Jigsaw

Here are the steps from the video

(From https://blogs.kcl.ac.uk/activelearning/2019/05/05/jigsaw-activity/)

Before the session:

• Decide how to allocate students into equal groups, ideally of five or six. Let’s call these ‘home groups’. Allocate purposefully, aiming for as much diversity as possible within the groups.

• Select the task and divide it into the same number of segments as there are students in each group. The task could be a long reading divided into sections (e.g. introduction, methods, results and discussion), or a phenomenon with different facets (e.g. main attributes of democracy in different states’ governments).

• Decide whether to allocate students a particular segment or give them a little time to decide amongst themselves.

• Prepare a test that addresses every facet.

• Set up the environment so that groups can break out into groups together.

During the session:

• Introduce students to the activity including the benefits.

• Allocate students into their home groups.

• Appoint one student as chair of this homegroup – their role will be to keep time and manage questions and answers.

• Allocate a different segment of the task to each student in the homegroup, and let them know that they will be expected to teach that segment to their fellow group members.

• Each student learns their segment, working individually at this stage. Give students some time to familiarise themselves with their allocated material – this may take 10-15 minutes.

• Next divide students into ‘expert groups’ comprising all students who have prepared the same segment. In other words, each expert group has at least one student from each of the home groups.

• Ask all members of the expert group to discuss their segment (which everyone in the expert group has in common), preparing to return to their home group and teach that material. Prompt them to compare ideas, address gaps, resolve misconceptions, surface differences of opinion, and organize their thoughts into a clear, coherent presentation. This may take 15-20 minutes.

• Students then disperse from their expert groups back to their home groups and each presents their segment to their home group members, teaching each other and discussing their questions until they have learned the whole topic. Prompt students to examine relationships between the different segments.

• Finally, students complete an individual test. As well as an individual mark, the quality of the group work could be recognized in the form of a group mark averaged from the individual marks.

Here are some cool visualizations of how Jigsaw works: