The Jigsaw Classroom
The typical classroom is filled with competition—exactly the wrong ingredi- ent. Picture the scene. The teacher stands in front of the class and asks a question. Many children wave their hands, each straining to catch the teacher’s eye. Then, as soon as one student is called on, the others groan in frustration. In the compe- tition for the teacher’s approval, they are losers—hardly a scenario suited to pos- itive intergroup contact. To combat this problem in the classroom, Elliot Aronson and his colleagues developed a cooperative learning method called the jigsaw classroom. In newly desegregated public schools in Texas and Califor- nia, they assigned fifth graders to small racially and academically mixed groups. The material to be learned within each group was divided into subtopics, much the way a jigsaw puzzle is broken into pieces. Each student was responsible for learning one piece of the puzzle, after which all members took turns teach- ing their material to one another. In this system, everyone—regardless of race, ability, or self-confidence—needs everyone else if the group as a whole is to succeed.
The method produced impressive results. Compared with children in traditional classes, those in jigsaw classrooms grew to like each other more, liked school more, were less prejudiced, and had higher self-esteem. What’s more, academic test scores improved for minority students and remained the same for white students.
