Jigsaw Activity For Learning About New Methods
This activity aimed to expose students to new methods, learn from each other and generate discussion about the best way to undertake a certain method. We ran this session during the Transdisciplinary International Learning Labs (TILL) foundational course, organized by The Transdisciplinary Education Collaboration for Transformations in Sustainability (TRANSECTS), in October 2022.
The session was in the form of a jigsaw activity, a type of “information gap” activity where each student reads up on a particular topic, becomes an “expert”, and then teaches the rest of the group about that topic.
Prior to the session we allocated students to one of five method groups, and then asked students to read up about their allocated method, using the SES Methods website and handbook as their primary resources. The method groups were:
4. Participatory data collection
During the contact session, the students were then split into groups such that each learner in the new group is from a different method group. They were then each given 3-4 minutes to share their reflections with the other members of their breakout group. We asked for their reflections be based on responses to three questions, namely:
What is the purpose of the method/group of methods you reviewed?
Why might this method/group of methods be useful in Transdisciplinary research?
Are there other methods that might combine well with this one? Why?
We then asked the groups to share feedback about what they learnt from their discussion in plenary.
The feedback from this session showed a few key points. Firstly, this activity made them think through in more detail what the nuances of a method they may be familiar with actually are. For example, many students highlighted they were not actually aware that there was a difference between interviews and surveys as a method. Secondly, the students shared that the questions asked made them reflect on some of the benefits and challenges of implementing methods in the complex social-ecological systems they were expected to work in as part of their course. They got to thinking more carefully about what the outcome of each method might be and what its strengths and weaknesses were. Finally, the students shared that the activity made them want to explore other related methods more widely, as they found out about new methods they were not aware of before the exercise through their explorations of the website and handbook.
Overall this activity allows students to take a more exploratory approach to learning about methods, and pushes them to read about methods outside of their planned research approach. It also pushes them to think more deeply about the overall purpose and intention of the research method prior to implementation.