Name: Think-Pair-Share (TPS)

S. Retalis Online Educa Berlin Workshop: The Theory and Practice of Design for Learning 30 November 2011, Berlin

Context Often people are called to collaboratively solve challenging and open-ended problems and come up with creative solutions. However, these people might be new to collaborative learning & brainstorming. Thus, the teacher should try to promote the feeling that team members need each other to succeed (positive interdependence) foster discussion in order that students view an open-ended problem from various angles give students a chance to formulate answers that will be peer reviewed promote the acquisition of presentation an d communication skills Example "Death Penalty. Yes or no?" Learners discuss the death penalty and the arguments that support it and the arguments against it. After discussion, they write a mock editorial for the local paper in and choose a side of the death penalty to defend by assuming a persona directly related to a scheduled execution. They conduct research on given websites before collaboratively completing their editorials that could be judged during a plenary session. Problem How to help individuals who are new to collaborative creative ideation process, collaborative solve a challenging or open-ended problem Solution Use the learning strategy of Think-Pair-Share which is a collaborative brainstorming strategy. At the start of the learning process the teacher presents a problem that demands a solution. Each learner thinks on his own and records his ideas about the situation. Then the learners are split into groups of two, interchange ideas about the problem and result into a common solution. Finally they present and discuss their conclusions at a plenary session in order to get feedback from their peers. This strategy helps the learners intensively work on producing creative solutions to given problems, share their ideas and justify their position in front of their peers and get/offer feedback. Types of Tasks Each participant has time to think about the question and draft initial thoughts. They pair, discuss their ideas about the question and write down their thoughts as a group. Then, they share/present their ideas at a plenary session. Participants could take a classroom vote. Learners are much more willing to present their ideas in a plenary session after having discussed in a group, since the embarrassment is shared. Also, the group ideas are often more intellectually concise since learners have had a chance to reflect upon their ideas with a peer. The learning process consists of three phases, as shown in the next figure.

Figure. Think-Pair-Sh Flow of Activities [S hare f Source: Hern nandez-Leo e al., 2005] et

According t the TPS st to trategy, a tea acher gives an open ended problem fo investigati and resol n d or ion lution, providing th students w informat he with tion about th learning pr he rocess. First, learners ind , dividually stu online udy resources th the teache has sugges hat er sted, seek an collect inf nd formation in order to form mulate their own o ideas/solutio (1st phas ons se). Then, durin the second phase, students form pa groups. In a pair group learners ex ng d air n p, xchange their ideas, r nd d brainstorm a debate in order to joi and n intly create a group repor At this 2 phase, stud rt. dents are aske to ed evaluate the ideas and reach to a co eir oncensus. They could engage into unstructured brainstormi or use a specific idea evaluation tool such as the d ing as n a "POWER" m model which will help th develop their solutio into somet h hem on thing more ro obust. POWE stands ER for: o Positive - what's go about the idea? es ood e o Objections - what's bad about it? ? o What el lse? - what does it remind you of? d d o Enhanc cements - how can what's good about it be made better? w s b o Remedi - how can the things t ies n that are bad about it be co a orrected? up e among and pr resented to all students w a which are called to give Finally in phase 3, grou reports are circulated a nd vote b . feedback an perhaps v for the best solution. This strateg can be sup gy pported by various elearn v ning platform such as an asynchron ms a nous computer supported d collaborativ environme like a web-forum or a real time mind mapp ve ent w r e ping tool lik the WebIn ke nspiration or r Mindormo o a wiki for collaborativ editing and an online voting system or r ve d v ms.

References s Hernandez-Leo, D., Ase ensio-Perez, J. I. & Dimit triadis, Y. (2 2005).Compu utational repr resentation of o collaborativ learning fl patterns using ims le ve low earning desig Education Technolo & Societ 8 (4), 75gn, nal ogy ty, 89.

An example of the TPS strategy: Designing the learning unit "Punishment: Death Penalty. Yes or no?" Course: Modern Greek Language Grade: Third Grade of Lyceum (students age: 16-17)

Task Write a mock editorial for the local paper in and choose a side of the death penalty to defend by assuming a persona directly related to a scheduled execution Goals/Objectives: Learners acquire knowledge about the death penalty and the arguments that support it and the arguments against it. They develop own opinions and exchange various viewpoints on death penalty. They practice their writing skills by editing a mock editorial for the local paper that deals with a scheduled execution.

Learning Material/Tools Adam Liptak (2007).Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate, NY Times, published on November 18, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/us/18deter.html?pagewanted=all Online newspaper articles about death penalty Concept Questions: o What are the different viewpoints for and against the Death Penalty? o What is the history of the Death Penalty, and what is the current status on the Death Penalty in various countries? o What determines who is killed under the Death penalty? o Do you think the death penalty acts as a deterrent keeps crime at a lower rate? o Both the USA and Saudi Arabia has the death penalty but crime is so much lower in Saudi. Why do you think this is? o Should people who commit crimes against humanity be given the death penalty Editorial evaluation rubric Activities: According to the TPS strategy, the learning process will consist of three phases: Phase 1: Teacher presents the scope, the goal and the overall structure of learning session Learners individually study the learning material Learners are asked to briefly write and upload to a shared workspace their impressions of the articles given by individually writing a paragraph or two on how they would feel about the death penalty. Phase 2: Teacher forms pair groups, presents the concept questions that could help learners to identify different arguments for or against the death penalty Teacher offers some extra learning material and the evaluation rubric of the students assignment (editorial rubric) Learners share their initial ideas and discuss the concept questions Learners collaboratively write an editorial article in a wiki Phase 3: Learners read the editorials of the pair groups Learners vote for or against the death penalty Teacher evaluates the assignments and gives a summary of the learning session

Bibliograph hy Hea Discussion Topic: Th Death Pen avy he nalty, Retriev on Nov. 2011 from U ved URL: http p://www.prin ncipia.edu/us sers/els/stude ents/educatio on/2001fq/da anica/lesson_ _plan_5.htm, Accessed Nov 2011 v. BBC Learning E English Words in the N News (2007). The death penalty, Retri . p rieved on Nov. 2011 from URL: http m p://www.principia.edu/use ers/els/students/education n/2001fq/dan nica/lesson_p plan_5.htm CA ADMOS tool: http:.//cosy.ds.unipi.gr/c : cadmos

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