Educational Implications of
Insight Theory of Learning
Learning by conditioning is common to all animals and human beings and
useful for early education. But learning by insight is suitable only for
intelligent creatures both human and animals and useful for higher
learning. It is a kind of learning done by observation, by perceiving the
relationship and understanding the situation.
When an individual or intelligent animal faces a problem, he thinks and
looks over the whole situation and tries to find out solutions. He tries to
get some clues in the ways he should proceed to solve the problem, the
method he should pursue and a general awareness of the results of his
actions. Then suddenly, he arrives at a solution through his mental
exercises. But for this, the total view of the situation should be exposed to
the individual who must feel urgency of the problem and its solution.
An experiment was conducted by Kohler to show the occurrence of
learning by insight. A chimpanzee in a cage was exposed to a bunch of
ripe bananas outside the cage. It could not reach the bananas to get the
fruits by its hands. Two pieces sticks which could be joined to reach the
bananas were however available to it. The chimpanzee failing to get the
bananas by its hands surveyed the whole situation and examined the pieces
of sticks. He suddenly got an idea and tired to join the sticks, so that he
could pull the bananas easily. This is an example of learning by insight.
Insightful learning is also known as Gestalitic learning which means that
learning is concerned with the whole individual and arises from the
interaction of an individual with his situations or environment. Through
this interaction emerge new forms of perception, imagination and ideas
which altogether constitute insight.
Insight operates when an individual tries to find solutions to problems. A
gestalt means the pattern, configuration or a form of perceiving the whole.
In this situation stimuli and responses are combined in an organized and
unified pattern.
The gestalitic learning implies that every situation or experience is more
than the sums of all its parts. A house is more than the bricks and mortar
and other materials that are in the building. A book is more than a
collection of a few printed pages. Similarly a learning situation is more
than the elements of which it is composed. According to gestalt point of
view, the situation should be learned as a whole rather than separated into
component parts and learned piece by piece.
Educational Implications of Insight Theory of Learning:
An individual has insight into a learning situation to the extent that he is
able to understand the situation as a whole. A solution to a problem is an
example of insight that results from integration of all the mental processes.
All the higher learning takes place by this method.
When a theft case is reported, the police comes to the place of occurrence,
collects data, observe the whole situation, workout in his mind all the clues
to catch hold the thief and finally acts upon the solution. Complex
problems require higher learning and solutions are reached only by
application of insight. All new ideas and concepts, inventions and
discoveries are the result of insightful learning. Teaching and learning of
mathematics and science demand higher intellectual exercises.
What are the essential
characteristics of insightful
learning ?
The common features of the experiments on insightful learning are as
follows:
1. The nature of the experimental situation is very important for insightful
learning. The organism must be able to perceive the relationships among
all relevant parts of the problem before insight can occur.
2. The organism reacts to the whole situation, not to its component parts.
3. The organism perceives the relationships between means and the goal,
and restructures the perceptual field.
4. Insight follows a period of trial and error behavior. In the trial-and-error
period, the organism does not, however/exhibit blind and random attacks
as shown by Thorndike’s cat. On the other hand, it tests behavioral
hypotheses in the form of accepting some and discarding others.
5. The insightful solution comes all on a sudden.
6. Once the insightful solution is reached, the organism shows high degree
of retention and transfer to similar problems.
7. Insight is closely related to the organism’s capacity to learn. The
capacity for insightful learning depends on age, experience, and individual
differences.
What is the difference between
Trial-and-Error and Insightful
Learning?
The cat in Thorndike’s puzzle box learns to connect a response with a
stimulus, which is subsequently rewarded. The learning by trial-and-error
is a matter of S-R connection. Kohler’s chimpanzee learns to perceive the
relationships between various aspects of the stimulus situation.
Establishing the relationship between one stimulus and the others forms
the core of the insightful learning. The insightful learning is of S-S type.
The trial-and-error learning is gradual. The cat in Thorndike’s puzzle box
takes a number of trials and learns step-by-step to reach the correct
response. The insightful learning occurs all on a sudden. The organism
moves from a state of no solution to a state of solution very quickly. While
pulling the string in Thorndike’s puzzle box, the cat is showing responses
to only some specific stimuli. It does not have to attend to the whole
stimulus field. But insightful learning involves perception of the whole
situation, as the organism has to see the relationship among various
stimuli. The nature of the response is molecular in trial-and-error learning
and molar in insightful learning. Practice and repetition are extremely
important in trial-and-error learning, while insightful solution is important
for insightful learning. Of course, certain amount of trial- and-error occurs
before insight takes place. But the trial-and-error form of learning
primarily does not involve insight. The physical and motor skills are
acquired mostly through trial-and-error. The insightful learning is of
higher order, and is involved in cognitive and verbal learning.
The two forms of learning differ with respect to the role of the organism in
the learning situation. Animals lower in the phylogenic scale acquire
through trial and error. Their role in the learning situation is only
mechanical and passive. The organism’s approach in trial-and-error
consists of random blind activities and the solution comes by chance. On
other hand, the organism in insightful learning, surveys, inspects,
observes, and examines various aspects of the problem situation, and
thereby takes an active role in learning. Higher- order animals including
chimpanzees and human beings are capable of insightful learning.
Both the trial-and-error and the insightful learning differ with respect to
the strength of learning. The trial-and-error learning is more or less
temporary, depends on continued practice, and weakens when practice is
discontinued. The insightful solution, once acquired, stays for a long time
and does not easily fade away when the practice is discontinued. Finally,
in trial-and-error, the transfer of learning is poor; skills acquired in one
situation are not easily transferred to another situation. On the other hand,
learning by insight is easily transferred from one situation to other similar
situations.
