Think and pair before share: Effects of collaboration on students' in-class participation

Think-Pair-Share (TPS) is a teaching strategy thought to increase in-class participation, especially with shy students. After thinking for themselves, students talk to their seatmate to exchange their ideas and finally show their willingness to participate in-class by raising their hand. In the present field study, we tested TPS with 393 ninth-grade students against two variations, Think-Share (TS; first think, then raise hand) and Share (S; directly raise hand). Students reported on their shyness, and reported in each condition on their hand raising, state anxiety, and motives for (non-)hand raising. Analyses revealed that TPS led to more hand raising compared to the S condition. Lower levels of hand raising in TS were fully mediated by state anxiety. Shy students reported social evaluative concerns, and they raised their hand less frequently than their non-shy peers but also benefited from TPS. These results indicate the importance of peer collaboration for in-class participation.