Think-pair-share is a popular and versatile active learning strategy that should be in every instructor’s toolkit. It provides opportunities for individual reflection, collaboration, and feedback. Provide students with a prompt or question. Give them time on their own to think about it. Ask them to share their responses with a partner. Ask for volunteers to share key takeaways with the class.
Steps
- Provide students with a question or prompt based on their shared experience, e.g., reading, lecture, personal experience, etc. For example: “What is the most important point you took away from the reading for today?”
- Pro Tip! If they know they will be doing this regularly, and they know it factors into their participation grade, it provides an incentive to prepare for class.
- Give students a specific and sufficient amount of time to think about the question. Provide clear expectations for what they should do during this time. E.g., “Sitting quietly, without speaking, spend one minute considering this question. Use this time to refer to your notes on the reading if necessary. Write down your answer and rationale on a piece of paper.”
- After thinking time is up, ask students to pair up and discuss their answers or reactions to the question. You may also want to ask them to share their rationale, where and how they found their answer, why it is relevant, etc.
- Ask for volunteers to share with the class what they discussed with their partner.
- Ask for highlights from the conversation rather than a repetition or summary.
- Facilitate a discussion by asking students to speak to the class, not to you.
- Raise additional questions or point out common themes as they arise.
- Rather than focusing on a correct answer (if there is one) highlight effective reasoning, thought processes, and evidence provided. This can help some students to speak up when they know they will get feedback on their reasoning and not just whether they got the “correct” answer.
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Variations and Additions
- Call it a “Write-Pair-Share” if you want to emphasize they take notes in addition to thinking.
- Provide prompts before class so those who want to can take more time to consider the question. For example: “Here are some questions we will be discussing in class. Please bring your notes with you to class.”
- Instead of asking for volunteers, use a tool like Wheel Decide to pick who will share.
- Think-Pair-Share can be easily combined with Classroom Assessment Techniques such as Process Review, Most Important Point, Muddiest Point, etc.
- Think-Pair-Share can also be combined or elaborated with Liberating Structures like Impromptu Networking and 1-2-4-All.
