Jigsaw Classroom

The Jigsaw learning method is easy for teachers to learn and easy to implement. You put the children in groups of five or six and have a child from each group learn about a specific dimension of what the lesson is about that day. All the children who are learning about the same specific idea can discuss ideas and share their knowledge for the others to take back to their jigsaw groups. They then go back to their jigsaw group and teach the rest of the group what they learned. After each group member has gone around and taught the other students what they learned you can quiz them on the material.
The problems of domination, boredom, competition or a slower learner can all be resolved without embarrassment or argument with this technique. For example, the teacher can assign a leader for each group, and no one can speak unless the leader gives them permission. The leader could be alternated each session giving everyone a chance to be in charge rather than the louder more outgoing children.
Also, each child would be teaching a group of children what they learned. Reversing the role of learner to teacher gives them an excitement and experience in the role. Also, teaching is one of the most effective ways of learning, and it will give students incentive to learn as much as possible to pass on to the other students.
A problem of the jigsaw method could be holes in the learning. If a student only researches a specific area and is not involved, or ignores the other students when they are teaching they have not learned the big picture of an event but just a small portion, and considering the subject completed, the teacher never goes back to it, leaving a large hole in the child's understanding of the material. Also, with classes where there are very few students this method is essentially pointless.



Citations:

http://www.illinoisloop.org/jigsaw.html

http://www.jigsaw.org/tips.htm