Gestalt

Dictionary of British Education

Gestalt is the German word for ‘configuration’. At the beginning of the twentieth century a school of psychology, developed in Germany, was later referred to as ‘Gestalt psychology’. Its main assumption was that the human brain has a tendency to organise experience into patterned configurations or wholes.

The word ‘Gestalt’ was used to refer to the whole of a perception or thought process rather than to the individual items within it. In education, Gestalt psychologists have been influential in encouraging teachers to concentrate pupils’ attention on the whole (the Gestalt) rather than on parts. In reading, this has tended to support ‘look and say’ or looking at the whole sentence rather than phonic methods of reading. (See also flashcard, learning theory, reading age, reductionism)