Jigsaw - a teaching strategy for the deadpool

I'm a huge fan of Doug Buehl, as evidenced here, and this is his writing on the Jigsaw Strategy.

If you follow his guidelines for this strategy than you will find success in your classroom, no doubt.

However, I rarely have been involved in or have seen this strategy used as nothing more than a quickie way to brainstorm, or have students "teach the class," which is unfortunately not usually the result.

I've been witness to seeing this strategy failing *over* and over and over again. Sadly, I've seen it fail in my own graduate classes most! I have never seen a teacher or professor use this strategy effectively. If you are one of these teachers, than you are very, very special. Teachers often think that "gee - students can teach the class!", so they hand out a reading and break kids up in groups, and have them become "experts" on that chapter, so they can share the high points of that chapter. While I think that putting students in a facilitator roles is a super-important thing to do, which is why I also like the idea of students creating tutorials, don't expect the end user to learn something.

The process of having the student present their chapter or "expertise" in front of everyone is the real benefit in this strategy- it's to the presenter. The process of the facilitator role is where the learning happens, which for this strategy, leaves all of the other groups in the lurch.

Almost every time I see this strategy implemented, it's in a poorly thought out, last minute attempt to get kids (or adults) to disseminate a whole lot more information that they probably can take in at one time.

Maybe this should be added to the teaching "deadpool."  Handle with caution.
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