Jigsaw

A while back, Chelsa told me that one of the EPS classes I missed, the jigsaw technique was discussed. So, I thought what better way to learn about it than including it in this list of 10 teaching techniques!

The jigsaw technique involves cooperative learning among the students. Each piece, or student's part, is essential for the completion of the final product, or learning. Each student is assigned to a group, then individually assigned one topic to research. The students then go back to their groups to present their learnings to the group. Students thus need to listen closely to their group member's findings.

However, before reporting to their jigsaw group, students will first meet with students from other groups that are focusing on the same topic. This is referred to as the expert group. This "is particularly useful for students who might have initial difficulty learning or organizing their part of the assignment, for it allows them to hear and rehearse with other 'experts'" ([|Jigsaw Website]).

Students then get back into their initial jigsaw groups, and teach each other about their topic.

Students are then tested on what they have learned from their group members.

Source: [|The Jigsaw Classroom]

This website gives 10 easy steps to implementing the Jigsaw technique in the classroom. [|10 Steps]

Not only is the jigsaw method an efficient way for students to learn material, it also encourages many positive behaviors in students, including listening, engagement and empathy. Teamwork is especially important, as the students will not succeed unless everyone works together.

An obvious evaluation that would work well with jigsaw is evaluating the presentation each student gives their jigsaw group.

Selected response assessments would probably work well for this technique in testing the student's knowledge of the other student's expertise areas. These assessments, such as multiple choice, true/false and matching, test mastery of factual information. With relying on others to provide information, I think this would be the best way to assess the learning, as students may not gain deeper learning to go beyond this.

In the business education area, I would use the jigsaw technique specifically in Law 30. Any unit would work, but an example would be: categorization of law. ONe student could be assigned to research each of the following:substantive vs procedural law, public vs private law, civil vs criminal law, common vs statue law.

Note: As an alternative to how jigsaw is described above, instead of individually reporting to a jigsaw group, the expert group could present their findings together to the whole class.