Some of the Many Options When Using the Jigsaw Technique

Jigsaw (Aronson, 2025) is a well-known and widely used cooperative learning technique with support from research. Given Jigsaw’s popularity, many variations have arisen, and attention to cooperative learning principles suggests the possibility of further variations. This scoping review looked at 13 studies in the past ten years that used the Jigsaw to facilitate nursing education. The research question was how participants’ use of Jigsaw was organized in these studies and whether variations were used. This general question was organized into nine specific questions. To answer these questions, the 13 research reports were studied. It was found that the basic version of Jigsaw was almost always used with few variations. Based on the cooperative learning literature, the authors suggested that educators might consider variations on Jigsaw in the hope that students can use Jigsaw and other cooperative learning techniques more frequently and successfully. Examples of these variations based on nursing education are given.