Using the Jigsaw Method for Exam Reviews in the Introductory Statistics Classroom

Abstract

When I took a graduate course in College Teaching, I learned the jigsaw method. The jigsaw is a cooperative learning technique where students work together in a "home" group on a specific task and then are placed into "jigsaw" groups made up of one member from each home group. For example, if there are 25 students in the class, 5 students would be assigned to each of the A, B, C, D, E home groups, and each jigsaw group would each one member from A, B, C, D, and E. While in the jigsaw groups, the students teach each other what they learned in their home groups. I recall bringing the idea back with me to our elementary statistics course where it has been used successfully since 1996. Recently a graduate teaching assistant (GTA) suggested to other GTAs that this might be good in our introductory statistics course, and the activity has been adopted successfully . As structured, the jigsaw can be used in an exam review in statistics by assigning students to, say, 5 exercises that they need to master before they go to their jigsaw groups to teach others about their exercise. During this webinar, I will present how the jigsaw is done and address questions like: How do you budget your time for this class activity? How do you know that students are teaching the correct answer? How do you know that students are not just furiously writing down answers instead of listening to understand the concept? Can this work for you? By the end of the webinar, hopefully you will be as intrigued as I was to learn about the jigsaw method and will want to try it in your classroom.