It is hard to engage students academically. As teachers we can no longer come to class with a lecture style lesson and expect students to be engaged and attentive for the duration. Therefore we must change things up and find ways to reach students that foster effective learning.
Instructional strategies are intentional techniques and tools that help students become more independent learners that can be used at any given time. Using different strategies is a great way to help students become more engaged and ready to learn.
Cooperative learning is a strategy that allows students to collaborate on a common topic. According to Brown and Green (2020), “cooperative learning activities are particularly helpful to low- and middle- achieving learners when the groups consist of heterogeneous combinations of low-, middle-, and high-achieving students” (p. 153). Students who are not confident with themselves as a learner, often have a hard time in class. The types of learning strategies that I am about to discuss can help alleviate the stress of that while building the confidence of said student. It is important for students to know that when working as a group...that we are better together.
Think-Pair-Share(also known as turn and talk) is a type of cooperative learning that allows the teacher to pause and have
students think about a question posed, pair with a classmate, and discuss their perspectives. I use this
strategy a lot in my classroom. It can be used during reading to discuss different characters of a story or
it can be used to discuss how to solve a problem in math. It has endless possibilities within the walls of
the classroom.
The Jigsaw method is another strategy that often gets overlooked. At least it has been by me. It is one that I look forward to bringing back to my classroom this fall. During this method, the teacher assigns a topic for the whole class. Then the students are divided into home groups of three or four. Each student in the group is given a particular piece to learn. They then break into expert groups (a group that has the same topic) to research their part. After the student has researched their piece they return to their home group to teach their expert part to their peers. Jigsaw is a great tool because it allows students who might feel overwhelmed with completing individual assignments to work with others in order to share the workload. It also helps students acclimate to sharing in front of their peers. Septiani et al. (2020) offered “the Jigsaw learning model positively improves students' social attitudes, such as collaboration, self-confidence, discipline, and tolerance”. Students are not only learning material to be successful in the classroom but also learning how to use 21st century skills as well. “Someone who can collaborate can interact well with other people” (Septiani et al. 2020). There will be interactions in life...it is inevitable. These strategies can be used to help students become more effective learners but also help prepare them for the real world interactions.
The strategies mentioned along with many others allow teachers to refocus learning and make it all about the students using their own thoughts and ideas. The Jigsaw and Think-Pair-Share method both encourage independent learning, collaboration, and allows students to focus on areas of strength instead of areas of weakness. Teachers have a main goal and that is to develop more efficient and effective learners. Using various learning strategies can help teachers do just that “creating learning environments and producing activities that carry out instructional goals and objectives are two of the most exciting and challenging aspects of instructional design” (Brown & Green, p. 137).
Erica,
ReplyDeleteThanks for getting the "Ice, Ice, Baby" song stuck in my head!
I really connected with your blog post. I also chose to focus on these two instructional strategies. The use of effective and engaging instructional strategies is important at any level, but I feel like especially at the elementary level. Our students have short attention spans and if they are not actively engaged with new content, they are not going to be able to retain and apply it. I feel like both Think-Pair-Share, and the Jigsaw Method are great strategies for elementary students because of the cooperative learning involved. Cooperative learning promotes teamwork, personal interactions, accountability, social skills, and group reflection (Brown & Green, 2020).
I also like to use Think-Pair-Share daily! I have seen what an impact it has made for my students since implementing this strategy. This strategy gives students an opportunity to first process their thoughts uninterrupted, see/hear different perspectives from a partner, and to clear up misconceptions if needed (Hamdan, 2017). I have seen that students who might usually be reluctant to share their thoughts are more willing and confident after they have had a chance to share their thoughts with a partner.
I also love how you made the point of how important it is to promote collaboration skills in students to prepare them for the future. This is a skill that is increasingly important. Students need to be able to work with other both face-to-face, and in virtual settings.
Thank you for sharing about these strategies!
Valerie
References
Brown, A. H., & Green, T. D. (2020). The essentials of instructional design: Connecting fundamental principles with process and practice (4th ed.). Routledge.
Hamdan, R. K. A. (2017). The effect of (think – pair – share) strategy on the achievement
of third grade student in sciences in the educational district of
Irbid. Journal of Education and Practice, 8(9), 88-95.
Erica,
ReplyDeleteI really like the two instructional strategies that you shared. Think Pair Share is a strategy that I have not used in a while, but need to bring back. Jigsaw is a strategy that I feel like I had used every year up until COVID, but don’t think I used it even one time last year. This feels silly, because I certainly could have found a way with technology to get around the physical aspect of it. That being said, I think the physical activity of moving around the classroom is one of the reasons I like using the jigsaw strategy so much. It gives those students who don’t like to sit still a moment to get up and be active. According to, “A more recent innovation in active learning is adaptive learning which strives to individualize learning for each student” (para 1). So finding ways to incorporate I also like it because it gets the whole class involved but keeps the groups relatively small. According to Brown and Green (2020), “All indications are that cooperative learning works best when groups are kept relatively small (three or four students per group)” (p. 153).
References
Brown, A., & Green, T. D. (2020). The essentials of instructional design: Connecting fundamental principles with process and practice (Fourth). Routledge.
Ludwig, J. (2020, November 30). An experiment in active learning: The effects of teams. International Journal of Educational Methodology. https://eric.ed.gov/?q=team%2Bbuilding%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bclassroom&pr=on&ft=on&id=EJ1297805.