An Investigation of the Effectiveness of the Jigsaw Cooperative Learning Strategy on Teaching the Industrial Design Process

Nowadays, learning design processes is a prerequisite in teaching design and an indispensable part of training industrial design students. Many distinguished universities around the world teach the design process using cooperative methods, but, despite the significance of the matter, there is a gap concerning the cooperative learning of the design process at Iranian universities. On this basis, the present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of the Jigsaw Cooperative Learning Strategy on the in-depth learning of the design process with traditional methods currently practiced at most Iranian universities. In the present case-control study, the population was made up of art students with no prior training in industrial design processes. The sample included 24 students selected using the cluster sampling technique. The sample was randomly divided into an experimental and control group, each comprising 12 members. The experimental group received four 120m instruction sessions according to the Jigsaw Cooperative Learning Strategy, while the control group was instructed according to commonplace methods of teaching industrial design. The groups were assessed on three occasions (pretest, posttest, and post-hoc analysis) using a researcher-made test so that the obtained information could be implemented to determine the effectiveness of the Jigsaw Cooperative Learning Strategy on learning and retaining the industrial design process. The results obtained through descriptive and inferential statistical procedures showed that there was a significant difference between the Jigsaw Cooperative Learning Strategy and the traditional methods of instruction in terms of learning and retaining the industrial design process. In other words, it was indicated that implementing the Jigsaw method had a significant impact on learning the course more in-depth.