{"id":7029,"date":"2023-03-26T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2023-03-26T13:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=7029"},"modified":"2023-03-25T14:23:01","modified_gmt":"2023-03-25T19:23:01","slug":"think-pair-share-does-it-help-if-yes-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/think-pair-share-does-it-help-if-yes-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Think, Pair, Share: Does It Help? If Yes, Why?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On some days, I find myself drawn to esoteric research studies.<\/p>\n

A few months ago, for example, I wrote about the effect of earworms on sleep. (Yes, scholars really do research earworms<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\"TwoToday, I’ve found as straightforwardly practical a study as I’ve seen.<\/p>\n

Teachers everywhere have been encouraged to have students “think, pair, and share.”<\/p>\n

That is:<\/p>\n

I ask my students a question: “what are the metaphors in this poem?”<\/p>\n

We all pause for several seconds, so that students can\u00a0think<\/em> about their individual answers.<\/p>\n

Students then pair up<\/em>: “okay, everyone, chat with the person next to you about your answers.”<\/p>\n

Finally, I ask students to\u00a0share<\/em> their thoughts: “who has spotted a metaphor they want to discuss?”<\/p>\n

Voila: they thought, they paired up, they shared.<\/p>\n

The Bigger Picture<\/h2>\n

In truth, LOTS of classroom strategies have such popular currency that we don’t really think to question them.<\/p>\n

Is it a good idea to have students write answers on the board? (I’ve never thought to ask; after all, ALL teachers have students write on the board.)<\/p>\n

Should I really do those handshake dances at the door? (My colleagues LOVE a good handshake dance<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

College professors everywhere are banning laptops, because handwritten notes are superior. (Aren’t they? Like, obviously<\/a>?)<\/p>\n

In other words, we don’t need to have a research basis for absolutely everything we do in the classroom.<\/p>\n

At the same time, when a scholar does explore my classroom practice in a research-y way, I ought to be at least a little curious about the results. (If you clicked on those links above, you’ll notice that our teacherly instincts might be wrong…)<\/p>\n

So, what happens when researchers turn to “Think, Pair, Share”?<\/p>\n

Will our beloved habit get the research seal of approval? Or, do we need to rethink this standard practice…?<\/p>\n

Worth Checking<\/h2>\n

Researchers in Erfurt, Germany — led by Lukas Mundelsee — undertook a straightforward study<\/a> with 9th graders.<\/p>\n

Researchers introduced students to a topic, and then asked questions.<\/p>\n

In some cases, they just asked students to raise their hands (SHARE only).<\/p>\n

In some cases, students THOUGHT individually, and then SHARED.<\/p>\n

And, of course, they sometimes THOUGHT and PAIRED and SHARED.<\/p>\n

Finally, the researchers measured other useful variables — for instance, how\u00a0shy<\/em> do students report themselves to be?<\/p>\n

So, what do you think Team Mundelsee found?<\/p>\n

Sure enough, “think, pair, share” led to more handraising than “share” alone.<\/p>\n

And, in particular, this strategy helped students who reported higher levels of shyness.<\/p>\n

In other words: researchers got the result that (I suspect) most of us predicted. And, the underlying explanation makes sense.<\/p>\n

If I’m shy, I don’t want to get the answer wrong in public. But if I can pair up to discuss my answer first, then I’m less worried about my potential wrongness.<\/p>\n

Beyond the Research<\/h2>\n

Since “sharing” is under discussion here, I’ll share my own approach to “think, pair, share.”<\/p>\n

When it comes to the final step — “who wants to share with the group” — I myself cold call.<\/p>\n

That is, I don’t ask for someone to volunteer; I call on a student at random.<\/p>\n

Now, I should be clear:<\/p>\n

First<\/strong>: Mundelsee’s research does NOT investigate this approach. He’s looking at voluntary sharing.<\/p>\n

Second<\/strong>: “cold-calling” does generate some controversy. Some folks consider it stress-inducing, even (brace yourself) ‘carceral.’<\/p>\n

Now, I don’t doubt that cold-calling can be done badly. (If pizza can be bad, anything can be bad.)<\/p>\n

But I explain my thinking to my students at the beginning of the year, and they seem to get in the grove fairly easily.<\/p>\n

In this case, I worry that students need a little incentive to\u00a0think<\/em>. After all, if the student knows s\/he has a\u00a0pair<\/em> coming up, then s\/he can simply use the other students’ idea as a share.<\/em><\/p>\n

ESPECIALLY because students have time to test-drive their ideas when they\u00a0pair<\/em>, I think cold-calling should be low stakes enough for them to feel plenty comfortable sharing<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Of course, my classroom climate might not match yours; teachers always adapt and balance to get their teaching strategies just right.<\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/h2>\n

Yes, “think, pair, share” helps students feel comfortable sharing.<\/p>\n

And, yes, it does so by reducing anxiety.<\/p>\n

\n

Hat tip to Alex Quigley<\/a>, who first pointed out this study to me.<\/p>\n

\n

Mundelsee, L., & Jurkowski, S. (2021). Think and pair before share: Effects of collaboration on students’ in-class participation.\u00a0Learning and Individual Differences<\/i>,\u00a088<\/i>, 102015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On some days, I find myself drawn to esoteric research studies. A few months ago, for example, I wrote about the effect of earworms on sleep. (Yes, scholars really do research earworms.) Today, I’ve found as straightforwardly practical a study as I’ve seen. Teachers everywhere have been encouraged to have students “think, pair, and share.” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":7032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-7029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-classroom-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7029"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7035,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7029\/revisions\/7035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}