Jigsaw Group Work

Often times, a typical classroom instruction looks like direct instruction. Teachers are the center of the lesson and provide students with the content that they need to know. However, students learn best by doing. The collaborative learning model allows students to work in a social environment with the goal of completing a big project with their group.

In class, Dr. Smirnova asked us to learn about collaborative learning by participating in a collaborative learning Jigsaw activity. Each group member was required to become an expert on their part of collaborative learning. Once we became experts, we were asked to go back to our groups and teach them what we have learned. Each member of the group had to actively participate in order for the group to have a complete understanding of what cooperative learning is. 

This type of learning is student controlled. Though the teacher is overseeing what students are doing, the students determine what they will be learning. Teachers are able to assist in the learning process by providing insights and feedback as they observe the conversations of each group. In class, we were the students and Dr. Smirnova was the teacher. She walked around the classroom as we discussed in our base groups what we learned while searching about our specific part of collaborative learning, Dr. Smirnova made comments and provided feedback to the groups. 

I thought that the way we learned about this learning method was very beneficial. By participating in a collaborative learning experience to learn about collaborative learning, I was able to make connections between what I learned and what we were doing. Rather than learning by being given the information and the answers by the teacher, students go through a process in which they learn by searching for the information.