Jigsaw is a classroom activity that involves students working in small groups. You might want to consider using a Jigsaw in learning situations where you wish to integrate multiple pieces of information into group deliberations, such as getting students to practice playing roles in a new process or understanding multiple factors that can shape a group decision.
Why Jigsaw?
Small group activities like the Jigsaw empower students to learn from and teach each other. In the process, such activities can also make space for more student voices and serve as a safe space for students to vet their ideas before speaking up in front of the entire class.
In 1971 social psychologist Elliot Aronson was tasked with addressing the racial turmoil incited by recent school desegregation in Austin, Texas. Eschewing crisis management approaches as superficial, Aronson and his team devised a solution that was embedded in students’ everyday learning. Enter the Jigsaw: an instructional activity which blends individual autonomy with shared responsibility to a group, requiring students to learn from each other instead of an instructor. In a Jigsaw, students cannot succeed on their own so they must learn to work together.
Consequently, a Jigsaw activity bolsters students’ sense of their own autonomy, competence, and motivation as well as their social-emotional learning. The group benefits from a panoply of perspectives and from the collaborative contributions of every member’s skills and knowledge. Not only is students’ learning improved, but also their tolerance and understanding as well as their sense of ownership and belonging.
So what exactly is a Jigsaw?
STEP ONE
Divide the material or lesson into three to six segments. For example, you might partition one text into smaller segments or introduce multiple texts each as their own segment. Prepare a direction sheet to help students to answer questions and gather information on each segment.
STEP TWO
Divide students into three- to six-person Home Groups depending on the size of the class. The groups should be diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, race, and ability. Explain the strategy and the topic of study. Tell students that they are going to be responsible for teaching one segment to their Home Group.
STEP THREE
Assign each student to learn one segment. Form temporary “Expert Groups” by having one student from each Home Group join other students assigned to the same segment. Give students in the Expert Groups time to familiarize themselves with their segment, discuss its main points, complete the direction sheet, and rehearse the presentations they will make to their Jigsaw group.
STEP FOUR
Bring the students back into their Home Groups. Ask each student to present their segment to the group. Encourage others in the group to ask questions. All students are responsible for learning all material.
STEP FIVE
Determine how you’d like students to organize and summarize all the information they’ve learned. For example, you can provide a handout for them to complete, ask them to make a poster to share with the class, and or can also quiz them on the material.
When should I use a Jigsaw activity?
You can use a Jigsaw whenever you wish to bring multiple materials into conversation with each other or when you wish to facilitate meaningful discussion across a wide range of material. This might include:
- Building background knowledge on a unit of study
- E.g., before a unit on rocks in an introductory earth sciences course, you might have expert groups teach their home groups about the igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks
- Studying an author before reading a new text
- E.g., before reading To The Lighthouse in a literature seminar you might have students study different decades in Virginia Woolf’s life and then collaborate in their home groups to piece together a fuller picture
- Encountering different viewpoints on a historical event or discovery
- E.g., in a history course you might have the expert groups read different interpretations (these could be primary or secondary sources) of the of the Conversion of Constantine and then compare and contrast those differences in their home groups
- Highlighting complementary—or divergent—concepts in a unit of study
- E.g., in an anthropology course you might have each expert group introduce their home group to a different ethnographic method of data collection and then discuss with their home groups when one method might be more appropriate than another
- Reviewing different components of a unit of study in preparation for an assessment
- E.g., before an assessment on flow chemistry in an organic chemistry course you might have expert groups each review a different application of continuous flow and then analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each application with their home group
Allocate at least 45 minutes of class time for a Jigsaw. If you want students to have more time in either their Home or Expert Groups, or you plan to assess them via a post-activity quiz, you will need to allocate more time for your Jigsaw. One way you can allocate less in-class time is to assign students their respective Expert material as homework so they can dedicate all of their Expert Group time to discussion with their peers.
For pedagogical support regarding the implementation of a Jigsaw or other classroom activity, please reach out to your Office of Teaching Excellence & Innovation liaison. Another great resource is The Jigsaw Classroom, the official website of the Jigsaw.