Think, Pair, Share

Think, Pair, Share

Suitable for Steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 10

Duration

15 to 90 minutes

Material Needed

Writing materials

Group size

Pairs, overall group of 30

Objective

To strengthen learners’ individual ability to communicate and cooperate in mutual learning.

Description

  1. Think, Pair, Share is a collaborative learning method, in which individual learners take up a task, then share their thinking with their partner in a pair to develop it further, and then share their joint thinking with the larger group.
  2. For example, if the task for the learners is “Describe your surrounding reality!”, each learner has to reflect (Think) on his/her own, say for five to ten minutes and jot down their thoughts
  3. They should turn to their partner and present their notes (Pair).
  4. Each pair should review their individual description or agree on a common text.
  5. Next, each pair presents their notes to the whole group (Share).
  6. The teacher can then help to summarize and lead to an improved collaborative final description.
Contribution to Systems Thinking competence

Learners experience how cooperation works and how single elements, insights, facts, or arguments fit into a larger context.=

This general experience may be enhanced by choosing topics that lend themselves to a higher complexity.