Teaching and Learning: The Jigsaw Method

This is an interesting teaching and learning method I stumbled across while reading an article by Jennifer Gonzalez on “In-Class Flipped Teaching” -something I mention because it’s worth looking at if you’re interested in the idea of flipped learning “with a twist”, but by no-means essential for your enjoyment (or otherwise) of this post.

The Jigsaw Method is a teaching tool first developed in the early 1970’s by Professor Elliot Aronson and one of it’s great strengths is it’s simplicity, particularly in terms of:

• understanding the basic principles of the method.

• organising your classroom to employ the method.

• the value of its pedagogic content.

If you’re interested in using the method, the Jigsaw Classroom website outlines the “10 Steps” you need to follow to implement it.

In addition, Jennifer Gonzalez has created a short video explainer that shows you everything (probably) you need to know about setting-up a Jigsaw Classroom.

This is worth watching in addition to reading the “10 Steps” because it adds a couple of bits of very useful information that are worth knowing / considering not included in the 10 Steps document.