1. Br J Educ Psychol. 2007 Dec;77(Pt 4):755-71.
Cooperative learning in third graders' jigsaw groups for mathematics and science
with and without questioning training.
Souvignier E(1), Kronenberger J.
Author information:
(1)University of Frankfurt/M., Institute of Educational Psychology,
Senckenberganlage 15, D-60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
souvignier@paed.psych.uni-frankfurt.de
BACKGROUND: There is much support for using cooperative methods, since important
instructional aspects, such as elaboration of new information, can easily be
realized by methods like 'jigsaw'. However, the impact of providing students with
additional help like a questioning training and potential limitations of the
method concerning the (minimum) age of the students have rarely been
investigated.
AIMS: The study investigated the effects of cooperative methods at elementary
school level. Three conditions of instruction were compared: jigsaw, jigsaw with
a supplementary questioning training and teacher-guided instruction.
SAMPLE: Nine third grade classes from three schools with 208 students
participated in the study. In each school, all the three instructional conditions
were realized in three different classes.
METHODS: All classes studied three units on geometry and one unit on astronomy
using the assigned instructional method. Each learning unit comprised six
lessons. For each unit, an achievement test was administered as pre-test,
post-test and delayed test.
RESULTS: In the math units, no differences between the three conditions could be
detected. In the astronomy unit, students benefited more from teacher-guided
instruction. Differential analyses revealed that 'experts' learned more than
students in teacher-guided instruction, whereas 'novices' were outperformed by
the students in the control classes.
CONCLUSIONS: Even third graders used the jigsaw method with satisfactory learning
results. The modest impact of the questioning training and the low learning gains
of the cooperative classes in the astronomy unit as well as high discrepancies
between learning outcomes of experts and novices show that explicit instruction
of explaining skills in combination with well-structured material are key issues
in using the jigsaw method with younger students.
PMID: 17535507 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]