Think, Pair, Share

This is a strategy to help students think about different topics, formulate their individual ideas, and then share them with other students. It is a great way to get the whole class involved. It gives students the opportunity to think about their ideas carefully, thereby increasing the quality of their responses. It’s also a way of resolving any misunderstandings and activating students’ prior knowledge. The strategy is effective for both small and big classes.

• Divide students into groups of 4 and number each student from 1-4.
• Announce the topic or problem.
• Allow the students to think about their own answers for 10-15 seconds.
• Use the students’ assigned numbers to put students in each group into pairs; e.g. student 1 and student 3 are a pair.
• Have the pairs of students discuss their ideas.
• Call on students to share their ideas with the rest of the class.