What is a think-pair-share activity?
Think-Pair-Share is an activity which can be used in teaching to encourage students to talk, collaborate with fellow students and present ideas (Mundelsee & Jurkowski, 2021).
- Think – students are set a question for them to think about, they can make notes, sketch ideas or just think in silence.
- Pair – students discuss their ideas with another student pooling ideas and knowledge.
- Share – students present their ideas to the rest of the group.
Why use think-pair-share?
- This is an activity which requires very few resources.
- The activity can be used in both large and small group teaching, although in a large lecture theatre not every pair will have the time to share.
- It is a good activity to get students to know one another and can be used as an ice-breaker activity.
- It enables quieter students to have a voice and participate in activities.
Tool/Software option
If conducting this activity online, breakout rooms can be used in Teams to allow students to complete the ‘pair’ part of the activity before bringing them back to the whole class. Pairs can be randomly assigned to breakout rooms enabling different pairings throughout the session.
Practical tips and considerations
- Identify a topic you want students to think about and share their ideas.
- Formulate a clear question or statement to direct the students and a clear timeframe. This could be a quick 2 minute “think” or a longer 5-10 minute writing activity.
- Set a time for discussion for the initial pairing and any changes in pairs.
- Set a time for pairs to feed back to the group.
- Plan slides, follow-up discussion or follow-up activity e.g. decide on whether students are to work just in pairs, bring pairs together to make larger groups.
Tips for accessibility and inclusion
- Giving learners the opportunity to discuss as a pair encourages discussion away from the pressure of the whole class.
- Extend thinking time if this helps learners to formulate items for discussion if necessary.
Software
Approach
Approach
Further Information
References
Mundelsee, L., & Jurkowski, S. (2021). Think and pair before share: Effects of collaboration on students’ in-class participation. Learning and Individual Differences, 88, 102015. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2021.102015
Think-Pair-Share Variations: 16 Ways to Up Your Game (Edutopia) – https://www.edutopia.org/article/think-pair-share-variations-16-ways-up-your-game