Jigsaw is a well-known CL technique with many variations. Maybe you and your students can invent more. First, we will describe the basic Jigsaw technique. Later, we will explain two variations.

Step 1: Students are in Home Groups. These heterogeneous groups have four members each. Teachers have information divided into four pieces, like jigsaw puzzle pieces. For example, a Jigsaw lesson on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) can have information about four different career fields (e.g., health care, education, information technology, and business). For each career field, the information students receive could explain professions in that field, salary, working conditions, required qualifications, and what people like and dislike about the field. Each Home Group member receives a different Jigsaw piece: the health care piece, the education piece, the information technology piece, or the business piece. Each member works alone to read and understand their piece. Teachers can help by simplifying the text that appears on the Jigsaw pieces, providing a glossary, or allowing students to read their pieces before class.

Step 2: Students move into Expert Groups composed of members with the same Jigsaw piece. Each Expert Group has about four members. Thus, there may be more than one Expert Group for each piece. The job of the Expert Groups is to understand their piece, make a plan to teach their piece, and check that all the members of their Expert Group can teach their piece to their Home Group members in a set amount of time. Experts should prepare to teach, not read, their pieces to Home Group members. To help with this teaching, experts could prepare a mind map or other visuals to help. Teachers can prepare questions for Expert Groups to help them focus on key points written on their pieces.

Step 3: Students return to their Home Groups. Each Home Group member has a fixed amount of time to present. This can include time for questions by other members of the Home Group, or presenters can ask comprehension and discussion questions.

Step 4: The purpose of this step is for Home Group members to bring together the information from all four Jigsaw pieces. Ways to do this include a quiz on all four pieces or a discussion. On the SDG 10 topic of Decent Work and Economic Growth, perhaps a discussion on which field most interests each Home Group member, and why, could be appropriate.

Reflective Break

If we use Bring Your Own Piece Jigsaw, what can we do to help students find useful information?

Sample Response

Teachers can guide students by providing a list of useful websites or other sources of information. Also, teachers can guide students with lists of questions, for example, to learn about work in the health care field, questions could include: (a) professions in health care; (b) training necessary for each profession and how many years are required to get that training; (c) typical salaries of the various professions in the students’ country; (d) what people in that profession do on a typical day; and how technology is used in that field. Students can also be encouraged to talk to people who work in that field.