The Jigsaw Classroom

The jigsaw classroom is a cooperative learning technique used in school systems around the United States. Its success found in the classroom with student participation has not gone unnoticed and more and more schools have started to use this style of teaching. Just as in a jigsaw puzzle, the jigsaw classroom works the same way. Each student is an important piece to the learning process and assigned a job to help create a final product. Since students’ parts are so essential, each student feels as if they have to accomplish their job or they will let down their classmates. That is what makes this strategy so effective. Also, the jigsaw classroom over the years has been able to successfully reduce racial conflict and increase positive educational …show more content…
It can be applied in the classroom or in the gym, either way it works the same. A class will be split into equal amounts of groups of about five or six people. In those groups, each student is given a task to learn about and master the concept. Eventually after each student has researched their content they take it back to what is called the “expert group”. The expert groups are composed of kids that were given the same subtopic to learn. These groups increase the chance that each report is accurate, correct and the kids will all be learning the same idea. The expert group is also essential for the students who might have had difficulty learning or organizing their part of the assignment, because they receive the help from their classmates and are given time to rehearse with other “experts.” Once the students are all up to speed and on the same page they then return to their original start groups. Each student takes their own turn to present what they have just learned to their group and answer any questions that might be …show more content…
Some of the advantages to jigsaw learning are that it is able to give teachers freedom to circulate around the classroom and observe. The students are the ones who run the show but when teacher assistance is needed, they are ready and available to help. Another advantage is the fact that students teaching other students become a more effective learning tool. They are able to work together and solve any problems within themselves first that might occur. Everyone becomes involved and feels they are important because they depend on one another. All together it provides them with better social skills. No longer can kids just sit there and shy away while a teacher talks to them and tells them how to do something, they go into this knowing that a presentation of their skill they learned will be needed. In fact, no student can succeed completely and receive a good grade unless everyone works well together and as a team, which leads him or her to value one another and learn