{"id":7615,"date":"2024-05-19T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2024-05-19T13:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=7615"},"modified":"2024-05-16T09:30:56","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T14:30:56","slug":"getting-bossy-about-jigsaws-dont-fence-us-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/getting-bossy-about-jigsaws-dont-fence-us-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Bossy about Jigsaws; “Don’t Fence Us In”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in February, I wrote about the “Jigsaw method<\/a>” of teaching. In this strategy, teachers break a large cognitive topic (say, “the digestive system”) down into small pieces, and assign each piece to a student group.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Those groups become experts in their pieces — the stomach, the pancreas, the large intestine — and then teach other students in the class<\/em> about their pieces. When each individual student assembles those pieces into a whole, they have completed the jigsaw; that is, they have understood the full topic.<\/p>\n

As I wrote at the time, it’s easy to see potential pitfalls and potential benefits to this method.<\/p>\n

When I looked for research on the topic, I found…not much clear guidance either way.<\/p>\n

A friend recommended a meta-analysis boasting a HUGE effect size (cohen’s d = 1.20). This meta-analysis, however…<\/p>\n

… didn’t include many studies (5, plus 6 student dissertations),<\/p>\n

… didn’t appear in a journal that focuses on psychology or education, and<\/p>\n

…\u00a0wasn’t available online.<\/p>\n

I’m pretty stubborn, so I kept looking.<\/p>\n

The best study I could find<\/a>, from 2022, found that the jigsaw method provided no benefit — and also caused no harm.<\/p>\n

So my conclusion was: “we don’t have conclusive research pointing either way, so I don’t have a strong opinion.”<\/p>\n

Since I wrote that post, I’ve gotten some pushback from colleagues I respect — colleagues who, for a number of reasons, think quite highly of the jigsaw method.<\/p>\n

Prompted by their concerns, I’ve gone back over this question and made quite a discovery: the pro-jigsaw meta-analysis IS available online. You can find it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, perhaps it’s time to rethink my opinion from February.<\/p>\n

But First,\u00a0a\u00a0Side Plot<\/h2>\n

Before I explain my new thoughts about this meta-analysis, I want to explain a few core perspectives that I bring to my consulting work, and to this blog.<\/p>\n

In the first place, I’m a very independent person<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I happily seek out new perspectives and new ideas; at the same time, I want to make my own decisions on what to do with those new teaching ideas.<\/p>\n

In brief: don’t fence me in.<\/p>\n

For this reason, in the second place, I’m also very respectful of other people’s independence<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That is: I don’t want some rando on the internet telling me what to do; and, I don’t want to BE a rando on the internet telling YOU what to do.<\/p>\n

Most of my posts include caveats about boundary conditions: “this might have worked in particular classroom circumstances, but they might not work in yours.”<\/p>\n

I hope readers find my perspective worth crediting, but you know your curriculum and your students and your school and your culture better than I do. I’m just not going to get bossy without a very persuasive research pool to draw on.<\/p>\n

In brief, I don’t want to say “you should do this thing” (or, “you shouldn’t do this thing”) unless I’ve checked out lots of research and found it very persuasive.<\/p>\n

I’m not here to fence you in, either.<\/p>\n

Back To Our Narrative<\/h2>\n

So, now that you know my standards, I can explain why finding the meta-analysis has not changed my mind:\u00a0I can’t read it<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And — this will not surprise you, I hope —\u00a0I’m not willing to tell you what to do based on a meta-analysis I can’t read.<\/p>\n

Here’s the reason for my failure: the meta-analysis is in Turkish. Check out that link above.<\/p>\n

Now my point here is easy to misunderstand, so I want to be clear:<\/p>\n

I am NOT saying that journals shouldn’t be published in Turkish.<\/p>\n

I am NOT saying that research published in Turkish journals doesn’t merit attention.<\/p>\n

I AM saying: I can’t read it<\/em>. And I’m not going to boss you around based on a meta-analysis that I can’t read.<\/p>\n

If I could read it, I would have very specific questions: for instance, how on earth did they come up with a Cohen’s\u00a0d of 1.2? A number that high is almost unheard of.<\/p>\n

In fact,\u00a0a stats-wise friend tells me that–for most psychology topics–a d-value of greater than 1.00 means either a) very small studies, b) bad inclusion criteria, or c) correlation (not causation).<\/p>\n

Of course, I\u00a0don’t know that this meta-analysis includes such concerns. And I don’t know that it doesn’t. My only strong opinion about this study is: people who don’t read Turkish (that’s me!) shouldn’t base opinions on it.<\/p>\n

If there’s a\u00a0reliable English translation floating around, I might revise my thoughts again…<\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/h2>\n

I don’t think we have a clear enough research picture to advocate for or against the jigsaw method.<\/p>\n

I suspect it takes an enormous amount of work to get right: so many opportunities for working memory overload! so many chances for distraction!<\/p>\n

But, if it’s working for you in your context, the absence of research support should not get in your way. No fences on this horizon…<\/p>\n

\n

Postscript<\/h2>\n

After I wrote the blog post above, a JUST PUBLISHED study<\/a> appeared in my news feed. I haven’t reviewed it carefully yet (the full text isn’t available), but here are the authors’ three highlights:<\/p>\n

“The Jigsaw method has no effect on students\u2019 autonomous motivation trajectories.<\/p>\n

The Jigsaw method does not impact students\u2019 self-regulation over two years.<\/p>\n

Collaborative methods are less favorable for students with lower prior achievement.”<\/p>\n

This study took place in very specific circumstances — French vocational high schools — and focuses on motivation and self-regulation more than, say, learning. For these reasons, not everyone will find it on-point or persuasive. At the same time, it does include almost 4700 students!<\/p>\n

I’m\u00a0still<\/em> not going to get bossy (although I confess my doubts and concerns are heightened). But I think this study, along with the 2022 study I’ve already summarized, makes it hard to insist that teachers really must jigsaw right now.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Batd\u0131, V. (2014). Jigsaw tekni\u011finin \u00f6\u011frencilerin akademik ba\u015farilarina etkisinin meta-analiz y\u00f6ntemiyle incelenmesi.\u00a0EKEV Akademi Dergisi<\/i>, (58), 699-714.<\/p>\n

Riant, M., de Place, A. L., Bressoux, P., Batruch, A., Bouet, M., Bressan, M., … & Pansu, P. (2024). Does the Jigsaw method improve motivation and self-regulation in vocational high schools?.\u00a0Contemporary Educational Psychology<\/i>, 102278.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in February, I wrote about the “Jigsaw method” of teaching. In this strategy, teachers break a large cognitive topic (say, “the digestive system”) down into small pieces, and assign each piece to a student group. Those groups become experts in their pieces — the stomach, the pancreas, the large intestine — and then teach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":7620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[217],"class_list":["post-7615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-jigsaw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7615","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=7615"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7648,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7615\/revisions\/7648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}