kopfmaennchen

A new article of mine is available online: “Das zersägte Klassenzimmer – Ein Gruppenpuzzle-Experiment in Zeiten der Ökonomisierung von Bildungsprozessen”, which is published in Tübinger Beiträge zur Hochschuldidaktik 4,1

In a first step article summarizes the development, usage and evaluation of the Jigsaw-Method. Developed in the 1970ies by Elliot Aronson et al to desegregate classrooms in the US in the aftermath of the Brown vs. Board of Education Case in 1954, this interdependent teamwork-method has become an oftenly and sucessfully used method in education on all levels. In times of economization of education, it can be used 1) to effectively teach the so called soft skills as teamwork and so on; 2) to motivate students to study while researching; 3) to bring together heterogeneous and groups of students from different cultural backgrounds.

The second part of the article describes and evaluates an experimental seminar in political science, I held at the University of Tübingen twice, using the jigsaw method. Quantitative and qualitative Evaluation of the first seminar showed some weaknesses of the seminar, I tried to expunge in the second seminar. For example there, i held two more plenary sessions in the middle of the semester to secure results of group work. Both, students presentations/tests and feedbacks showed a significant increase in quality that seems to be linked with the readjustment of the seminar according to the first evaluation.