In a message dated 11/9/98 11:07:48 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< Dear All:

 I am an English teacher in South Korea with LG Chem's HRD Team. I am  looking
at Gestalt theory as a means of underpinning the approach I take to teaching.
The idea of schemata is especially intriguing to me. The
 idea that information, especially receptive language input, is organized
 into a cognitive framework could be useful in the following ways:

 (1) organizers, if provided to the student, may increase language
 production and proficiency;

 (2) organisational features of the teacher's delivery of language for
 study and practice may influence the retentiveness and durability of the
 langauge;

 (3) the nature of cognitive language structures may inform curriculum
 development; that is, if schemata is experience-based, then curriculae
 should be more task-based; if language-based, then more conversational;
 if heuristic, then grammar/syntactic. More likely is a hybrid of these
 mechanisms.

 (4) Such various combinations may differ across individuals (learning
 styles) and, perhaps, more importantly, generally across cultures
 (archetypes?), for the following reason: since language curriculums are
 developed within national educational agendas, such cultural differences
 in the way that people think and organise information and experiences
 may be profoundly important for orienting foreign teachers in the
 practice and application of language tecnique in the classroom on a
 curriculum-level, rather than on an individual level. Teachers, as
 resident classroom experts, could then be given more independence to
 modify syllabi within a set of nationally-devised parameters for their
 individual students.

 Any comments or suggestions?

 Gerry Lassche
 _______________________ >>

Dear Gerry,
        My immediate response is to commend you on your interest in applying Gestalt
theory to classroom instruction. Someone who has considerable experience
(several years as professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, and
was a friend or compatriate of Fritz Perls) is George Isaac Brown, Ph.D.  I am
not sure of his Email address but I do have his lovely wife's ( who is also
active in this same area of research and writing) -- it is
[log in to unmask]  George's best know book, I believe is Human
Teaching for Human Learning, in which he presents his views on Gestalt therapy
applications in classrooms and called it "Confluent Education." This bood was
originally published by Viking Press and more recently by the Gestalt Journal
Press.
        I hope this gives you a good lead. If I have more suggestions I'll get back
to you later. Good luck on your interesting and thought provoking venture.
        Ansel Woldt, Ed.D., Emeritus Professor, Kent State University