Think-Pair-Share

learning through discovery

Purpose

The use of think-pair-share strategies, “are capable of promoting learning through discovery, which eventually leads to the development of higher quality cognitive skills, which in effect enhances problem-solving skills in students” (Oladipupo Bamiro 2015). The technique is designed to engage students in a discourse around a topic, issue, question, or problem. This type of “learning allows students to process new information and, through discussion and peer to peer interaction, assign meaning to what is being learned” (Lujan & DiCarlo, 2006). Adopting this activity into your course design in a face to face setting or even via Canvas is one way to promote student collaboration.

Learning Context

You can Think-PairShare as an activity during a lecture, workshop, tutorial or even as an online learning activity. Providing a quick focused way for students to share ideas this technique can be used to gauge conceptual understanding, crucially analyse information and draw conclusions. You could being this process by asking a question and then giving students time to individually think about their answers. After a short time students can pair up to discuss their answers. This discussion can then be expanded to the whole class as students share their insights and ideas.
The instructor can then use these insights to further consolidate concepts should scholarly reinforcement be required.