Kurt
Koffka (1887 - 1941)
Gestalt
Biography
Koffka was born in Berlin in 1886. In 1904-1905 he studied
at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where he met
British scholars, and studied in English. He completed a
Ph.D. at the University of Berlin in 1908, and then went to
the University of Frankfurt. He met Kohler and Wertheimer
there in 1910. In 1927 he came to the US where he became a
professor at Smith College. He was a powerful spokesperson
for the Gestalt movement in the US. He died in 1941.
Theory
Koffka was another of the trio of the Gestalt founders
(along with Wertheimer and Kohler). Koffka supported
the view that animals are participants in the learning
process. There is no such thing as a completely
meaningless learning.
Koffka was an advocate of the idea that the interdependence
of facts was more important than knowing many individual
facts.
Learning Theory
Bibliography
Sahakian, 1976
Koffka, 1935
Koffka, 1963
