Structures

• Taking Turns

  Work in pairs or small groups. Take turns giving one answer to the question.

  2–4 · ± 12 min

• Stand Up & Sit Down

  Participants respond to statements by standing (agree) or staying seated (disagree).

  ± 9 min

• On time

  Everyone gets a timed turn to speak about a topic. Choose the group size and grouping while playing.

  2–4 · ± 12 min

• Interview in Three Rounds

  Interview each other in groups of 4: A↔B and C↔D simultaneously. Then switch and share with the class.

  ± 12 min

• Movement Quiz

  Walk around the classroom, find a partner, ask your question and give feedback. Then change partners!

  ± 12 min

• Numbered Minds

  Everyone gets a number in the group. Write individually, discuss together. Then the facilitator picks a number to explain the answer.

  2–6 · ± 16 min

• Think, Write & Share

  Write individual ideas, compare them in your group and share the combined list with the class.

  2–6 · ± 16 min

• Copy Me

  A makes something and says step by step what A is doing; B sits turned away and copies from the words alone. Then side by side: which instruction was right, which too vague? Next round the roles swap.

  ± 14 min

• Pair Coach

  A solves exercises and thinks aloud. B watches and coaches. Then switch roles!

  ± 16 min

• Written Thoughts

  On an open question everyone writes ideas: one per slip, said out loud and put in the middle, until the time is up. Then the group sorts the pile: what belongs together, and what is that group called?

  ± 19 min

• Inner & Outer Circle

  Two circles facing each other. Short conversation with your partner. Then the outer circle rotates to a new partner.

  ± 13 min

• Pomodoro: get to work

  Focused work in blocks: quietly on one task until the time is up, then a real break, and again.

  Alone · Pair · Group · ± 40 min

• One by one

  Independent work through a series of questions or tasks: the whole class on the same item, and a look back together at the end.

  Alone · Pair · Group · ± 14 min

• Shuffle & Pick

  Groups of 4 with a card deck: A holds the cards in a fan, B draws one and reads the question out loud, C answers, D checks and coaches. After every rotation the roles move along.

  ± 15 min

• Flashcards

  Participants create question cards and practise in pairs by asking and answering each other's questions.

  ± 15 min

• Read and Ask

  In pairs: A reads a passage aloud, B listens without reading along. Then A asks one question about the text; B answers and A checks in the text. Right: a compliment. Wrong: A points to the place. The next passage is read by B.

  ± 11 min

• 1 goes, 3 stay

  Teams of four work out the same assignment. Then each round one member visits another team while the three who stay host their visitor. Back home, it all comes together.

  ± 20 min

• Jigsaw

  The learning material is divided into 2–6 parts. Each team member becomes an expert in one part, shares that knowledge in an expert group, and returns to their home group.

  ± 40 min

• Gallery Walk

  Every team lays its work on the table and picks a keeper who stays with it. The rest go on tour past the other tables and give feedback on the questions on the screen; the keeper writes it down. Back at the table the keeper reports, and the team reflects.

  ± 30 min

• Placemat

  Each participant writes their answer individually, shares it and together finds a consensus.

  ± 13 min

• Four Corners

  Participants choose a corner that matches their answer to a statement. They move, exchange thoughts and can change corners if persuaded.

  ± 13 min

• Knowledge Quiz

  A question on the screen; every team confers and writes its answer on the whiteboard sheet. All boards up at once, then the answer, with a point for every team that had it. The scoreboard on the screen keeps count.

  ± 8 min

• Which approach?

  Students sort mixed problems by the approach each one needs, without solving them. Pairs turn that into recognition rules, and the class puts one rule per type on the board.

  ± 16 min

• Design thinking in miniature

  Teams run the whole design cycle in one lesson: they ask a client from the next team what it must do, write requirements, build from card and paper, let the client test it and improve one thing.

  ± 35 min

• Predict – Observe – Explain

  Students first write down what a demonstration will do, and why. After comparing in pairs and putting the predictions on the board, the class watches in silence and a drawn pair explains the outcome.

  ± 17 min

• Error hunt

  A worked solution with one error is on the board. Everyone writes the number of the wrong line and why, the pair compares, and after the reveal whoever got it right explains it to someone who missed it.

  ± 14 min

• Five Whys: root cause analysis

  Root cause analysis: find the underlying cause of a problem by asking 'why?' five times in pairs. A Toyota technique.

  Team

  ± 11 min

• Daily Scrum

  The project team stands in a circle and, in turn, everyone gets one minute for three questions: what have I done, what am I going to do now, where am I stuck? From Scrum.

  Team

  ± 7 min

• Snowball (1-2-4-All)

  Start individually, combine in pairs, merge in groups of four, and so build shared insight step by step.

  Team

  ± 18 min

• Nine Whys: shared purpose

  In pairs, discover the deeper shared purpose behind your collective effort. A Liberating Structure.

  Team

  ± 17 min

• Conversation Café

  A calm, reflective conversation in a small fixed group (4–8) with a talking stone, for a complex or sensitive topic. A Liberating Structure.

  Team

  ± 35 min

• World Café

  A large conversation across many tables: after each round you move on and cross-pollinate ideas, then harvest common patterns together. Related to Liberating Structures. Developed by Juanita Brown & David Isaacs.

  Team

  ± 45 min

• The worst plan

  Flip it around: imagine how you'd ruin your goal, look in the mirror, and stop one thing. A playful reverse brainstorm. Making Space with TRIZ, a Liberating Structure.

  Team

  Alone · Pair · Group · ± 19 min

• Trio advice

  Peer advice in groups of 3–5: one brings a real situation, the others think out loud as consultants. A Liberating Structure (Troika Consulting).

  Team

  ± 35 min

• What, So What, Now What

  Debrief a shared experience with three questions: what happened, what does it mean, and what do we do now? Alone first, then in groups, then with the class, where anyone who has the same shouts “Bingo!”. What, So What, Now What, a Liberating Structure.

  Team

  ± 30 min

• Team Treasure Hunt

  One problem the whole team shares, seven questions, and the answer is often already at the table. In groups of five to seven, everyone tells what they already do that works, and who manages despite everything. The conversation ends in actions with a name. Based on Discovery and Action Dialogue, a Liberating Structure.

  Team

  ± 85 min

• Incident Method

  An 8-step intervision technique where one participant brings a work situation and the group searches for insights together.

  Team

  ± 40 min

• Gossip Method

  A 5-step intervision technique where the group openly discusses the case presenter while they listen.

  Team

  ± 35 min

• Socratic conversation

  A 7-step intervision technique based on cardinal virtues: the presenter describes a situation up to the hot point, and the group explores the essence together.

  Team

  ± 45 min

• Dominant Ideas

  A 7-step intervision technique: the group together looks for dominant ideas in the presenter's situation and formulates alternatives.

  Team

  ± 40 min

• Case clinic

  A 7-step peer consultation method without a single piece of advice: the group says not what it thinks of the case, but what the presenter's story stirs in them: an image, a feeling, a gesture.

  Team

  ± 50 min

• Carousel

  One storyteller tells about something from their own life. Then the circle takes one move each, in turn: ask a question, sum up the facts, sum up the feelings, look at it differently. Every move ends with the storyteller, the others listen in silence. A training in effective communication: listening, asking and summing up without judging.

  Team

  ± 25 min

• A pause in class

  A rest moment on the board. The animation does the work.

  whole class · 2 min

• Your own structure

  The one structure whose steps you write yourself. You line up your own items, choose how long each is worked on and talked about, and the screen keeps the class on the same point. In every other structure you set the content, the times and the words. In this one you also set the order.

  You write the steps

  ± 30 min

A structure is a fixed way to put a class to work: who does what, in which order, for how long. All of them are here: cooperative learning structures, peer consultation methods and short routines for the lesson opener, a check or the close.

Search by subject, lesson phase or time, open the structure on the board and start: steps, roles and timer are ready, with no account and no preparation at home.

New here? Read our guide on cooperative learning. For teacher teams: peer consultation methods.