“I don’t get it!” This common classroom refrain highlights a frequent struggle. Students memorize facts but miss connections. They see pieces but not the whole picture. It’s easy to experience a fragmented view of what’s happening around us. This leads to frustration and disinterest, making it hard to use what we know. It’s easy to get trapped, recognizing individual puzzle pieces but unable to put a complete picture together. This can lead to frustration and disengagement, hindering their ability to apply knowledge in meaningful ways. This blog offers several strategies, no AI or technology needed.
What is Multi-Structural Thinking?
Here’s a vignette to capture the challenge many students face:
Picture Maria, a student grappling with a new concept. “I just don’t understand!” she exclaims, her voice laced with frustration. Her teacher, Mrs. Ramirez, offers a reassuring smile.
“You have all the pieces,” she explains, “but you haven’t quite figured out how they fit together yet.” Mrs. Ramirez then sketches four boxes on a piece of paper, labeling them “Main Idea,” “Details,” “Connections,” and “Summary.”
“Let’s tackle this one box at a time,” she suggests. A flicker of hope sparks in Maria’s eyes as she begins to relax. Maria’s experience exemplifies multi-structural thinking.
Like Maria, students experience thinking like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle they can’t seem to put together. Watching colleagues at work put a jigsaw puzzle, bringing every piece to its home, I identify with students who feel like they just can’t see the whole picture.
Students like Maria have the individual facts but can’t make the next step to see the complete image they form. For example, a student may know about the Boston Tea Party, the Declaration of Independence. What they may not see is how they are connected to the American Revolution. This fragmented view stops them from developing a deeper grasp of historical events and what they mean.
How do we move students from unistructural or multistructural thinking to encompass more perspectives? One way is to guide them towards relational thinking.
Strategies That Work
Relational thinking is the ability to see the connections between ideas and understand the bigger picture. Several high-effect size instructional strategies can help with that. If you read the TCEA blog, you know that there are various phases of learning (e.g. Surface, Deep, and Transfer Learning) that students may be in at any time relevant to what they are studying. Matching a high-effect size instructional strategy appropriate to the phase of learning students are in is key.
A few strategies (updated as of 01/2025) you may want to cultivate in your practice appear below.
Instructional Strategies by Phase of Learning
Surface Learning
- Feedback corrective reinforcement and cues (Effect Size: 0.92)
Providing learners with information about their performance to guide improvement, reinforce success, and clarify next steps. - The Jigsaw Method (Effect Size: 0.92)
Students collaborate in expert groups to master subtopics and teach them to peers, fostering connections between concepts. - Effects of testing (Effect Size: 0.63)
Using tests and quizzes to enhance learning and retention. - Flipped classrooms (Effect Size: 0.58)
Reversing the traditional learning environment by delivering instructional content outside of the classroom. - Direct instruction (Effect Size: 0.56)
A teacher-led approach focusing on clear explanations and modeling foundational skills and concepts, suitable for introducing new topics. - Retrieval Practice/Practice Testing (Effect Size: 0.49)
Actively recalling information from memory to reinforce learning and improve long-term retention.
Deep Learning
- The Jigsaw Method (Effect Size: 0.92)
Students collaborate in expert groups to master subtopics and teach them to peers, fostering connections between concepts. - Constructivist Teaching (Effect Size: 0.90)
Students actively explore ideas and solutions through hands-on activities, fostering deeper understanding. - Feedback timing (Effect Size: 0.89)
Providing learners with insights at the most effective moment in the learning process - Argumentation (Effect Size: 0.86)
Engaging in the process of reasoned debate to deeply explore and understand concepts. - Outlining and Organizing (Effect Size: 0.86)
Structuring information hierarchically using outlines or graphic organizers to identify relationships between ideas.
Transfer Learning
- Self-Reported Grades (Effect Size: 0.96)
A strategy where students assess and predict their own performance or learning outcomes.
This approach encourages self-reflection, goal setting, and self-regulation, fostering deeper engagement and ownership of the learning process. - Mathematics problem solving (Effect Size: 0.88)
Strategies and techniques used to approach and solve math problems - Transfer strategies (Effect Size: 0.75)
Activities that encourage students to apply learned concepts in new situations, emphasizing metacognition. - Problem-Based Learning (Effect Size: 0.53)
A strategy where students work in groups through a problem-based learning scenario and decide what they need to learn to resolve a particular problem or questions. The aim is also to promote critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, and communication skills.
Exploring how each of these strategies can be adapted in your work could take a lifetime. One recommendation is to slowly get comfortable with one strategy from each phase of learning, then work with your students.
Let’s take a look at three of my favorites strategies along with technology you can use (but you don’t have to). Each can lay the groundwork for relational thinking.
Three Strategies for Everyday Use
Strategy #1: The Jigsaw Method
If you are wondering, “Why not pick the Jigsaw Method for surface and deep learning phases?” you are on the right track. The Jigsaw Method, especially the three step jigsaw, works great for both Surface and Deep phases of learning. When I’ve used it with adult learners, I’ve found that learners become experts and advocates for what they have learned in a quick manner.
Grade K-5 Students
To introduce the Jigsaw Method to K-5 students, it might be fun to use a Game Design activity. Here’s one for your consideration:
K-5 Introduction: “Game Creator Teams”
- Home Groups and Game Elements:
- “We’re going to design our own video game! First, we’ll split into Home Groups. Each group will choose a different part of the game to become experts on (characters, levels, story, music, or art).”
- Expert Groups and Becoming Game Designers:
- “Now, let’s form Expert Groups. All the ‘Character Designers’ will meet together, all the ‘Level Designers’ will meet, and so on. Work together to brainstorm and plan the best ideas for your part of the game!”
- Home Groups and Teaching the Team:
- “Time to go back to your Home Groups. Take turns sharing your game element ideas with your group. Work together to combine all the ideas and create a super fun game concept!”
You can follow suggestions in this blog entry for actually constructing the game using what students put together in this initial effort. Follow this same model of shifting students from 1) Home Groups, 2) Expert Groups, and 3) Home Groups with academic topics. Use it until students can do it with minimal guidance. I like to share a jigsaw organizer with students so they have something to write on. Some rely on EduProtocols but I find that the technology gets in the way. You want students engaged by ideas and their thinking, less so by the technology at surface learning.
Grade 6-12 Students
If you are in the grades 6-12, you may want to try this out to introduce students to the Jigsaw Method.
6-12 Introduction: “Pop Culture Showdown”
- Home Teams and Categories:
- “We’re having a Pop Culture Showdown! You’ll start in Home Teams, and each of you will pick a different category to research: (Movies, Music, Social Media Trends, Memes, or Fashion).”
- Expert Groups and Deep Dive:
- “Next, you’ll meet with the Expert Groups—all the ‘Movie Buffs’ together, all the ‘Music Maniacs’ together, etc. Your mission is to become the ultimate expert on your category so you can teach your team all about it.”
- Home Teams and the Showdown:
- “Finally, return to your Home Teams. Take turns presenting your category. After everyone shares, your team will work together to create a final Pop Culture presentation that showcases the most important and interesting things from all the categories!”
What are some other ways you could introduce the Jigsaw Method in your classroom that would work for your students?
Two More Strategies for Deep Learning
You may be thinking, “I can’t use Jigsaw Method ALL the time for Deep Learning. What else is there?” Two of my other favorite strategies include two Deep Learning strategies. I can’t part with Outlining and Organizing and Argumentation. Use these when you want students to develop a deeper conceptual understanding of how facts, perspectives connect in a subject area.
Please find below two blog entries that explore various approaches:
Ok, let’s switch gears from introductory learning opportunities and seeing how learning connects to applying that learning to new situations. Applying what we have learned to new situations involves transfer learning.
Transfer Learning
This final area is one that many educators don’t spend too much time on. John Hattie suggests (source) “that around 90% of classroom teaching and learning focuses on surface knowledge and learning.” At some point, students must make the transition to Deep Learning, and eventually Transfer Learning. It’s when this level of insight is required that tools like John Biggs’ SOLO Taxonomy are helpful.
My go-to strategy for Transfer Learning is Problem-Based Learning. I also see value in schema-based frameworks that involve mathematic problem-solving. Read more about Problem-Based Learning, as well access other resources.
Relational Thinking: Seeing the Big Picture
Relational thinking empowers students to see how individual ideas fit together to form a cohesive whole. They begin to see the completed jigsaw puzzle, understanding the relationships between the pieces. For instance, they can articulate how the Boston Tea Party directly contributed to the Declaration of Independence and the ensuing American Revolution. As Maria works with Mrs. Ramirez, using the four-box strategy, she starts to connect the dots. She progresses from simply listing facts to explaining their significance and interrelationships. This shift marks a crucial step towards deeper learning and critical thinking.
