Within-Team Jigsaw

In Within-Team Jigsaw, expert learning teams consist of a pair formed within a quad. The partners function as smaller expert learning teams, similar to their larger counterparts formed in Jigsaw. If a group has five members, they can form a pair and a triad. The two sets of partners in each group (quad) work on two distinct parts of a problem-solving “puzzle.”

As in Jigsaw, the two pairs master their part of the material and plan to teach it to the other pair. At the conclusion of the specified work time, the students regroup in their original teams. There they teach one another their portion of the problem. They can be asked to compare and contrast the results and to discuss their implications.

“Within-Team Jigsaw is easier to implement than Jigsaw. Its disadvantage lies in the fact that the "puzzle" can have only two pieces. In Jigsaw, the number of pieces is limited only by the imagination of the instructor and the number of students in the class. Within-Team Jigsaw, however, can be a creative, efficient way to ensure content mastery” (Millis & Cottell, 1998, p. 133).

Millis and Cottell (1998) provide several examples of how instructors use Within-Team Jigsaw.

·        A biochemistry instructor gives a lecture on protein structure. For the Within-Team Jigsaw activity, each pair within a structured-learning team gets a paper diagram of an amino acid and builds a 3-D model of this amino acid. After the instructor checks their models, the team works together to make a peptide bond between the amino acids produced by the two pairs of students. Many groups can then get together to build a larger protein.

·        An accounting instructor lectures on the differences between cash accounting and accrual accounting. She then assigns interlocking problems to pairs within a structured-learning team. One pair calculates net flow from operations while the other pair calculates net income. Students are responsible for calculating the correct figures and for explaining how they accomplished the calculation to their paired teammates. Therefore, the pair work is devoted to two tasks: performing the accurate calculation and devising a teaching strategy.

·        A history professor uses Within-Team Jigsaw by having pairs research the campaign for Northern Africa from the perspectives of Generals Rommel and Montgomery. Prior to their work as expert pairs, the team as a whole must decide on the criteria to be investigated, such as battle objectives, tactics, and outcomes.

Resource:

Millis, B. J., & Cottell, P. G., Jr. (1998). Cooperative Learning for Higher Education Faculty. Phoenix: Oryx Press.

June 2004