Academic performance, prejudice, and the jigsaw classroom: new pieces to the puzzle

✍ Scribed by Iain Walker; Mary Crogan

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 119 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1052-9284
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1298(199811/12)8:6<381::aid-casp457>3.0.co;2-6

✦ Synopsis

This ®eld study investigated the eects of a cooperative learning environment and a Jigsaw classroom environment on academic performance, self-esteem, liking of school, liking of peers, and racial prejudice. The subjects were 103 children in Grades 4±6, in two separate schools. The cooperative learning condition was used as a baseline measure of the eects of cooperation, against which the eects of a Jigsaw method, involving both cooperation and interdependence, were compared. The results reveal that Jigsaw produced signi®cant improvements on measures of academic performance, liking of peers, and racial prejudice. In contrast, the eect of the cooperative condition was to exacerbate pre-existing intergroup tensions. The present ®ndings demonstrate that the Jigsaw method can be applied successfully in Australian conditions, and lend support to Allport's contact hypothesis.