Why Is It Important?
Introduced by Aronson (1978), Jigsaw is an efficient way for students to become engaged in their learning, learn a lot of material quickly, share information with other groups, minimize listening time, and be individually accountable for their learning. Since each group needs its members to do well in order for the whole group to do well, Jigsaw maximizes interaction and establishes an atmosphere of cooperation and respect for other students. Teachers who listen in to the sharing of one of the jigsaw groups can quickly hear what each of the original groups has been doing.
Aronson compared classes that used the cooperative jigsaw approach with classes in which students worked in competitive groups. He found that children in the jigsaw classrooms outperformed children in competitive classrooms in terms of mastery of classroom material. Black and Hispanic children performed significantly better in jigsaw classrooms than in competitive classrooms.
There are many benefits of using jigsaws in the classroom including the following:
- Improves team and class dynamics by helping to build trust, creating a space for candor and for respectful disagreement, and making a safe space for taking emotional risks.
- Helps build cohorts (i.e., within majors) by enabling students to really get to know each other in one class, which can translate to more interactions outside of class in departmental and campus activities.
- Fosters student engagement through peer learning and more equal participation by everyone in the group by empowering individual students to share their own “expertise” or contribution to the jigsawed group.
- Requires students who are shy or quiet to participate more fully in active ways.
- Efficiency (time-saving): possible to cover more material rapidly when students are assigned different readings/roles/etc. and then teach each other in the jigsaw.
Cooperative learning - Jigsaw - ICT
One example of a cooperative learning approach utilized in a face-to-face setting that can also quite effective in an online class is the Jigsaw method. In the jigsaw approach, instructors create learning groups knows as ¨home teams¨. Each individual on the team is assigned a particular focus in terms of research or portion of an assignment. These individuals become experts in their particular area. Each home team will have an expert in the corresponding area. The experts from each of the teams will meet. This will provide them with an opportunity to engage in research, discussion, and also work to synthesize material so that they come back and share this with their ¨home team¨. Online, the use of chat rooms or live breakout sessions is an excellent way to accomplish this. In addition, as the instructor, you can assign particular roles to most effectively meet the needs of the students in your class. This is a wonderful opportunity to built upon students strengths and areas of interest.
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