Active Learning Instructional Strategy: Think-Pair-Share

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Overview and Introduction: The WHAT and WHO

As detailed in the Active Learning: Overview and Introduction Quick Reference Guide, active learning is a term used to describe instructional methods that increase student involvement and engagement in the learning process.  In contrast to traditional instructor-centered delivery, where there is a passive transmission of facts and ideas through lecture, active learning incorporates a variety of instructional strategies that purposefully shift the learning environment to be more student-centered, focused on what the student will be ‘doing’ during the learning process.

Think-Pair-Share is a learning strategy developed by Frank Lyman that allows students the time and structure for thinking about a given topic.  

Think. The instructor poses a question related to the content (ideally the question is challenging and requires higher-level thinking skills of analysis, evaluation, or synthesis).  Students think about the question on their own for a short period of time (usually 1-3 minutes).

Pair. Students partner up with someone seated in close proximity (or small breakout rooms during synchronous meetings) to discuss their solution to their answer and ask questions of their partner.  

Share. Students select the partner who will share a summary of what they discussed with a larger group/whole class.  Students reflect on how the answers presented by others have changed/modified/improved their own original answer and understanding of the concept.  

Think-Pair-Share works well in nearly every type of course, and with all types of learners.  While some accommodations need to be made for the share portion in large courses (tips below in the HOW section), the strategy engages more students actively than most other large-course instructional delivery techniques as it requires that 50% of the students be engaged in actively explaining their ideas during the pair discussion phase. 

*Please note that the Quick-Reference Guide you are reading explains one Active Learning Classroom idea.  For a complete list of strategies, please see the QRG Active Learning Ideas for Instruction.

Implementation and Timing: The WHEN, WHERE, and HOW

There is no ‘right time’ to use Think-Pair-Share.  It can be implemented at the beginning of a course as a way to break the ice and encourage student-to-student interaction, during lecture-style classes as a way to improve student reflection, engagement, and attentiveness, or at the end of the class session to reflect on content mastery.  While there is no right answer to when questions should be included, consider research on human attention span and try to include some type of activity (Think-Pair-Share or others) every 15 minutes or so to break up long segments of lecture and re-engage learners.  It may also be helpful to set the expectation of active participation from the beginning of the course.  Suddenly switching from a lecture-only course to one filled with activities half way through the course may be confusing and frustrating for students.

Think-Pair-Share is a strategy that was developed for in-class instruction; however, it can easily be adapted for use in hybrid or online courses where students are attending synchronously (online at the same time).  Suggestions on how to manage Think-Pair-Share when some students are in person and others are remote, are provided below in the HOW section.  If the course is completely online with students working at their own pace, other strategies such as discussion boards may be a better option. 

Plan for Implementation

    • Start small, begin early, and choose low-risk activities.  Think-Pair-Share is an excellent active learning strategy to implement in courses as it takes very little prep time, is relatively simple and easy to understand (‘low-risk’), and does not require a large amount of classroom time to implement. Students may initially be apprehensive to work in groups, especially if they do not know other students in the class, so consider playing an active role in the first few activities, introducing students, and speaking with students as they work together.  
    • Identify topics/class sessions that would benefit from Think-Pair-Share.  This may include class sessions that have a lot of time spent lecturing or topics that students consistently find challenging. 
    • Write questions or prompts that facilitate discussion. Closed questions (like yes or no) might not support a spirited discussion and it is usually easier to come up with these ahead of time instead of on the spot. You could also integrate these into your presentation, so the questions and instructions are displayed on the board for students to reference.
    • Explain to students why you are incorporating Think-Pair-Share.  You may wish to share with students that these strategies have been shown to improve content comprehension, retention, and metacognitive skills, as well as providing opportunities to practice verbalizing their ideas (a skill useful in their future career) and the chance to interact more with their peers.  

Modification Ideas

Large Classes

The primary value of the activity lies in the pair portion, where students discuss their answers with a peer. In large classes, sharing all answers can be daunting. These strategies should help:

  • Instructors can limit the number of groups sharing or call on specific groups to share their ideas.
  • Walking around during pair discussions helps faculty identify which groups to ask to share, correct any student misconceptions, and highlight good ideas. This approach ensures diverse perspectives are heard and addresses concerns about students sharing incorrect information. 
  • Limiting the share-out portion and number of groups that share saves time and is an effective modification for large classes.
  • Have students share to larger groups, but not the whole class. This will allow the students to hear ideas of additional peers without taking up class time of sharing to the entire class.
  • Have students share to a slack channel, Canvas discussion board prompt, or virtual corkboard like Linoit or Padlet. This option provides the opportunity for all groups to share, but does not take up additional class time for large classes.

Hybrid Courses

Hybrid classes with some students joining via Zoom. Utilize Zoom breakout rooms for the pair and share portions, allowing both in-person and remote students to engage collaboratively.

Flipped classroom hybrid classes (link flipped QRG). Use Think-Pair-Share to review homework content during the in-person class session time. At the beginning of the class, present a thought-provoking question or prompt based on the pre-class materials. Add writing. One modification that you may wish to implement (across modalities) is to have students complete a Think-Write-Pair-Share. This provides students with an opportunity to practice their writing and can help students to solidify their own thoughts before discussing them with a peer.

Online, Asynchronous

Online, asynchronous classes. Assign students to small groups or pairs using a discussion platform like Canvas, Slack, or Padlet. Ensure that each group has its own dedicated space to interact. After the pair discussions, students summarize the key insights from their partner interactions and post these summaries to a larger class discussion board or shared document.

After Class

Reflect – While the class session is still fresh in your mind, reflect on the class session and Think-Pair-Share activity. Did the activity improve student comprehension of the topic? Was it successful in encouraging verbalization of ideas and/or peer-to-peer interactions? What updates or changes can you make to the activity for future classes based on this round of implementation?

Rationale and Research: The WHY

Active learning, rooted in the theory of constructivism, champions the idea that students should actively participate in the learning process, better preparing students for the current workplace environment and encouraging them to develop Entrepreneurial Mindset skills of curiosity, making connections, and creating value in their learning.  

Think-Pair-Share:

    • Engages students more fully in the learning process because they have to do something
    • Results in better retention and higher-level learning because they are involved rather than sitting passively
    • Provides opportunity to practice verbalizing learning first in a pair, then to the larger class

Active learning (in this case Think-Pair-Share) improves student achievement (retention and comprehension) by allowing students opportunity to practice and apply newly acquired skills, reinforces key concepts, builds in metacognition, and provides more frequent and immediate feedback to students on their level of content comprehension. It also creates more opportunities for social and collaborative interaction, two factors which have been shown to be particularly important for underrepresented students in STEM disciplines (Crescente & Lee, 2011).

Additional Resources and References

Interested in learning more?  Here are additional readings on active learning topics as well as citations and links to articles referenced in this document.