The Jigsaw Method was developed by an American social psychologist in 1971 to avoid conflict situations and increase cooperation by strengthening relationships among students. The essence of the method is that the learning content is divided (like a jigsaw puzzle) into as many parts as there are members in each base group (so-called jigsaw group). Students first collaborate in “expert groups” to master their assigned section. Then, they return to their original teams to teach their peers, ensuring the complete lesson comes together through shared knowledge.

Skill focus

Primary Skill Focus

• Connectedness

Complementary/Secondary Skill Focus

• Valuing people and nature
• Empathy

Age group	Student number	Duration
6-10 years old students	Whole class in small groups (3-4-5-6-7-8 students in a group based on their age characteristics)	15-25 minutes

Proposed step by step implementation of the learning activity

Each student receives a “piece of the mosaic” (a fragment of the lesson’s content, information, a task related to the lesson, etc.), which they first work on and learn together with the other students who received the same piece (in a so-called expert group). Afterward, the “experts” return to their own mosaic groups and teach their specific section to their peers. The complete big picture (the curriculum) only comes together when everyone contributes their own specific knowledge to the group. The main rule: no one can master the entire material without the active help of the others.

1. Preparation: The teacher divides the lesson material assigned for that day into 3–4–5–6 parts (depending on group size) and assigns the material to groups A, B, C, D, E, and F.
2. Forming mosaic groups: The students are divided into heterogeneous groups of a given size (max. 4 students for 6-year-olds, max. 8 students for 10-year-olds). Each student is assigned a letter/colour. We assign a section of the curriculum to each letter/colour so that every mosaic group has one person responsible for a given subtopic. This way, each mosaic group can cover the entire lesson material for the day with the cooperation of its members. It is important that each student has access only to the material relevant to their own topic.
3. Each student reads and processes the subtopic assigned to them.

4. Working in expert group: Once this is done (Step 3), students temporarily leave the mosaic group and form so-called expert groups, meaning those with the same letter/colour sit at a new table (all “A”s at one table, all “B”s at another, etc.). Together, they discuss their own topic or the lesson segment, and based on their shared knowledge, they structure the “lesson segment” and figure out how they will teach/share it with the others.
5. Back to the mosaic group: Each student returns to their original mosaic group. Students report on their own subtopics to the other members of the mosaic group. The other members may ask clarifying questions to ensure they fully understand the given section of the lesson material. 
6. The teacher observes the work of the mosaic groups and intervenes if necessary. It is even better if the student leading the mosaic group can handle the situation independently.
7. Group task: The group receives a task that they can only solve by combining the various pieces of information.
8. Testing of all students’ knowledge of the material. This is what gives the mosaic group activity its stakes and what makes students really interested in engaging meaningfully and paying attention to their peers.