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The Jigsaw Classroom-10 Steps

The Jigsaw Classroom is a cooperative learning technique. It reduces racial conflict, promotes better learning, improves student motivation. Since 1971, thousands of classrooms have used it with great success.

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140 views

The Jigsaw Classroom-10 Steps

The Jigsaw Classroom is a cooperative learning technique. It reduces racial conflict, promotes better learning, improves student motivation. Since 1971, thousands of classrooms have used it with great success.

Uploaded by

api-299089301
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
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The Jigsaw Classroom

12/28/15, 12:02 PM

THE JIGSAW CLASSROOM


The Jigsaw Classroom is a cooperative learning technique that reduces racial conflict among school
children, promotes better learning, improves student motivation, and increases enjoyment of the
learning experience.

OVERVIEW
The jigsaw classroom is a research-based cooperative learning technique invented and developed in the early
1970s by Elliot Aronson and his students at the University of Texas and the University of California. Since 1971,
thousands of classrooms have used jigsaw with great success.

The jigsaw classroom has a fourdecade track record of successfully


reducing racial conflict and increasing
positive educational outcomes such as
improved test performance, reduced
absenteeism, and greater liking for
school.

Just as in a jigsaw puzzle, each piece


each student's part is essential for
the completion and full understanding
of the final product.

If each student's part is essential, then


each student is essential; and that is
precisely what makes this strategy so
eective.

LEARN MORE

(overview)

https://www.jigsaw.org/#steps

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The Jigsaw Classroom

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JIGSAW IN 10 EASY STEPS


The jigsaw classroom is very simple to use. If youre a teacher, just follow these steps:

STEP ONE
Divide students into 5- or 6-person jigsaw groups.
The groups should be diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, race, and ability.

STEP TWO
Appoint one student from each group as the leader.
Initially, this person should be the most mature student in the group.

STEP THREE
Divide the days lesson into 5-6 segments.
For example, if you want history students to learn about Eleanor Roosevelt, you might divide a
short biography of her into stand-alone segments on: (1) Her childhood, (2) Her family life with
Franklin and their children, (3) Her life after Franklin contracted polio, (4) Her work in the White
House as First Lady, and (5) Her life and work after Franklin's death.

STEP FOUR
Assign each student to learn one segment.
Make sure students have direct access only to their own segment.

STEP FIVE
Give students time to read over their segment at least twice and become
familiar with it.
There is no need for them to memorize it.

STEP SIX
Form temporary expert groups by having one student from each jigsaw
group join other students assigned to the same segment.
Give students in these expert groups time to discuss the main points of their segment and to
rehearse the presentations they will make to their jigsaw group.

https://www.jigsaw.org/#steps

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The Jigsaw Classroom

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STEP SEVEN
Bring the students back into their jigsaw groups.

STEP EIGHT
Ask each student to present her or his segment to the group.
Encourage others in the group to ask questions for clarification.

STEP NINE
Float from group to group, observing the process.
If any group is having trouble (e.g., a member is dominating or disruptive), make an appropriate
intervention. Eventually, it's best for the group leader to handle this task. Leaders can be trained
by whispering an instruction on how to intervene, until the leader gets the hang of it.

STEP TEN
At the end of the session, give a quiz on the material.
Students quickly come to realize that these sessions are not just fun and games but really count.

TIPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION


Compared with traditional teaching methods, The jigsaw classroom has several advantages:

Most teachers find jigsaw easy to learn


Most teachers enjoy working with it
It can be used with other teaching strategies
It works even if only used for an hour per day
It is free for the taking
MORE ABOUT
IMPLEMENTATION

https://www.jigsaw.org/#steps

(tips)

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The Jigsaw Classroom

12/28/15, 12:02 PM

ABOUT ELLIOT ARONSON


Elliot Aronson is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of California in Santa Cruz. He has long-standing
research interests in social influence and attitude change, cognitive dissonance, research methodology, and
interpersonal attraction. Professor Aronson's experiments are aimed both at testing theory and at improving
the human condition by influencing people to change dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors.
Professor Aronson received his B.A. from Brandeis
University in 1954, his M.A. from Wesleyan
University in 1956, and his Ph.D. in psychology from
Stanford University in 1959. He has taught at
Harvard University, the University of Minnesota, the
University of Texas, and the University of California.
In 1999, he won the American Psychological
Association's Distinguished Scientific Contribution
Award, making him the only psychologist to have
won APA's highest awards in all three major
academic categories: distinguished writing (1973),
distinguished teaching (1980), and distinguished
research (1999).
MORE ABOUT
ELLIOT ARONSON

(http://aronson.socialpsychology.org/)

HISTORY OF THE JIGSAW


An Account from Professor Aronson:
The jigsaw classroom was first used in 1971 in Austin, Texas. My graduate students and I had invented the
jigsaw strategy that year, as a matter of absolute necessity to help defuse an explosive situation. The city's
schools had recently been desegregated, and because Austin had always been racially segregated, white
youngsters, African-American youngsters, and Hispanic youngsters found themselves in the same
classrooms for the first time.
Within a few weeks, long-standing suspicion, fear, and distrust between groups produced an atmosphere of
turmoil and hostility. Fist-fights erupted in corridors and schoolyards across the city. The school
superintendent called me in to see if we could do anything to help students get along with one another.
After observing what was going on in classrooms for a few days, my students and I concluded that intergroup hostility was being fueled by the competitive environment of the classroom.

https://www.jigsaw.org/#steps

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MORE OF PROFESSOR
ARONSON'S ACCOUNT

(history)

2000-2015, Social Psychology Network (http://www.socialpsychology.org/), all rights reserved.

https://www.jigsaw.org/#steps

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