CIRTL Class Meeting 7: Jigsaw and Peer Instruction

The College Classroom – Spring 2015
Class Meeting 7: Jigsaw & Peer Instruction
Dave Gross
dgross@
biochem.umass.edu
Thursday, March 12, 2015
1:00-2:30p ET, 12:00-1:30p CT, 11:00a-12:30p MT, 10:00-11:30a PT
Peter Newbury
pnewbury@ucsd.edu
@polarisdotca

Objectives for Today
Peer Instruction - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu2
By the end of today’s session you will be able to
 explain to a colleague the “choreography” of jigsaw
activities and peer instruction
 identify how jigsaw activities and peer instruction
support active, collaborative/cooperative learning
 evaluate the quality of a peer instruction question
 “flip” a traditional lecture to create time for peer
instruction in class

The “Jigsaw”
3 Peer Instruction - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu
 With permanent teams, it can be useful to alter the
team dynamic from time to time
 A technique to do that while providing a learning
activity is the jigsaw
 In essence, the teams rearrange themselves to become
expert in one area, and then reform to bring their
expertise together

The “Jigsaw”
 With permanent teams, it can be useful to alter the
team dynamic from time to time
 A technique to do that while providing a learning
activity is the jigsaw
 In essence, the teams rearrange themselves to become
expert in one area, and then reform to bring their
expertise together

The “Jigsaw”
1
2
4
3
1
2
3
2
4
3
4
1
3
4
1
4
1
2
3

The “Jigsaw”
1
2
4
3
1
2
3
2
4
3
4
1 3
4
1
4
1
2
3

Let’s do a jigsaw
 Go to your home team rooms
 Start counting with the team room number
 Next person adds one
 And so on until you get to 7. Start over at 1.
 Then we’ll reassemble and you will go to the team
room that you have counted.
 Come back here when you have your Jigsaw room
number.
 This should take only 30 sec or so.

Course: “The National Parks”
Go to your Jigsaw rooms and become experts on different
national parks (below). Some things you might search are given
at right.Your Jigsaw team might want to divide up the task and
then reserve 3 minutes to share data (and write it down).
 Room 1: Gates of the Arctic
 Room 2: Isle Royal
 Room 3: Great Sand Dunes
 Room 4: Mammoth Cave
 Room 5:Wind Cave
 Room 6: DryTortugas
o What state?
o When created?
o Who created?
o Size?
o How many visitors annually?
o Primary attraction?
o Average temperature?
Spend 7 minutes to gather your data, then
we’ll return to the main room at t = 8 min

Course: “The National Parks”
Now go to your home team rooms and write a question
that our class on “The National Parks” might have on its
next exam.Your question should exploit the newly gained
expertise of the current team members.
Aim high, Bloom’s-wise.
We’ll come back to the main
room to report out at t = 8 min

Peer
Instruction
Peer Instruction - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu10 Illustration by Peter Newbury adapted from “Tree Roots
Logo” ©Embe2006 on dreamstime.com (Royalty Free)

active learning
cooperative
learning
peer
instruction

What the best college teachers do[1]
More than anything else, the best teachers try to create a
natural critical learning environment: natural
because students encounter skills, habits, attitudes, and
information they are trying to learn embedded in questions
and tasks they find fascinating – authentic tasks that arouse
curiosity and become intrinsically interesting, critical
because students learn to think critically, to reason from
evidence, to examine the quality of their reasoning using a
variety of intellectual standards, to make improvements
while thinking, and to ask probing and insightful questions
about the thinking of other people.

In natural critical learning environments
students encounter safe yet challenging conditions in
which they can try, fail, receive feedback, and try again
without facing a summative evaluation.[1]
fail
receive
feedback
try
Illustration by Peter Newbury. Based on “What the
best college teachers do” (Bain, 2004). CC-BY-AS

Four Seasons –Wikimedia Commons CC-BY-AS

Reasons for Seasons (“Astro 101”)
How many of these are reasons for the seasons?
 the height of the Sun in the sky during the day
 Earth’s distance from the Sun
 how many hours the Sun is up each day
A) only one
B) two
C) all three

Typical Episode of Peer Instruction
1. Instructor poses a conceptually-challenging
multiple-choice question.
2. Students think about question on their own and vote
using clickers, colored ABCD cards, smartphones,…
3. The instructor asks students to turn to their neighbors
and “convince them you’re right.”
4. After that conversation, students may vote again.
5. The instructor leads a class-wide discussion concluding
with why the right answer(s) is right and the wrong
answers are wrong.

Peer instruction is successful when
 students teach each other while
they may still hold or remember
their novice preconceptions
 students discuss the concepts in their
own (novice) language

students practice
how to think,
communicate
like experts

 each student finds out what s/he does (not) know
 the instructor finds out what the students (do not)
know and reacts, building on their initial understanding
and preconceptions.
students practice
how to think,
communicate
like experts

Peer
Instruction

Effective peer instruction requires
 students be prepared to engage in conceptually-
challenging discussions
 TIME! 5 minutes of student-centered
activity every 10 – 15 minutes
means 25% of class time is
not lecturing.

not lecturing.
But I’ve got
material to fill
(more than)
100% of my
lecture!

not lecturing.
Where does that time come from?
But I’ve got
material to fill
(more than)
100% of my
lecture!
reduce course content by 25%?

A Traditional Class
24
The first time you see a concept is during class. If you
don’t grasp a concept, there is very little opportunity for
feedback from experts or peers (before it’s too late.)
First
Exposure
Lecture Textbook
Read Hard Stuff
Homework
See if You
Know Hard Stuff
Exam
Show Knowledge
Mastery
Peer Instruction - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu

The Flipped Classroom
25
You learn the basics before class so when you get there,
your instructor can work on the hard stuff.You’re prepared
to engage and learn.You can give expert feedback to your
peers.
Pre-Class
Preparation
First Exposure:
With resources and
Feedback
Exam
Show Knowledge
Mastery
Q
U
I
Z
Active Learning
Learn Hard Stuff:
With teacher and
discussion
Homework
Practice
Knowledge
Mastery

How do you decide what’s “easy” and
what’s “hard”?
Easy stuff Hard stuff
 the textbook describes
it as good as, or better
than, you can
 review
 introductory example,
problem, or case in
textbook used to
introduce definitions,
notation, etc.
 concepts that make
you stop and think
 concepts you remember
struggling with
 the great material that
you’re excited to share
with the class
 developing reasoning,
sense-making skills

PowerPoint slides from last year…
1 2 3

easy hard

material students will cover in pre-class
tasks: text, video, sample problems,…
material you’ll explore together in class

Pre-class tasks
Your students may not know how to read a textbook in
your discipline. Give them some guidance.
“ Please read pages 28 thru 40. Here are the kinds of questions
you should be able to answer: [sample reading quiz questions]”

Pre-class tasks
Your students may not know how to read a textbook in
your discipline. Give them some guidance.
“ Please read pages 28 to 40. Pay particular attention to the
definitions in Sec 2.1.Work through Example 4. Look closely at
the graph in Fig 5 and, if necessary, remind yourself about
logarithmic scaling. Skip Sec. 1.4 – we won’t cover it.”

Reading quiz
Begin the next class with a reading quiz based on the pre-
reading: what concepts MUST they know to be prepared
for today’s class?

Reading quiz
Begin the next class with a reading quiz based on the pre-
reading: what concepts MUST they know to be prepared
for today’s class?
Even better, run the quiz online
• close quiz at midnight (or at least 2 hours before class)
• include text box for “What did you find most confusing?”
• look at students’ responses before class
• adjust your opening slides if students missed concepts or
have common confusion (just-in-time teaching JITT)

Where are the “hard” slides hard?
 concepts that make you stop and think
 concepts you remember struggling with
 the great material that you’re excited to share with the class
 developing reasoning, sense-making skills

Where are the “hard” slides hard?
  
   
 

Use PI to spark expert-like thinking
36
  
  


 PI PI
PI
PI
Insert a peer instruction question
 before a difficult concept, to refresh the concepts in the
students’ minds, activate misconceptions
 in the middle of a difficult section, to check if students are
following, can anticipate next steps
 after a hard concept to assess if the students got it

Peer
Instruction

Peer
Instruction
technology
talk to your local
education tech staff
Illustration by Peter Newbury adapted from “Tree Roots

clarity Students waste no effort trying to figure out what’s
being asked.
context Is this topic currently being covered in class?
learning
outcome
Does the question make students do the right things
to demonstrate they grasp the concept?
distractors What do the “wrong” answers tell you about
students’ thinking?
difficulty Is the question too easy? too hard?
stimulates
thoughtful
discussion
Will the question engage the students and spark
thoughtful discussions?Are there openings for you
to continue the discussion?
What makes a good question?
Peer Instruction - collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu39 (Adapted from Stephanie Chasteen, CU Boulder)

 clarity  context  learning outcome  distractors
 difficulty  stimulates thoughtful discussion

Sample Questions
Breakout rooms have sample peer instruction questions,
often one good one and one not-so-good one.
When you enter a breakout room,
 find the differences between the questions,
 decide which one is better, and
 identify which characteristics make the question better.
Please go to a breakout room
in a subject you’re familiar with.
(5 minute discussion)

Peer
Instruction

Getting student buy-in
 you must tell students why you’re using peer
instruction and how they should to participate
http://youtu.be/NGx7EzDQ-lY (CU Boulder)
 use participation points (“you’ll receive full credit if
you answer 80% of the questions”)
 don’t assign points for getting the right answer (this
inhibits students from thinking on their own, removes
goal of low-stakes practice)
 make peer instruction valuable (for example, practice
for homework/exam questions.)

Peer
Instruction
in-class protocol for
running peer instruction
look for resources on
the class blog
Illustration by Peter Newbury adapted from “Tree Roots

Next week:
“They’re not dumb, they’re different”
 Being aware of the diversity of your students
 what issues could arise in class
 what you should do to design your course to be inclusive,
supportive, and welcoming to all students
Watch for email about what you’ll need to do to prepare.

References
1. Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers do. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.

1. identifying key concepts, misconceptions
2. creating multiple-choice questions that
require deeper thinking and learning
before
class

3. facilitating episodes of peer instruction that
spark and support expert-like discussion
4. leading a class-wide discussion to clarify
the concept, resolve the misconception
before
class
during
class

3. facilitating episodes of peer instruction that
spark and support expert-like discussion
4. leading a class-wide discussion to clarify
the concept, resolve the misconception
5. reflecting on the question: note curious
things you overheard, how they voted, etc. so
next year’s peer instruction will be better
before
class
during
class
after
class

CIRTL Class Meeting 7: Jigsaw and Peer Instruction

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