Think-pair-share

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The following strategy was advocated by KimMarie McGoldrick, a Professor of Economics at the University of Richmond and co-founder of Starting Point: Teaching and Learning Economics. This process requires each student to engage in independent thought, and then to practice explaining and listening with a partner, before sharing her responses with the class as a whole.


1. Ask students a question, or provide them with an involved economic word problem.

2. THINK: Direct students to think independently about the prompt. They should formulate an answer to the question or identify and evaluate the most important information in the word problem.

3. PAIR: Students pair up and take turns presenting their thinking to a partner (e.g. each selects two important pieces of information and explains to the partner why she chose that information). The students discuss and provide feedback to each other.

4. SHARE: Finish by asking students to share their analyses with the class.


Visit Starting Point for more information and examples.