Safety: Integrating the Jigsaw Activity to Facilitate Peer-Peer Teaching
Another idea on how to make Health & Safety Abroad more engaging for students (go to Health & Safety: Creating Engaging Case Studies to Teach Students)!
I encourage international education professionals to think of creative ways to integrate classroom activities to enhance their presentations. This post describes how to integrate the Jigsaw Activity into your work, and how I specifically used it to teach our Health & Safety unit for study abroad prior to students’ departure.
Key Features of the Jigsaw Activity
Class Size
Chunks
The Jigsaw Activity is ideal for small to medium-sized groups (less than 30 students).
In the Jigsaw Activity, large amounts of information are broken down into manageable chunks.
Accountability
During Jigsaw, students become the “expert” on their assigned chunk of information
Peer Support
During Jigsaw, students review their understanding with fellow students with the same chunk.
Collaboration
During Jigsaw, each student expert meets with other students to teach their chunk so that everyone understands the full scope of material.
Jigsaw Activity Benefits
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Make the most complex and driest information easier to digest.
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Students are more engaged by having to learn and teach the information themselves.
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Students are encouraged to collaborate, which offers valuable interaction during a pre-departure orientation or similar programs.
Stage 1: Preparation
Step 1: Identify Topics
Review your office’s past pre-departure orientation and collaborate with your health and safety team to identify key information to share with students. Break this information into distinct topics (or "chunks") for the activity:
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Medications & Immunizations
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International SOS
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Chubb Insurance
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Common Incidents Abroad
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Alcohol Abroad
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Global Security Risks
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Clothing
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Emergency Action Plan
Step 2: Write a “Script”
Work with your health and safety team to create a script detailing what they would say about each topic. This will serve as the foundation for the next steps.
Step 3: Annotate Script – Generate Questions
As you review the script for each topic, highlight key words or facts. Develop guided questions that align with these highlights—these questions will guide students’ learning. Use a mix of:
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Comprehensive questions: Answers can be found directly in the resources.
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Open-ended questions: Encourage brainstorming and deeper thinking about the topic.
Try to narrow down to 3-5 questions that you think best align with the objectives of each topic.
Step 4: Create “Resources” for Student Investigation
Provide engaging, concise resources for students to use during their investigation. Avoid overwhelming them with lengthy scripts. Instead, consider using various visuals (screenshots of charts, diagrams, etc.), real-world news headlines, or short introductory paragraphs from the script.
For example, on the topic of using medications abroad, I selected the following resources:
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Short intro paragraph from script
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Screenshot of news headline about American tourist being arrested for bringing adderall into Japan
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Diagram of what to do / not do when packing medication abroad
Stage 2: Facilitating Activity
Setup:
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Divide students into groups based on the number of topics (ex: Since I had 8 topics, I would divide students by 8 groups).
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Prepare resource packets for each group containing the relevant materials and questions for their topic (ex: Topic #1 has an envelope of relevant materials and is given to Group 1)
Step 1: Explain instructions clearly.
Begin by capturing students’ attention. Emphasize that this won’t be a typical lecture—they will actively become the experts on the topics covered (so this isn’t a time to just zone out or get on their phones!). Clearly outline the structure of the activity.
Step 2: Investigation (5 minutes)
Step back and observe your students opening up their resource pack and working together to learn about the topic. If they need support, be ready as a resource, but give them the space to take ownership of their learning.
Step 3: Student experts teach class
After the investigation stage is over, reconvene as a class and ask one of the groups to share their findings by answering the guided questions aloud.
Step 4: Review, Fill in Gaps, Ask Questions
Now it’s your time to ensure students have the information clear! Validate what they got correct, fill in gaps, add on extra useful tips, create room to answer questions, and move to the next topic.
By following these steps, you can effectively implement the Jigsaw Activity to create dynamic, interactive sessions that engage participants and foster meaningful learning.
View My Resource Packet
Review the script for facilitation and the resources that students looked at for this activity here.