The application of Gestalt to organizational interventions in universities

Abstract

This paper will outline the Gestalt cycle, (Perls, 1947) used as the basis for modelling the process of Gestalt therapy and counselling. Then we will go on to describe how it (Gestalt) can be used as a way of understanding organizational processes and culture. For staff developers to be effective in influencing the organizations in which they work they have to be able to make appropriate interventions. The necessary skills and attributes required of a staff developer operating in a Gestalt role will be discussed. Gestalt offers one model that can help the staff developer decide what interventions are appropriate when and why.

The paper will then move on to look at what happens if an organization gets stuck at any point in the Gestalt cycle and what this will feel like for employees and students. We will then offer intervention strategies for moving the organization on round the cycle.

Finally we will draw some general conclusions about how staff developers have a key role in helping universities cope, manage and adapt in these times of rapid change in Higher Education.     

西方格式塔理论对语文审美化教学的启示

格式塔心理学又称完形心理学,它的基本观点是坚决反对元素分析,大力强调整体组织,认为部分相加不等于整体,反对对任何心理现象进行元素的分析,主张艺术家要创造＂有意味的形式＂。格式塔心理学创建了一种独具特色的学习理论,主要包括：整体性、直觉性、异质同构、完形压强等。格式塔理论对学习、记忆、思维等独到的研究和见解,给予语文教学许多有益的启示和重要的指导意义,为开展语文教学提供了一个崭新的理论视角。     

Effects of strategy training on Progressive Matrices performance

Two qualitatively different information-processing algorithms for solution of Raven's Progressive Matrices items have been identified. Whereas the Gestalt algorithm involves spatial operations upon the test stimuli, the Analytic algorithm employs logical operations upon features abstracted from the displays. In this study, training groups were established varying both in the Strength (Weak or Strong) and Type (Gestalt or Analytic) of training at three grade levels. Two sets of post-test measures were given. Ambiguous items were constructed such that more than one correct answer was possible, some being the result of the Gestalt algorithm and others of the Analytic algorithm. Subjects' performances on the Ambiguous items indicated that strong Analytic training had been particularly effective and was specific to Analytic answer options. The second post-test measure was Set I of the Advanced Progressive Matrices. Performance on these Test items indicated that the effects of strategy training had been maintained, and were due to the facilitation of Analytic item performance by Analytic training. The effects of Strength and Type of training were consistent across Grades. These results support Hunt's analysis of Raven's Progressive Matrices items, and demonstrate that strategy training based upon a precise information processing task analysis can be effective in improving Progressive Matrices performance. The implications of these results for intellectual assessment are discussed.     

试探限时翻译中的格式塔型错误

英语专业八级考试(TEM8)的英译中属于限时翻译,是在无词典可查的情况下进行的。格式塔心理学认为人们在感知事物时,将它们作为一个统一的整体来感知,整体并不等于部分相加的总和。由于时间紧迫,有些考生会感到紧张,因而对个别英语单词以格式塔方式来认知,结果会作一些表面看是低级荒唐的错译。     

浅谈完形理论在科技馆翻译中的运用

认知语言学以完形心理学作为心理学基础,认为整体的意义比各部分相加之和要大,部分的意义相加不足以解释整体的一些特性。基于该理论,探讨在科技馆英语翻译中译者可能遇到的常见问题并提出解决方法,拟为广大科技馆翻译工作者提供一个全新的视角来看待翻译过程。     

The instructional gestalt: A conceptual framework and design for educational research

Summary The argument is advanced in this paper that the pattern of educational investigation wherein comparisons are made between so-called “ experimental” and “ conventional” instructional procedures tends to be defective on three counts: the criteria are often inappropriate or contaminated; the assumptions of homogeneity within and independence between “ experimental” and “ control” conditions are met only when these conditions are very grossly conceived; and the results reflect masking and cancellation effects, thereby revealing relatively little about what transpires in an instructional setting. The Instructional Gestalt is proposed as a methodological framework for educational research focusing upon the interactive nature of learner, instructor, and environmental and course variables constituting the instructional setting. Data generated by explorations within this framework can lead to the formulation of hypotheses which, if subsequently supported empirically, can become principles for inclusion in a theory of classroom learning. The nature of investigations proceeding from the Instructional Gestalt framework was clarified by presentation and discussion of an illustrative study. Since this illustration was only a representation in miniature of the larger investigation, the generalizations about teaching-learning suggested by it are of limited scope and subject to change. Nevertheless, these generalizations do indicate the kinds of hypotheses resulting from studies within the Instructional Gestalt framework. This paper summarizes the rationale underlying research on the Instructional Gestalt proceeding under a grant from the Office of Education, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Portions of this rationale have been presented at the annual meetings of the American Psychological Association in 1961 and 1962.     

教学视频中线索类型与学习者先前知识经验对学习的交互影响

教学视频因其多通道展现教学内容的特性而成为数字化学习资源的首选形态。线索作为教学视频中的重要引导性教学设计手段,探究其类型及学习者先前知识经验对学习效果的交互影响,有益于优化教学视频的设计策略。基于学习者先前知识经验水平(高水平和低水平)和线索类型(言语线索和视觉线索)两个维度,运用眼动追踪技术和认知负荷、学习满意度、学习效果等测量工具,通过实验考察二者对学习的影响及其内在机制后发现:学习者先前知识经验水平对认知负荷的影响显著;线索类型对学习满意度的影响显著,且线索类型与学习者先前知识经验水平在学习满意度上的交互效应显著;学习者先前知识经验水平对学习效果的影响显著,且线索类型与学习者先前知识经验水平在迁移测验成绩上的交互效应显著。实验结果表明,线索类型与学习者先前知识经验水平对学习满意度和学习效果存在明显的交互作用,即只有低知识经验水平学习者在学习含有视觉线索的教学视频后,学习满意度与学习效果才有显著提升。这可能是由于该类学习者在信息选择时存在困难,视觉线索可以帮助其提高信息搜索效率,而言语线索却会使其认知负荷超载。     

The Figure and the Ground of Constructive Brain Functioning: Beyond Explicit Memory Processes

An implicit assumption underlying many educational and psychological theories is that the brain is a memory system. Modern information processing theory, which dominates computer science, linguistics, psychology, economics, and biology, is a theory of the storage, organization, and retrieval of information. But did human intelligence evolve as the nervous system's solution to memory requirements or to some other problem (set) more inherently related to survival than memory? Taking an evolution-inspired (Edelman, 1987) biofunctional (Iran-Nejad, 1980) approach, this article argues that the human nervous system and its processes evolved in the natural environment to solve and generalize survival problems associated with what Gestalt psychologists identified as figure-ground relations in the realm of perception. It is concluded, therefore, that the brain's functional processes and their counterparts in learning can be more appropriately explained as fundamental figure-ground than memory processes.     

Comparing the Effects of Classroom Audio-Recording and Video-Recording on Preservice Teachers' Reflection of Practice

This study examined the effects of audio and video self-recording on preservice teachers' written reflections. Participants (n = 201) came from a secondary teaching methods course and its school-based (clinical) fieldwork. The audio group (n_A = 106) used audio recorders to monitor their teaching in fieldwork placements; the video group (n_V = 95) used video recorders. Qualitative methods (content analysis) of the reflections found that preservice teachers gave varied attention to curricular decisions, question/response patterns, wait time, mannerisms, nervousness, and use of praise. Quantitative analyses (chi-square tests for independence) indicate the recording format did not lead to significant differences in participants' reflection on their various instructional behaviors except for two aspects: the video group gave more attention to non-verbal behaviors and movement around the classroom (α = .05). Implications are discussed, including methods for enhancing the habit of teachers recording and reflecting in teacher education.     

视觉传达设计中的格式塔原理

以格式塔心理学为理论依据,以大量的作品实例,阐释视觉传达设计中的图-底关系、完形原理、错视原理和异质同构原理,对视觉传达设计中图形的结构、张力的形成、及其心理机制进行分析探讨,以提高作品的视觉冲击力和审美效应,并对视觉传达设计运用格式塔原理需要注意的问题做了简要的论述。     

Understanding the effects of a teacher video on learning from a multimedia document: an eye-tracking study

The present study investigated the effects on students’ learning experience of adding a video of a teacher to an e-learning module. A total of 43 undergraduates were asked to learn the content of a pedagogical document either with or without a teacher video on the screen. Although video captures of teachers are increasingly being integrated into online courses, few studies have investigated their impact and the best way of optimizing them. According to the social-cue hypothesis, the presence of a teacher (face and gestures) positively influences learners’ motivation and engagement in their learning. By contrast, the interference hypothesis holds that the teacher’s presence can lead to poor performances, as it acts as a source of visual interference that diverts students’ attention away from the relevant information. By assessing subjective ratings and learning outcomes, the present study tended to support the social-cue hypothesis, as it showed that adding a teacher video on screen significantly improved students’ retention of the spoken explanations, without disturbing either their performances on diagram and transfer problems or the time needed to process the document. Eye-tracking data showed that students spent 25% of their time watching the teacher video. Adding this video had no significant observable effects on the subjective ratings (i.e., social presence, evaluation of the teacher’s motivational skills, situational interest, cognitive load). These results suggest that videos of teachers can be used to improve social cues in multimedia learning without creating interference effects.     

感触、感染、感悟的点、线、面结合—儿童钢琴教学与格式塔理论

格式塔是心理学中的一种完型理论,强调意识的存在,强调知觉的整体性。儿童钢琴教学也强调教学过程的完整性,这种“完整性”从某些方面来看与格式塔理论的一些观点很相似。它引导学生由“感”而发的教学环节融入井然的教学程序,由浅入深,从而使感触、感染、感悟三者有机地结合起来。     

Comment and summary: A mine of possible applications

Summary In summary, then, what have the contributors said? They have impressed upon us the need for analytic, dimensional study of audiovisual devices. This recommendation comes especially from Glaser and Postman. To this recommendation Kendler would want to add: the analytic study should be theoretically oriented. In this latter recommendation, Luchins would probably concur, though his theory will be different, influenced as it is by Gestalt tradition and by his great concern for process. Luchins’ concern is a well-placed one, and one of the signal contributions of Gestalt theory to the study of learning has always been its insistence on such concern. The kind of stimulusresponse theory espoused by Kendler is also concerned with process, and a working together of stimulus-response mediation theory and Gestalt theory, it seems to me, is quite possible. McDonald reminds us not to neglect the motivational properties of audiovisual devices. This, indeed, may be their specific function. Even when it cannot be demonstrated that they directly produce learning which is better, or more efficient, or more productive of understanding than learning by ordinary classroom procedures, they still may have an advantage in motivating interest and in providing something like stimulus predifferentiation     

完形理论与EST翻译

认知语言学的心理学基础是完形心理学。完形心理学家们认为整体的意义大于各部分相加之和,对部分的分析不能解释整体的某些特性。文章从此原理出发,探讨英语汉译中译者可能遇到的部分困难及解决方法,拟为译者提供一个全新的视角来看待翻译过程。翻译是语言转换的过程,当把完形理论运用到翻译的实践中时,一篇英语的翻译文章才能更好地体现出原文作者的思想。     

The Use of Video Cases in a Multimedia Learning Environment for Facilitating High School Students’ Inquiry into a Problem from Varying Perspectives

This study investigated the connection between the use of video cases within a multimedia learning environment and students’ inquiry into a socio-scientific problem. The software program was designed based on principles from the Cognitive Flexibility Theory (CFT) and incorporated video cases of experts with differing perspectives. Seventy-nine 10th-grade students in an urban high school participated in this study. After watching the expert videos, students generated investigative questions and reflected on how their ideas changed over time. This study found a significant correlation between the time students spent watching the expert videos and their ability to consider the problem’s perspectives as well as their ability to integrate these perspectives within their questions. Moreover, problem-solving ability and time watching the videos were detected as possible influential predictors of students’ consideration of the problem’s perspectives within their questions. Although students watched all video cases in equivalent ways, one of the video cases, which incorporated multiple perspectives as opposed to just presenting one perspective, appeared most influential in helping students integrate the various perspectives into their own thinking. A qualitative analysis of students’ reflections indicated that many students appreciated the complexity, authenticity, and ethical dimensions of the problem. It also revealed that while the majority of students thought critically about the problem, some students still had naïve or simplistic ways of thinking. This study provided some preliminary evidence that offering students the opportunity to watch videos of different perspectives may influence them to think in alternative ways about a complex problem.     

完形理论与EST翻译

认知语言学的心理学基础是完形心理学。完形心理学家们认为整体的意义大于各部分相加之和,对部分的分析不能解释整体的某些特性。文章从此原理出发,探讨英语汉译中译者可能遇到的部分困难及解决方法,拟为译者提供一个全新的视角来看待翻译过程。翻译是语言转换的过程,当把完形理论运用到翻译的实践中时,一篇英语的翻译文章才能更好地体现出原文作者的思想。     

“花儿”修辞文本的心理学解读

"花儿"不仅注重言语符号本身的建构,更注重这种话语形式所产生的表达效果,透过这种修辞文本往往可以窥见其深层情感的体悟等。使用人本主义层次理论、格式塔异质同构理论、心理补偿功能与机制等心理学理论,解读"花儿"修辞文本,发现"花儿"修辞文本表现心理世界,心理世界影响"花儿"修辞文本。     

The influence of prior knowledge and viewing repertoire on learning from video

Video is increasingly used as an instructional tool. It is therefore becoming more important to improve learning of students from video. We investigated whether student learning effects are influenced through an instruction about other viewing behaviours, and whether these learning effects depend on their prior knowledge. In a controlled environment, 115 students watched a number of instructional videos about the technical equipment needed in a course on digital photography. Every second student was instructed about other possible viewing behaviours. A pre-post-retention test was carried out to calculate learning effects. The differences with respect to the learning effects of students who received an awareness instruction on an alternative viewing strategy were not significantly different. The differences as observed in our earlier experiment however could not be reproduced. Students with a broad viewing repertoire showed higher learning effects than students with a narrow repertoire. Furthermore, students with a strategic viewing approach also showed higher learning effects. Certain conditions have to be met: the technical and didactical quality of the video must be good, the integration in a learning task must be apparent, students must be aware of their viewing behaviour, and teachers must be aware of their students’ viewing behaviour in order to enrich the viewing repertoire of students when they have at least some basic knowledge e.g. after several lessons on the topics at hand. In future research, this study should be replicated using more complex video episodes than the instruction videos we used in our experiments that were only on the factual knowledge level of the taxonomy of Bloom. Moreover, replication of this study with a larger sample size could yield a significant improvement in learning effects. This is plausible because students need an amount of prior knowledge beyond a certain threshold value in order to be able to expand their knowledge network in their long term memory. Finally, additional media player functionality, facilitating effective student learning from video, can be described based on the results of this study.     

Digital video for fostering self‐reflection in an ePortfolio environment

The ability to self‐reflect is widely recognized as a desirable learner attribute that can induce deep learning. Advances in computer‐mediated communication technologies have led to intense interest in higher education in exploring the potential of digital tools, particularly digital video, for fostering self‐reflection. While there are reports pointing to the salutary effects of digital video on learners’ reflective ability, a systematic inquiry into how digital video can be utilized to promote self‐reflection in an ePortfolio context remains under‐reported. In this paper, we pose two questions: (1) Do students have the confidence to create their own digital videos for reflection and do they find this activity relevant to their learning needs?; and (2) To what extent does digital video affect the level of self‐reflection and the nature of peer feedback? Results from this small‐scale exploratory case study provide evidence in support of video use as a reflective tool in an ePortfolio context and highlight the need for considering pedagogical and technological issues that are of significance for teachers, educators and ePortfolio developers.     

Mental effort and video-based learning: The relationship of preconceptions and the effects of interactive and covert practice

Recommendations for the design of interactive video materials are often based on the premise that interactive video may overcome learners' preconceptions of television as “easy.” This study investigated learner preconceptions of the difficulty of interactive video, instructional television, and television, and examined the effects of actively or covertly responding to practice questions on perceived mental effort, recall, and inferences. Seventy-one undergraduate students completed a questionnaire assessing their preconceptions of the difficulty of the three media, received their treatment, completed a questionnaire assessing perceived mental effort, then completed a recall and inference posttest. Before the lesson, the learners perceived it to be significantly easier to learn from interactive video than from instructional television and television, and significantly easier to learn from instructional television than from television. There were no significant differences in the mental effort ratings or inference scores among the three groups. The interactive video group recalled significantly more information than the television group. Possible reasons for findings and suggestions for further research are discussed.