The Effect of the Jigsaw Learning Method on the Academic Performance of Postgraduate Students in China

Abstract

Education for students majoring in foreign languages at Chinese universities aims to improve the students' language skills rather than their academic competence. Most postgraduate students who specialize in Japanese studies used to be undergraduates who majored in Japanese. Therefore they are used to a 'passive' and 'self-study' learning style, and find it difficult to acquire academic communicative competence based on active and co-operative research attitudes. This paper is a report of experimental practice of the jigsaw learning method, which we used with postgraduate students in China in order to improve their academic performance. We used the jigsaw learning method for academic activities such as reading, discussion, and presentation. We analyzed the students' answers to questionnaires we had them complete after the course. The results of the analysis are as follows: Most of the students were satisfied with the improvement in their academic communicative competence and recognized the importance of co-operative and active research attitudes. Class management issues such as the timetable, the selection of papers for the reading activities, and the teacher's involvement in the students' activities were problematic, but we found the jigsaw learning method to be an effective way to make students aware of the importance of active and co-operative research attitudes.