A jigsaw puzzle approach to learning history in introductory psychology

In this article, I describe a method to teach structuralism, functionalism, and gestalt psychology to introductory Psychology students using simple ji gsaw puzzles to illustrate each concept. First, students explore the basic structure of a single piece, after which they uncover its function in relat ion to other pieces. The whole puzzle created from all pieces working toget her completes the exercise. Student performance on test questions related t o these concepts eons better for those who learned using this method compar ed to those who only read the text. Student comments also were favorable.