jigsaw large classroom teaching for medical students: an active learning strategy for studying pathology: a quasi-experimental study

Background & objective: teaching was primarily didactic and teacher-centered in ancient india. medical educators have emphasized the need for active learning strategies to engage the students in large classroom teaching. an extensive literature search revealed only minimal publications on the large classroom jigsaw method. hence, this study was done to introduce and incorporate the jigsaw method as a technique for large classroom teaching and learning in pathology. further, it was done to assess its effectiveness in a large classroom setting and see how students perceived this method.materials & methods: a quasi-experimental study without control groups (one group pretest-posttest design) was conducted for 141 mbbs ii phase students in a large classroom jigsaw activity from 2023-24. a didactic lecture was taken prior. a pre-test was taken, and the topics for subgroups, study material, and questions were intimated in advance. on the day of the jigsaw activity, students from each group were randomly selected to explain the subtopic to the whole class. finally, two students were made to summarize. post-test and feedback were taken, and their validity and reliability were approved. the data was analyzed using descriptive and analytical tests with spss version 20 at a significance level of p<0.05.results: the mean marks scored in the post-test was 14.57 ± 3.20 compared to 11.1 ± 3.50 in the pre-test for 20 marks. 89.3% of students scored 50% and above in the post-test. there was a significant performance improvement (p < 0.001). in the feedback, 78.7% of students agreed they would like to participate in similar interactive sessions. the highest satisfaction index, 86.73, was for in-depth coverage of topics.conclusion: the jigsaw large classroom teaching strategy promotes extensive coverage of topics in a short period and can be used as a tool for revision and knowledge retention in collaborative learning.