The Impact of Jigsaw Method on Developing CL Cooperative Learning in 6 Steps
Cooperative learning is one of the successful methods of teaching that enhances critical thinking, problem-solving, and reasoning skills. Moreover, it encourages the learners to be more dependant and use their language effectively.
One of the strategies that are considered one of the simplest methods to encourage students to work cooperatively and productively is the Jigsaw method. This article shows how to use the Jigsaw method and the basic structure of the Jigsaw and then the variation known as Jigsaw. Besides, the article gives some tips for troubleshooting this strategy.
What is the Jigsaw Method?
Elliot Aronson invented the Jigsaw method in 1971. Jigsaw is a cooperative learning approach in which each student in a group is responsible for one chunk of knowledge and then teaches it to other members of the group. Students put their chunks together to produce a whole body of knowledge, much like the parts of a Jigsaw puzzle.
Step 1:
The first step is to divide learners into groups of four or six people. Jigsaw works best when each team has the same number of students, so the teacher can avoid having some groups of four, some groups of five, and some groups of six. You'll learn what to do if you can't divide students into perfectly even teams later in this article.
For this example, the teacher will suppose that he is working with a class of exactly 30 students who can be evenly divided into six groups. This is referred to as the Jigsaw Groups.
Step 2:
The topic is divided into four to six portions by the teacher.
The content must be divided into the same number of chunks as the number of students in each group. So, if each group has six students, the teacher divides the subject into six parts. In the case of teaching history, for example, the material is an overview of various systems of governance.
The subject can be divided into the following categories by the teacher: democracy, monarchy, republic, totalitarianism, and autocracy. The reader does not need to use the index cards that contain the information or symbolize the bits of content to complete the Jigsaw puzzle. A piece of a textbook chapter, a handout with information, or an internet resource can all be considered a chunk of material.
Step 3:
- Assign one piece of content to every person in the Jigsaw Group.
- One person per group is responsible for one piece of the content.
- This person is going to teach this piece of content to the rest of the group.
Students do not communicate with other members of their group at this time; instead, they read and study their piece of content on their own. The following stage strengthens their autonomous research.
Step 4:
Have students meet in Expert Groups.
After each student has separately studied his or her chunk, they join all of the other students who have been allocated to the same chunk. Expert Groups are what they're called.
Students compare their thoughts and collaborate to make a presentation for their Jigsaw Groups within each expert group. Individual pupils' knowledge gaps can be filled, misconceptions cleared, and crucial concepts reinforced at this period.
Step 5:
Students return to Jigsaw Groups.
Students return to their original jigsaw groups after studying their chunks in expert groups, where each student has a turn delivering their chunk of material. While this is going on, the other students are paying attention, taking notes, and asking a lot of questions. After the first expert has left, the others have their turn. While each "expert" presents their portion of the topic, the rest of the group is learning it.
Step 6:
Assess all students on all the content.
A simple quiz can be used to ensure that all pupils have a basic comprehension of the topic. In this quiz, make sure to include all of the information blocks.
Jigsaw II is a variation on the basic structure of Jigsaw.
Jigsaw II, developed by Robert Slavin in 1986, adds one key feature to the original Jigsaw. The distinction is in how the evaluation is handled. In Jigsaw I, each student is evaluated independently and given a specific score. Individual quiz results are given once in Jigsaw II, and then the scores of each group are averaged to produce a group score. This instills a sense of competitiveness among groups and motivates students to go above and beyond in assisting one another in mastering the curriculum.
Here are a few tips for troubleshooting this strategy.
One problem you might encounter is this: What if students don't divide evenly? You should now have a perfectly divisible group. But, as we all know, perfection rarely occurs, and even if it does, one absent student may throw your entire game off.
First, remember that you can create groups of 4,5, or 6 (and some jigsaw advocates even allow for groups of 2 or 3), so that should help minimize "extra" students. Still, if you end up with a few extras, just assign two students in the same group the same chunk.
What if certain "experts" don't do a good job of teaching the material? If this group is relying on this one student to teach them about monarchs, and he isn't the strongest, they may be in trouble. When constructing your groups, you can anticipate this issue. If you have an unbalanced number of students, one thing you may do is pair up two students on the same piece who might be stronger together than they would be alone. The expert group is also in charge of ensuring that everyone is ready to present their piece to their respective jigsaw groups. If one student is having trouble, make sure the rest of the class helps that student out.
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