The Jigsaw

If you’ve ever done a jigsaw puzzle, you know they can ensnare you trying to get one more piece before you stop. Jigsaw puzzles are engaging. James Davis discusses five teaching strategies designed to challenge and engage students in the article Innovative Teaching Strategies that Improve Student Engagement. I knew most of them, but the last one caught my attention because I like jigsaw puzzles. Below is an excerpt from the article that describes the jigsaw technique.

The jigsaw technique is a “tried and true” cooperative learning strategy that helps students create their own learning. Students are arranged in groups and assigned a different piece of information. In their groups, students learn the piece of information well enough to be able to teach it to another group of students.

When using this technique, students become experts on the learning as they teach their peers. Once all groups have learned their information, they are placed into new groups with members from each of the small groups. Each group member shares the knowledge they gained in their informational group. This technique brings lessons to life and challenges students to create their own learning.

Students are more engaged when actively doing, rather than passively listening, and we know that engagement translates into deeper retention. The jigsaw technique introduces students to approximately 8-10 other students, and it also sets a high expectation that every student must learn something well enough to teach others. This doesn’t really allow for that passive, or dare I say “lazy,” group member. What happens if they are? Then the second group falls behind. The peer pressure is on. With this technique, evaluating the groups is also pretty clear because the instructor knows where the group is weak and who was responsible to provide that information. 

But, even better than that, students are uncovering the information for themselves and you’re not feeding it to them. Oh sure, they won’t like it as much as your captivating lectures (seriously, it’s fun to listen to a good lecturer), and they’ll complain that they’re doing your job for you, but they’ll learn more. Learning is the goal, and learning how to learn is the ultimate goal. 

This technique can be done easily in any modality, just devote three sessions or parts of one session to the jigsaw–the first is learning with your original group, the second is teaching the information to your new group, and the third can be some sort of presentation to the entire class, or maybe a verbal quiz from you. Who knows? If students present the information, you could let them decide how to present what they’ve learned; a role play, video, game, or physical creation. Ask them to be creative and maybe outlaw PowerPoint presentations just to save yourself and everyone else from watching just one more. 

Come back and post if you give the jigsaw a try!