegnanz principle
(METZGER).
Gestalt order also provides the basic conditions for remembering.
ad 3)
People engaged in didactics who are at home in gestalt psychology, especially criticize
two aspects in the traditions of the pedagogical theories which have been influenced
by HERBART.
-- the passivity of the learners, who, according to associations-psychological rules
should be fed component blocks of knowledge with a prepared content. Now learning
is seen as active.
-- "The clarity of the particular issue" which the teacher is supposed
to hold before the eyes and ears of the student. There exists, in contrast to this,
the concept that learning processes are set in
motion through experiences of unclarity and poor order.
ad 4)
Didactics as a theory of school pedagogics would need to come to terms with the
question of the content and procedure of the lessons. Two questions in regards to
the procedure are especially significant:
a) How is the course of the lessons to be structured, so as to enable the students
to accomplish the learning process? The point here is to produce a proceeding Gestalt
(Verlaufsgestalt) of teaching which grows out the proceeding Gestalt of thoughtful
learning.
b.) How is the learning situation to be arranged within the social net of the school
class in order to enable individual and active learning for the pupils? The goal
would be the best possible support of the learning process of the individual pupil
by the teacher, existing in a balanced relationship between self steering and external
steering.
ad a) The first phase of the (ideal) process of teaching, which begins with the
attempt to effectively present the student with a learning assignment, and ends
when the student has an insight into the problem at hand (but does not yet have
an insight into the solution to the problem).
This can be designated the PHASE OF INSIGHT INTO THE PROBLEM. The second phase,
which adjoins this, is the PHASE OF THE SOLUTION. The PHASE OF EXECUTION (also the
phase of accomplishment or doing) requires that the students transform their thoughts
into action, therein testing their imagined solutions. The school learning process
is, however, not completed before the achieved form of thinking and acting has become
established. In the area of schools, the phase of excecution leads to a PHASE OF
PRACTICE. Along with this, the consolidation, the transfer, or carry over of what
has been newly learned into other contexts, will be prepared.
ad b) Two relevant aspects for the situation of the pupil should be kept in mind
here:
-- the type and extent of the steering influence of the teacher on the learning
process
-- the extent and direction of developing relationships during the pupil's learning
process
The possibility to take part in steering the learning process, and thereby to influence
the teaching procedure, increases for the pupil as the steering influence of the
teacher decreases and the size of the learning group is reduced. With the goal of
best possibly realising insightful problem solving processes of learning for all
pupils, IMPULSE TEACHING appears to have the best advantage, being capable of attending
to time differences in the time of learning. In this type of teaching, the class
takes the form of a discussion community in which the teacher plays the role of
a partner.
ad 5)
In the 1970's and 1980's the Gestalt psychological findings received little attention
in educational politics and theory. A behavioristically oriented psychology of learning
was implemented. The programming of teaching was then called for.
Then in the 1990's the picture changed again. The principle of "open teaching"
began to replace the strategy of "goal oriented teaching". The pupil is
now more seriously taken into considertion as a co-fashioning and co-decisive factor.
Teachers understand themselves once again as stimulaters in the individual learning
process.
In the new contexts of educational politics and educational theory, the findings
of Gestalt psychology and their didactical applications are once again becoming
more modern and topical.
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