Updated: 14 June 2021
Category: Mains
Contributor: Danielle Hinton & Jamie Morris, HEFi

What is it?

The Think-Pair-Share activity encourages active learning by allowing students to think critically independently and within group settings.

This activity could be used at any point of lecture, seminar or workshop in a multitude of different ways. It could be used to assess prior knowledge and check understanding, share different interpretations of a piece of theory, forming a hypothesis or the outcome of an experiment, or as a way to consolidate a shared understanding at the end of session.

Indicative Preparation time: < 15 min
Indicative Cook Time: variable
Difficulty level: Easy
Groups Size: aprox. 3-5 students depending on lecture seating
Learning Type: Discussion

Ingredients

A trigger question, problem or scenario
Pen and paper
For Hybrid: Zoom/Microsoft Teams Breakout Rooms (online), Polling Software (Turning Point, Poll Everywhere, Menti, Zoom Polls)

Method

1. Establish pair partners

2. The facilitator clearly outlines the task (question, problem or scenario), sets expectations and provides the timings for each aspect.

Think  through the problem, scenario, or question individually and silently  [2 mins - longer for more complicated questions]
Pair  with a peer to discuss [4 mins]
Share  their findings, learning, questions with a larger subset or the rest of the class (depending on size) [as time allows]

3. Always provide timings for each element - this will change depending on your lecture learning outcomes and total session time.

Variations

Descriptions and benefits of alternatives to the share - Cooper, K.M., Schinske, J.N. and Tanner, K.D., (2021)

Descriptions and benefits of alternatives to the share

Additional Considerations

You could consider designing around one of your Learning Outcomes for the session as a basis. The design of this will differ depending on the context you use it in ( e.g. face-to-face or online) and the type of question, problem or scenario you use .

If you are delivering the activity on Zoom or Microsoft Teams, you might want to consider using Breakout Rooms . In a face-to-face environment you can either assign students into pairs by working with the person next to them, or being more purposeful and mixing pairs up. Remember to provide students with any necessary handouts or resources they need for the activity. During the ‘Share’ section, you could consider facilitating this as a class discussion, or ask students to populate a resource such as Padlet , to record key findings.

Additional Reading / Information

Agarwal, P. (2018) Think-Pair-Share? Think again! https://www.retrievalpractice.org/strategies/2018/think-pair-share

Cooper, K.M., Schinske, J.N. and Tanner, K.D., 2021. Reconsidering the Share of a Think–Pair–Share: Emerging Limitations, Alternatives, and Opportunities for Research. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 20(1), p.fe1. https://www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/cbe.20-08-0200

Gonzalez, J. (2015) In Praise of Think-Pair-Share, https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/think-pair-share/

The K. Patricia Cross Academy () Think-Pair-Share https://kpcrossacademy.org/techniques/think-pair-share/

Included introductory videos and resources including handout, technique template and sample task prompt stems

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