Insight learning is the process of immediate and clear learning that takes place without over-trial or error testing. Insight into human learning occurs when they find relationships that can help them solve new problems. Insight learning was first discovered in the early 1900s, by Wolfgang Kohler who, observed chimpanzees solving problems.
There can be four stages to insight learning. They are:
- Preparation – This is the beginning stage, where all the materials are in front of us, and we begin to form relationships between them, but we just can’t connect the dots. Hence, we become frustrated and start losing patience.
- Incubation – It is the stage when we give up for a short while, but our brain still keeps thinking and making connections on an unconscious level.
- Insight – It is the most important stage as here we have our EUREKA! Moment, when we finally solve the problem.
- Verification – This is where we cross-check that the solution we found was correct and we try out several examples to make sure our epiphany was correct.
Hence, for insight learning, knowledge should keep building up rather than changing behaviorist teaching practices.
