CSSE 2012 Round Table Paper
Gestalt Principles in Physics Education
Man-Wai Chu
Gestalt Principles in Physics Education: Does it come With
Teaching Experience?
Man-Wai Chu
Centre for Research in Applied Measurement and Evaluation
University of Alberta
Paper Presented at the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies Round
Table Session
Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education
Waterloo, ON
May, 2012
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CSSE 2012 Round Table Paper
Gestalt Principles in Physics Education
Man-Wai Chu
Gestalt Principles in Physics Education: Does it come With Teaching Experience?
“The whole is something other (and more) than the sum of its parts” (Blosser, 1973)
This phrase is often used to explain the Gestalt theory. The word ‘Gestalt’ is rooted in the
German language meaning “configuration, pattern, [and] organized whole” (Blackburn, 1996).
This interpretation of the whole event has caused some to refer to Gestalt psychology as
phenomenology, which studies the conscious experiences from the first-person point of view
(Van Manen, 1997).
Gestalt Psychology in Science Education
Utilizing Gestalt views in science education is not a new concept. In fact, many of the early
works of Köhler included explicit examples of science to explain the Gestalt views (Köhler,
1969, 1971/1930). The Gestalt ideas suggest the teaching-and-learning process should change
from an injection of information to a more complex activity where students have a substantial
part to play in integrating new intelligible, plausible, and fruitful concepts with their existing
knowledge since students do not enter classrooms as a blank slate, even in the earliest stages of
schooling (Stenhouse, 1986; Watts & Taber, 1996).
Some researchers have suggested using the ideas of Gestalt as a framework to help students
understand complex scientific concepts because “scientific understanding requires the linking
together of many types of concepts” (Andersson, 1986, pg. 167). Andersson stresses the need to
use a Gestalt view of learning science framework to help students understand concepts instead of
focusing on conceptions of content. In physics, students learn about magnetism and electricity as
two separate concepts in the unit Forces and Fields. However, the subsequent unit,
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CSSE 2012 Round Table Paper
Gestalt Principles in Physics Education
Man-Wai Chu
Electromagnetic Radiation, pulls the ideas of magnetism and electricity together to explain the
concept of electromagnetic radiation (Alberta Education, 2007).
The Gestalt view of a holistic physics program can be comprised of several different aspects of
the program-of-study. Teachers’ decisions to focus on particular emphases are personal choices
reflecting, sometimes tacitly, what they consider to be the most important aspects of science
education (van Driel, Bulte, Verloop, 2008). These varying, yet valid, experiences and
interpretations of the program may cause differences in the delivery of the same subject and in
attaining learning outcomes between classrooms.
Purpose of the Study: Research Questions
The current study seeks to investigate: (1) whether there is a difference between experienced,
novice, and pre-service teachers, with respect to their self-report of using Gestalt principles when
planning and implementing the Alberta physics program-of-study and (2) which aspects of the
program-of-study do each of these teacher groups prioritize as most important in creating a
Gestalt view.
Seven Science ‘Curriculum Emphases’
The categorizations, as presented in Table 1, are curriculum emphases created by Roberts to
explicitly describe the goals and objectives of science education. Each emphasis represents an
area of educational learning that has a counterpart in human affairs and academic studies. This
study uses these science curriculum emphases as a framework to draw our attention to individual
teachers’ interpretation of ‘why are we teaching this?’
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CSSE 2012 Round Table Paper
Gestalt Principles in Physics Education
Man-Wai Chu
Table 1
Seven Scientific Curriculum Emphases (Roberts, 1982, 1988, 1995, 1998, 2003)
Curriculum Emphasis
Explanation of Emphasis
Everyday Coping (Everyday
Application)
Using science to understand both technology and everyday occurrences. For example, physics topics can be oriented to show
how various common home devices, such a lamp or a television set, function and can be maintained.
Structure of Science
Understand how science functions as an intellectual enterprise in its growth and development. This emphasis stresses the
importance of evidence and the role of ‘scientific method’ as analogy, hypothesis, experiment, characteristics of scientific
concepts, and to a certain extent the historical evolution of scientific ideas. The ideas from the academic discipline,
philosophy of science, is closely associated to this emphasis because it also investigates the relationship of evidence and
theory, adequacy of a model to explain a phenomena, self-correcting features to promote growth of science, and matters
relating to the way scientific knowledge are developed.
Science, Technology, and Decisions
(STS; Science, Technology, and
Society)
Brings out the interrelatedness of scientific explanation, technological planning, problem solving, and practical importance to
society. For example, scientific knowledge and technical know-how should guide the decision on the route of an oil pipeline.
Here socio-scientific decision making is seen as a process.
Scientific Skill Development
Developing sophisticated competence in conceptual and manipulative skills that are basic to all science, collectively labeled
‘scientific process’; which are the keys to arriving at a reliable ‘product’, or idea in science. This emphasis concentrates on
the means of ‘science inquiry’ including variations of inductive and deductive reasoning.
Correct Explanation
Concentrates on the ends of scientific inquiry versus the means. Here science is seen as reliable and valid knowledge from an
authoritative group of experts developed to give students the best explanations available for natural events and objects.
Self as Explainer (Personal
Explanation)
Understanding one’s way of explaining events in terms of personal purpose, intellectual preoccupations, and cultural
influences that form their context. Exposing the conceptual underpinnings that influence scientists when they were in the
process of developing explanations; a personal animation of the history of science. A constructivist view of learning.
Solid Foundation
Science instruction should be organized to facilitate the students’ understanding of future science instruction. Viewing
science as an accumulation of knowledge telling students the purpose of learning this year’s science is to get ready for next
years, and then the following year, and so on through graduate school. Stresses science as cumulative knowledge.
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CSSE 2012 Round Table Paper
Gestalt Principles in Physics Education
Man-Wai Chu
It is important to note that none of these seven curriculum emphases are more true,
correct, or right than the others. As the ideology of Zeitgeist would suggest, popular emphases
exist in a specific time to answer the “cries of the moment” (Roberts and Orpwood, 1982, p. 14).
As such, these emphases are useful as a framework to analyze and discuss the different elements
of the Alberta physics program-of-studies teachers might prioritize at a specific point in time.
Method
To investigate the differences in how experienced, novice, and pre-service teachers
prioritize elements of the physics program-of-study in terms of Gestalt views, a mixed methods
approach was utilized.
Participants
For the purposes of this curriculum emphases study, the groupings between novice and
experienced teachers are set as follows: experienced physics teachers were those with ten or
more years of physics teaching experience and had been appointed as a head marker by the
Assessment Branch of Alberta Education. Novice physics teachers had less than ten years of
experience teaching physics and had not been a head marker. Pre-service teachers were
education students in the final year of their teacher education program.
Rate of Return
The open-ended question was sent to 103 participants; 70 were returned on time for
analysis, representing a return rate of 68.0%. Of these 70 participants, four were contacted for an
in-depth face-to-face interview. The interview participants represented two novice teachers and
two experienced teachers. No pre-service teachers offered their contact information for
interviews.
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CSSE 2012 Round Table Paper
Gestalt Principles in Physics Education
Man-Wai Chu
Procedure
The teachers were asked to rank seven statements representing the emphases in a survey.
Participants were also asked one open-ended written question at the end of the survey. The
question was, “What part of the curriculum do you focus most on in your classroom and why?”
Participants were also given the opportunity to volunteer their information for a follow-up
interview to help provide more information. Ethical protocols, as specified by the University of
Alberta Research Ethics Board and one Alberta school district, were approved and adhered to.
Selected teachers who provided contact information were approached to participate in an
interview. These qualitative approaches were used to determine the first research questions of
whether teachers used Gestalt views in their teaching. To address the second research question
which investigated the atomistic or molecular components teachers tended to prioritize, the
survey rankings were used.
Creation of science emphases survey. A survey asking physics teachers to rank the seven
science curriculum emphases was developed and administered to participants. The survey
consisted of three sets of seven statements. Each of the seven statements in a set represented one
of Roberts’ seven science curriculum emphases. Sets of statements approached the emphases
from different perspectives: Set 1 had statements from student’s perspective (‘Students are able
to’), Set 2 had statements from the teacher’s perspective (‘I provide opportunities’), Set 3 had
definitions of Roberts’ seven curriculum emphases (1982).
Data Collection
Since mixed methodology was used in this study, different forms of data collection
methods were conducted.
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CSSE 2012 Round Table Paper
Gestalt Principles in Physics Education
Man-Wai Chu
Survey and Open-Ended Question
The survey was administered to experienced and novice teachers on the last day of the
June 2008 diploma marking session, and pre-service teachers were approached through their
physical sciences curriculum professor for the researcher to administer the survey during a class
before their final practicum.
Interviews
Opportunity was given for participants to leave contact information so they could be
phoned or e-mailed for face-to-face interviews. The semi-standardized interviews contained a
number of items in common with the survey that assessed the emphases which the participant
tended to focus. In addition, a number of questions were asked to allow participants the
opportunity to elaborate on the perspectives they prioritized during the interview.
Data Analysis
Survey
The statistical survey data were processed with SPSS 17.0. The program calculated the
means of the seven emphases and ranked the importance based on the means. The means were
used in the mean absolute difference (MAD) calculations for comparison.
Open-Ended Question and Interview
The open-ended question and semi-structured interviews were typed, organized into the
appropriate groups, analyzed, and interpreted to create a code of recurring themes that both fit
and went beyond Roberts’ seven curriculum emphases (Peshkin, 2000).
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CSSE 2012 Round Table Paper
Gestalt Principles in Physics Education
Man-Wai Chu
Results
Results from each data collection method (i.e., open-ended question, interview, and
survey) are presented separately and then interpreted collectively to answer the research
questions.
Open-Ended Question Data
Common themes emerged from the open-ended data from each group of teachers. Preservice teachers mentioned the importance of student engagement. However, they made no
mention of focusing on Gestalt views of teaching. Novice teachers focused on Gestalt views by
indicating a need “to develop ‘big picture’ thinking” (Participant 39). A common theme among
experienced teachers was the Gestalt views of creating a holistic view of physics with comments
such as “connecting the big picture” (Participant 11).
Interview Data
Since this was a convenience sample, more interviews employing a hermeneutic cycle
(Guba & Lincoln, 1989, 1997) would be necessary to gain data representative of each group. An
analysis of novice physics teachers’ priorities when teaching the program-of-study revealed an
underlying theme between novice teachers was to make the course fun and engaging for students
because, “anytime you have a practical problem instead of a theoretical one, there’s a lot more
room for engaging students” (Novice teacher 2). Novice teacher 2 continued to explain when
students are interested and engaged in a course, they will remember what they learned from the
program and “perhaps transfer… [that knowledge] to other avenues of life” indicating a focus on
the transferability of material.
Both experienced physics teachers identified a need to focus on the gestalt view of
teaching connectivity or a holistic view of physics ideas, as represented by the statement:
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CSSE 2012 Round Table Paper
Gestalt Principles in Physics Education
Man-Wai Chu
We [a]re not here to memorize facts. We [a]re here to make connections, so we see this
knowledge and skills and attitude, that we [a]re developing a course as an interconnected
whole, so that we [a]re not putting all this information into little pigeon holes that are
independent of each other, it [i]s one big mass and we [a]re trying to make it as many
connections as we can (Experience teacher 2).
Experienced teachers also mentioned a need to focus on the transferability of skills by focusing
on “strategies they can use throughout their lives… teaching content is something that we do to
teach those skills” (Experienced Teacher 1).
Survey Data
Survey data was used to investigate which molecular aspects of the program-of-study
teachers ranked as important. The means of each emphasis was calculated for the groups for the
three sets of statements. A summary of the most important focus and emphases from the survey,
open-ended question, and interviews are listed in Table 2.
Conclusion & Discussion
The focus of this research was to determine whether a difference existed between
experienced, novice, and pre-service teachers, with respect to their self-reported focus of Gestalt
principles in their classrooms when planning and implementing the Alberta Education physics
program-of-study. Once Gestalt principles were identified through the open-ended question and
the interviews, the survey data was used to investigate which emphasis the teachers tended to
prioritize when creating their holistic view.
Both the novice and experienced teachers mentioned a need to focus on the holistic views
of physics in their open-ended comments. However, the idea of using a holistic approach to teach
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CSSE 2012 Round Table Paper
Gestalt Principles in Physics Education
Man-Wai Chu
Table 2
Summary of Emphases and Focuses of Participants.
Participants
Top Rankings in the
Three Sets of
Statements
Pre-Service
Structure of Science
Solid Foundation
Scientific Skill
Solid Foundation
Development
Solid Foundation
Science, Technology, and
Decision
Structure of Science Did not participate in interview process
Correct Explanation
Student
Engagement
Novice
Structure of Science
Solid Foundation
Scientific Skill
Everyday Coping
Development
Self as Explainer
Science, Technology, and
Decision
Structure of Science Scientific Skill Development through:
Correct Explanation transferability and student engagement
Holistic Views of
Physics
Experienced Structure of Science
Structure of Science
Everyday Coping
Lowest Rankings in the
Three Sets of
Statements
Solid Foundation
Everyday Coping
Self as Explainer
Focus of Openended Comments
Focus from Interview Data
Structure of Science Structure of Science through:
Holistic Views of
transferability and holistic views of
Physics
physics (connectivity)
Note. Italicized words do not fit into the framework of Roberts’ seven science curriculum emphases.
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CSSE 2012 Round Table Paper
Gestalt Principles in Physics Education
Man-Wai Chu
physics was more predominant in the experienced teacher group than the novice group as
indicated by the frequency this comment appeared in the open-ended data. The interview data
further supported the popularity of Gestalt views with experienced teachers as both experienced
teachers indicated the importance of focusing on holistic views of teaching physics. This implies
the ideologies of Gestalt’s view tend to be associated with experiences in the physics classroom.
The next task was to investigate which aspects of the program teachers focus on to
comprise the holistic view using the curriculum emphases survey. Teacher participants focused
on similar aspects of the program. Since three sets of curriculum emphases were presented for
participants to rank, it was expected that each group of participants would rank the emphases
differently in each of the three sets. However, similarities were present as seen in the top
rankings of the pre-service and novice teachers as well as in the lowest rankings of the
experienced teachers. These differences and similarities in rankings between the three sets could
be, as speculated by the author, the participants’ focus was different for each set of perspectives.
Although small differences were seem in the rankings of the emphases, similarities were
predominant across the three types of data collection. All teacher groups indicated a need to
focus on the Structure of Science in set 1 of the survey and in their open-ended comments.
Similarities between the teacher participants could be attributed to all teachers being educated
through similar teacher education programs, and developing similar ideologies. “Many teacher
education programs emphasiz[e] different traditions of practice, [but] use the… same strategies
and program structures” (Zeichner, 1993). Another reason for similarities in perspectives
between teacher participants may be due to novice and pre-service teachers being past students
or mentees of experienced teachers. Hence the cycle of passing similar ideologies gets
perpetuated. Wang, Odell, and Schwille (2008) found what beginning teachers “thought and did
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CSSE 2012 Round Table Paper
Gestalt Principles in Physics Education
Man-Wai Chu
were shaped by the curriculum and teaching organization where mentoring relationships were
situated” (pp. 148). They suggest there is a certain level of enculturation of these beginning
teachers into the classroom by their experienced mentors. However, this enculturation seems to
be successful in passing along similar emphases teachers focus on while working with the
program-of-study, but the Gestalt idea of viewing physics as a holistic picture does not seem to
have been passed to beginning teachers.
Although there are similarities between the teacher participants, pre-service and novice
teachers tended to have more in common with each other than with experienced teachers. Both
pre-service and novice teacher groups prioritized Structure of Science (Set 1), Scientific Skill
Development (Set 2) and Science, Technology, and Decision (Set 3) as their highest priority on
the survey and also ranked Solid Foundation (Set 1) as their lowest priority. As well as focusing
on Structure of Science and Correct Explanations in their open-ended question. Pre-service
teachers mentioned a priority in focusing on student engagement, through their open-ended
survey question, which was echoed by the novice teachers during their interviews. These two
groups of participants tend to be similar in age and may have recently gone or are currently
going through very similar education programs which may have caused the two groups to have
more similarities than experienced teachers.
Limitations & Future Studies
This investigation provided the researcher with a snap-shot of teachers’ focus of Gestalt
principles and their prioritization of science emphases in physics education. If the same teachers
are participants in a similar study at a later date, the results may vary because teachers will have
had a greater number of experiences and there is evidence to suggest that experiences can change
prioritizations (Roberts, 1982). Thus an ongoing investigation, such as a longitudinal study
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CSSE 2012 Round Table Paper
Gestalt Principles in Physics Education
Man-Wai Chu
following a group of teachers over several years, would provide a more in-depth look at the
trends of curriculum emphases and the basis for change over time.
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Man-Wai Chu
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Gestalt Principles in Physics Education
Man-Wai Chu
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