In teaching and learning, jigsaw is defined as classroom activity which requires students to connect several pieces of information from their classmates to
understand the material. In this activity, students are required to communicate with their friends and build good group work so they can understand the learning
materials well.
2. Concept of Technique
Etymologically, as stated in Oxford Advance Learners’ Dictionary of Current English technique means a method of doing something expertly.
Meanwhile, Webster II New Riverside University Dictionary defines technique as “the systematic procedure by which a complex or scientific task is accomplished”.
Before discussing further about the definition of technique, it is necessary to differentiate three terms in teaching and learning related with technique that
often confuse people. These three terms is approach, method, and technique. Edward Anthony identifies these three terms as different levels of
conceptualization and organization. It is further described by Richards and Rodgers, approach is the level at which assumptions and beliefs about language
and language learning are specified; method is the level at which theory is put into practice; technique is the level at which classroom procedures are described.
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Techniques must be consistent with a method, and therefore in harmony with an approach as well.
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It can be concluded that technique is implementation that takes place in the classroom, strategy that planned by the teacher to deliver the learning materials to
the students to achieve the learning objective. It can be said that technique is a way of doing classroom activities and procedures which derived from an
application of the principles. The technique itself should be based on the teacher’s assumption about language teaching and learning.
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Jack C. Richards, and Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p. 15.
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Edward M. Anthony, Approach, Method and Technique, 3 April 2014, www.sala.org http:www.sala.org.brindex.phpartigos615-approach-method-and-technique
3. Concept of Jigsaw Technique
Wendy Jolliffe in her book, “Cooperative Learning in the Classroom”, defines Jigsaw technique as a technique in which students are distributed into
groups and each member of a group learns an essential part of a whole of a topic by working with a focus group and then helps the home group to combine the
knowledge to complete the task.
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In Spencer Kagan and Miguel Kagan’s Cooperative Learning, they divide classic cooperative learning method into four types: Jigsaw Designs, Cooperative
Investigations, Mastery Designs, and Learning Together. The first Jigsaw concept was applied by Eliot Aaronson and his associates at the national training labs as
teambuilding activities.
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Essentially, Jigsaw technique is a cooperative learning lesson design that takes the place the place of a lecture. Jigsaw technique is a cooperative learning
technique that requires everyone’s cooperative effort to produce the final product. Just as in a jigsaw puzzle, each piece-each student’s part- is essential for the
production and full understanding of the final product. If each student’s part is essential, then each student is essential. Teacher is not the sole provider of
knowledge because most of the work is done by the students themselves which makes it an efficient way to learn.
There are a lot of variations in the design of Jigsaw technique. One of these variations that the writer tries to use in this research is Within-Team Jigsaw
that was developed by Spencer Kagan and his associates. Unlike the variation of Jigsaw that was developed by Elliott Aaronson and his associates, this variation of
Jigsaw works with existing curriculum. The concept of extrinsic rewards or points as proposed by Jigsaw II is also not included in this variation of Jigsaw. To create
positive interdependence, Kagan Jigsaw relies on highly structuring interaction among students and intrinsically interesting learning tasks.
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Wendy Jolliffe, Cooperative Learning in the Classroom, London: Paul Chapman Publishing, 2007, p. 48.
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Spencer Kagan and Miguel Kagan, Kagan Cooperative Learning, San Clemente: Kagan Publishing, 2009, p. 17.2.
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ibid., p. 17.3.
