Jigsaw is a great method for encouraging collaboration and cooperative learning, student led and centered learning.  Jigsaws require a significant amount of preparation on the part of the teacher, and in my middle and secondary social studies methods courses, I explain several ways that jigsaws can be used in 4-12 social studies.  I give my undergrad and grad students examples that I used as a classroom teacher, and I also walk them through the process of preparing the jigsaw.  Then we discuss some other potential uses of the method.  Like any method, jigsaws can be overused, and I find them more useful as a culminating activity for the end of a lesson, or as an introductory activity at the beginning of a unit.  I also find it useful for the methods students to brainstorm uses for the jigsaw in a discussion, because it allows students to hear other creative ways to approach social studies material in a group activity with k-12 students.

I have used this technique with educational robotics many times in K-12 education.  It is adaptable to a number of formal and informal learning situations, but depends on the attitudes  and philosophical perspectives of the teacher.  The projects students are working on tend to contain multiple elements and we have different goals sometimes dictated by different circumstances.  

In an activity called Spacecraft rescue teams of 6 students had to use use a robot to rescue a "crashed spacecraft".  The task involved students building structures, designing and making attachments to the robot (to carry the spacecraft) and programming and navigating the spacecraft to safety,  This was set in a business setting which meant their was a cost to everything the team did.  They set up a project manager, and team members were assigned different tasks.  Part f this involved students learning about structures.  Team members from each group responsible for structures met for special training which they then took back to their team.  You can see the results of this on the  link below.

A second project called Robotic Performing Arts you can see in my research paper and on the pod cast link listed below.  The pod cast contains video interviews with teachers and students.  This project has been done in an after school setting and in as part of a 12 week curriculum effort.

http://roamerrobot.tumblr.com/post/27181743875/spacecraft-rescue

http://research.roamer-educational-robot.com/2010/08/16/robotics-performing-arts-project/

http://podcast.roamer-educational-robot.com/2014/02/03/robotic-performing-arts/

 In small group work and cooperative learning, student learn best when they are actively involved in the process, the strategy is to assign students to reading groups with varying skill levels. Each group member is responsible to evolve as an  "expert" in one section of the assigned material and "teach" it to other members of the team. 

Workflow - Technology & Tools

HTML, ASP.NET, MS SQL DB, C#, Web host

Jigsaw is a great method for encouraging collaboration and cooperative learning, student led and centered learning.  Jigsaws require a significant amount of preparation on the part of the teacher, and in my middle and secondary social studies methods courses, I explain several ways that jigsaws can be used in 4-12 social studies.  I give my undergrad and grad students examples that I used as a classroom teacher, and I also walk them through the process of preparing the jigsaw.  Then we discuss some other potential uses of the method.  Like any method, jigsaws can be overused, and I find them more useful as a culminating activity for the end of a lesson, or as an introductory activity at the beginning of a unit.  I also find it useful for the methods students to brainstorm uses for the jigsaw in a discussion, because it allows students to hear other creative ways to approach social studies material in a group activity with k-12 students.

Our focus has been on confirming and also adapting jigsaw to be more effective, especially it is rather expensive time wise to have both the experts meet and then the heterogenous teams meet, team work eats up class time, so unless the activity involves course topics that are really critical/important and cross cutting or at least have extensive course topic coverage, then maybe it is less preferred. First, on end-of-unit exams, the experts score high on the area where they were an expert but not on the non-expert areas, you learn what you study most and then teach to someone. So everyone leaves with potential content holes (the less studied pieces of content). Second, about a fourth of student self-report that they dislike group work, and the data indicates that those are the students who tend to free load as much as possible, so not all students contributed or benefitted equally based on individual characteristics. The interdependence created does lead some individuals to be more willing to consider the needs of others, in our samples, about 20% will do this. Oh, these are college freshman in IST and sophomores in communications. Some heterogenous teams function rally well, most are average, but a few are dysfunctional in various ways. Students strongly tend to share common information pieces, and this is good and bad, in this case common information includes the headings and subheadings (text topic structure) of the course readings and also their underlying content misconceptions. Also the linearity of the course readings strongly influences the team discussion and the team artifacts.

Sent from my iPad

Hello

in one  of our nursing conferences a study on jigsaw puzzle method used on arab nursing students  was presented. study abstract was published(lakshmi R 2011). Some tips on use of this method from the abstract is here for you. Hope it helps.

10 steps Jig saw Puzzle ( Elliot Aronson 2010)

1. Elliot Aronson (2010) Jigsaw classroom-Cooperative Learning, Retrieved from

Retrieved from the World Wide Web, www.jigsaw.org/overview.htm

Step I: Divide the students into 5-6 person Jigsaw groups. (The group should be divided in terms of gender, race and ability)

Step II: Appoint one student from each group as the Leader. Initially this person should be the most mature person in the group.

Step III: Divide the day’s lesson into 5-6 segments.

Step IV: Assign each student to learn one segment, making sure students have direct access only to their own segment.

Step V: 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 VI: Form temporary “expert groups” by having one student from each Jig saw group join 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 Jig saw group.

Step VII: Bring the student back into their Jigsaw groups.

Step VIII: Ask each student to present her or his segment to the group. Encourage others in the group to ask questions for clarification.

StepIX: Float from group to froup observing the process. If any group is having trouble (e.g. A member is dominating or disruptive) make an appointment intervention. Group leader will handle this task.

StepX: At the end of the session give a quiz on the material so that the students quickly come to realize that these sessions are not just fun and games but really count.

I have had tremendous success using the Jigsaw technique throughout our Doctor of Physical Therapy Program. As a collective, we have used the Jigsaw in learning new content; case based application, integration, and problem solving; unit reviews. I have also used this strategy at a professional conference to help other professionals learn about Classroom Assessment Techniques.  It has always been well received. On key point to remember is to check for understanding and/or summarize key points at the conclusion of the session to ensure all students walk away achieving the stated goals for the session. I love this technique!

I have used this (Jig Saw) technique for an IT Organization Leadership development programme, to make them be aware of People oriented programme on FIRST priority then on the technology front.

I have used this technique on some trainings with adults and I think it is very useful and successful. I believe that it can be used also with young pupil you just need to be more creative with the young ones.

Majlinda - why do you believe you need to more creative with young children.  And in what way do you need to be more creative.

For example instead of reading if they still can't read they can look at the picture and tell the others what the story tells or other ideas like this...

Jigsaw is acceptable to all ages for learning. Putting things in place keeping the Big picture in mind is always a good test for memory. Adults take it serious to contribute in this learning session.

What you refer to as the jigsaw puzzle model reminds me of the old Harvard Model (from what I can recall) where each member in a set or group becomes a subject matter expert on particular aspects and then reports the information they have accumulated to the group in the form of discussions.

At Keiser University we use a "jigsaw puzzle" method for learning material. In our case we break up the major work into seemingly unrelated events based upon our current research interests.and after several weeks we build a final project based upon our research with the materials based upon whatever the overall research topic we are studying is covered. For instance, my last class was in Qualitative research methods and the assignments did not make much sense to me by themselves as I am more oriented towards quantitative research. Upon the conclusion of several weeks the materials we were studying was joined into a research proposal project based upon our individual interests which was classifiable as Qualitative in nature. 

The true advantage with the model we use at Keiser University is we are able to envelop a topic from multiple approaches inter-mixed with deep discussions to come to a better understanding than if we just read the book and was given some general instructions for a final project. In my opinion this building block method has been most beneficial for me due to severe memory issues.

I have used a range of cooperative and collaborative learning strategies in my online classrooms using the Blackboard Collaborate platform. I think the jigsaw strategy is highlyg effective but would come after I had used some of the strategies that are not so reliant upon each person being very responsible and professional.

The key issue would be the building of identity and trust amongst the group just like in a 'normal' face to face classroom. We have found that we need to invest a lot of time in 1. teaching the sharing tools (writing, text, drawing, emoticons, voting ...), teaching, 2. practising how to move into and out of breakout rooms, 3. using icebreakers to get people to know each other and also time for them to know us. Exactly the same as the face to face class but sometimes we forget this online and try to get into the 'content' as quick as we can. The old saying 'you reap what you sow' is very true.

Our research has really identified that the online students value the interaction with each other. Another thing the students identified was they can't hide in the online class anymore. They have to be involved and not lurk.

A colleague of mine has used jigsaw with his online class for students wanting to become Guidance Counsellors. Expert groups curated information on certain therapies and created an overview of key aspects etc. All students then had access to the different documents/blogs/wikis and then they wrote individual assignments where they applied the information in a counselling situation/scenario. Feedback from his class was very positive. Access to the knowledfge of the whole class was very useful in this way as you were not reliant on just one member of your class but the whole expert group.

"e jig saw " is not as simple as a child's game, it requires a lot of Concentration and understanding of the bigger picture.

I use structure cooperative by spencer kagan in teaching biology with my preservice teacher in semester 1. I like the structure because its content free and engaging my students also enhance the process of learning. The structures I already used are One stray, Numbered Heads Together, Find Someone Who, Talking Chips, Roundtable, Roundrobin,  Pair Check, and Jots Thought. These are simple structures of cooperative which is in my opinion should implement first before using  jigsaw which is more complicated and the students/participants need to be used to it how to maximize learning in a way of cooperative learning.  

I am using e-jigsaw in adult learners as preparation for the final project (written research report evaluation). Each group becomes an expert on evaluating one section of a report, then they create an educational video for the other groups. To ensure knowledge from each group is shared, they individually peer-review the videos. I have also added roles for each group member to assist with collaboration and even workloads.

One cannot evaluate a report - Maybe this is just a shortcut. One can evaluate a report FOR someone or for a purpose other than assignment. And you do this with students creating ed videos for the other groups. The same should apply to the idea of evaluating a report for the purpose of ??