The document describes the Think Pair Share learning strategy. It involves students thinking individually, then discussing in pairs, and finally sharing as a group. For a problem on the death penalty: 1) Students first read about it individually and write their initial thoughts. 2) They are paired up to discuss different arguments for and against it, and collaboratively write a mock editorial. 3) Finally, they share their editorials with the class, vote on their stance, and the teacher evaluates and concludes the lesson. The strategy aims to develop creative problem-solving, sharing of ideas, and receiving feedback from peers.

1. Think Pair Share
Learning Strategy

2. Learning Context & Problem
 Often students are called to collaboratively solve
challenging and open-ended problems and come up with
creative solutions.
 However, they might be new to collaborative learning &
brainstorming. Thus, the teacher should try to
 foster discussion in order that students’ view an open-ended
problem from various angles
 promote the feeling that team members need each other to
succeed (positive interdependence)
 give students a chance to formulate answers that will be peer
reviewed
 promote the acquisition of presentation an d communication skills

3. The “Think Pair Share” Solution
 Use the learning strategy of “Think-Pair-Share” (TPS) which is a
collaborative brainstorming strategy.
 At the start of the learning process the teacher presents a problem
that demands a solution. Each learner thinks on his own and records
his ideas about the situation.
 Then the learners are split into groups of two, interchange ideas
about the problem and result into a common solution.
 Finally they present and discuss their conclusions at a plenary
session in order to get feedback from their peers.
 This strategy helps the learners intensively work on producing
creative solutions to given problems, share their ideas and justify
their position in front of their peers and get/offer feedback.

4. Think-Pair-Share Flow of Activities
Group members could use the "POWER" model for evaluating their ideas thus reaching
to a consensus:
• Positives - what's good about the idea?
• Objections - what's bad about it?
• What else? - what does it remind you of?
• Enhancements - how can what's good about it be made better?
• Remedies - how can the things that are bad about it be corrected?
Hernandez-Leo, D., Asensio-Perez, J. I. & Dimitriadis, Y. (2005).Computational representation of collaborative learning
flow patterns using ims learning design, Educational Technology & Society, 8 (4), 75-89.

5. An example of the TPS strategy:
"Punishment: Death Penalty. Yes or no?
 Course: Modern Greek Language
 Grade: Third Grade of Lyceum (students’ age: 16-17)
 Task: Write a mock editorial for the local paper in and choose a side of the death penalty
to defend by assuming a persona directly related to a scheduled execution
 Goals/Objectives: Learners acquire knowledge about the death penalty and the
arguments that support it and the arguments against it. They develop own opinions and
exchange various viewpoints on death penalty. They practice their writing skills by editing
a mock editorial for the local paper that deals with a scheduled execution.
 Learning Material/Tools
 Online newspaper articles about death penalty
 Concept Questions: e.g.
 What are the different viewpoints for and against the Death Penalty?
 What determines who is killed under the Death penalty?
 Do you think the death penalty acts as a deterrent keeps crime at a lower rate?
 Both the USA and Saudi Arabia has the death penalty but crime is so much lower in Saudi. Why
is that?
 Should people who commit crimes against humanity be given the death penalty
 Editorial evaluation rubric

6. An example of the TPS strategy: Flow of
activities
 Phase 1:
 Teacher presents the scope, the goal and the overall structure of learning session
 Learners individually study the learning material
 Learners are asked to briefly write and upload to a shared workspace their impressions
of the articles given by individually writing a paragraph or two on how they would feel
about the death penalty.
 Phase 2:
 Teacher forms pair groups, presents the concept questions that could help learners to
identify different arguments for or against the death penalty
 Teacher offers some extra learning material and the evaluation rubric of the students’
assignment (editorial rubric)
 Learners share their initial ideas and discuss the concept questions
 Learners collaboratively write an editorial article in a wiki
 Phase 3:
 Learners read the editorials of the pair groups
 Learners vote for or against the death penalty
 Teacher evaluates the assignments and gives a summary of the learning session