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Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
IDP in Educational Technology
Instructor Resources
Resource Think-Pair-Share Activity constructor Version 1.0, Dec 2013
Download from: www.et.iitb.ac.in/resources Released under: Creative Commons-Attribution 4.0 license
Part 1 Plan your TPS activity
1. Choose a topic from your current/next course that has scope for multiple solution approaches, or detailing of an
abstract concept, or some form of open-ended discussion. See Appendix for some examples.
2. Think phase: Write an initial (seed) question on the problem or topic you want to discuss.
Example from cs101: Write the pseudo-code to find the smallest element in an integer array.
Ensure that: (i) The question is broad enough so that most students in your class can write some response. (ii) A
student can think about it and write an individual answer in about 1-3 minutes. (iii) There is a clear deliverable
for the stu
create a server that continuously runs and sends the date and time as soon as a client connects to it.
3. Pair phase: Write a follow-up question, that two students can work on together.
Example from cs101: Identify missing pieces in each others pseudo-code. Together, build on your pseudo-code
and write the C++ code to sort the array, using exchange sort.
Ensure that: (i) The question is connected to the Think phase, i.e., they should use the output of their Think
phase. (ii) Two students are required to answer the Pair question, and should be able to do so in about 5-10
minutes. (iii) There is a clear deliverable for the pair. (iv) The question leads to the discussion that you want to
carry out later.
Create socket() function.
Call the function bind(), accept(),listen()
As soon as server gets a request from client, it prepares the date and time and writes on the client socket
through the descriptor returned by accept().
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4. Share phase: Write a follow-up task that all student pairs should do. Invite a few pairs to share their answer.
Example from cs101: Compare your solution with instructors demo program for exchange sort. Identify points
where your solution is different and share them with the class.
Ensure that: (i) You have anticipated a few likely responses. (ii) Give about 1 minute for each pair to explain their
answer. (iii) Highlight important points (or pros-cons) of each answer. (iv) Invite answers that are conceptually
different from previous ones. (v) Summarize the entire discussion after 12-15 minutes, and move on!
Note: This works even in large classes, since the responses are likely to fall into a few categorie
One participant give idea to use HTTPS. Other participants reefer RESTful web service.
5. Continue further discussion into the topic, as per your plan. If you find that many of the points that you wanted
to convey are already covered, then your TPS activity was a success!
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Part 2 (Optional): Refine your TPS activity
Do either or both of the below:
1. Talk to a colleague who is familiar with your topic or the TPS technique. Get feedback on whether:
(i) the statements that you wrote in Part 1 capture what you want students to do in each phase,
(ii) there is a logical connection between your phases, and
(iii) the timings for each phase are ok.
2. Predict the responses that you will get from students in the share phase. Use the space below to write down
some predictions and later compare them with what actually happens in your class.
Part 3: Implement your TPS activity
Some guidelines for what to do in class when you implement your TPS activity:
1. Dont panic if no activity happens in the first minute. Students will take time to get started.
2. Do encourage students to write their ideas down, especially during the think phase.
3. Do walk around the class during the pair phase, answer relevant queries, encourage students to talk to their
neighbor, and to write down their answers. Keep track of time also.
4. Do discuss a few representative students solutions in the share phase, and then transition into points that you
want to highlight. It is ok if this phase takes 20% more time than you anticipated.
5. Dont expect 100% participation. If 80% of your class is participating, you are doing fine
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Part 4 (Optional): Conduct an education research study
If you are interested in determining the effectiveness of your implementation, beyond informally asking a few students
for their opinion, then contact
[email protected] . Research scholars from the IDP-ET will be happy to work with
you to structure an education research study for your TPS activity.
Further Reading:
1. http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/think/
2. http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/active/strategies/
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Appendix: Examples of Think-Pair-Share activities from CS 101 for specific instructional goals
Instructional
goals
Think Pair Share Example as shown in the slide to students,
Conceptual
understanding
Think Students write down answer the given
question
Pair Students (i) Identify parts of the answer
that they have missed out. (ii) Discuss which
answer is better; do pros-cons analysis if
there are multiple solutions.
Share Instructor discusses (i) What are all
the essential parts in the answer? (ii) Pros-
cons of various solutions given by students
Consider an unsorted array of N elements.
Think: Write the pseudo code for sorting the array
Pair: Discuss your answer with yoru neighbor, do
pros and cons analysis of your algorithms
Share: Follow instructor led discussion of your
solutions and others.
*This led to a discussion of various sorting
algorithms.
Code tracing:
Predict the
output;
Debug/modify
the given code
Think Students determine and write down
the answer.
Pair Students (i) check each others solution
(ii) discuss change in code to get others
solutions
Share Instructor (i) executes the program
and shows the output (ii) discusses a few
modifications based on student answers
Predict the output of the following program:
int a = 1, b = 2, c = 3; int* p, int* q;
p = &a; q = &b; c = *p; p = q; *p = 13;
cout << a << b << c << endl; cout << *p << *q <<
endl;
Think: Draw the memory arrangement and predict.
Pair: Check your neighbors solution. If you dont agree,
discuss and come up with a solution that you both agree
upon.
Share: See demo of above code and modified versions.
*The example for the outcome Debug/modify is similar
Develop
programming
logic for a
problem:
Write
program.
Think Students write down the pseudo-code.
Pair Students (i) identify missing pieces in
each other solutions (ii) write the program.
Share Instructor (i) shows one possible
solution. (ii) Discusses a few representative
student solutions.
Recall your program to reverse a 4 digit number.
Extend your solution to arbitrary integers.
Think: Write the pseudo-code individually.
Pair: Write the C++ code with a partner.
Share: Compare your solution with demo10-
reverseNum-mod1.cpp
Design a
solution:
Write pseudo-
code
Think Students write down the different
parts (structures and functions) of the
solution
Pair Students discuss the pseudo-code for
the functions that are required
Share Instructor discusses a few
representative solutions.
Design a taxi scheduling service for an airport as
follows: (i) When a driver arrives, his ID is entered
in an array (ii) When a customer arrives the
earliest waiting driver is assigned
Think: What structures and variables are required?
Pair: Discuss the pseudo-code for the functions
that are required.
Share: Follow instructor led discussion of your
solutions and others.
Contribute an appendix of TPS activities for your discipline/course, based on the TPS activities that worked in your class.
This will be useful to other instructors who plan to implement TPS. If interested, send mail to
[email protected] End of Resource: Think-Pair-Share Activity constructor
