Enhancing Comprehension and Retention of Vocabulary Concepts through Small-group Discussion: Probing for Connections among Key Terms

Word sort is an active-learning, critical-thinking strategy that involves students in small groups of three or four actively discussing words that have been provided for them by the instructor. The word-sort strategy is actually a three-stage strategy that truly assists with student learning from beginning to end. Students who participated in word sorts reported higher confidence during test taking, and a large majority of students indicated that they enjoyed the word-sorting activity. Moreover, the word sort is just 1 of 30 active-learning and critical-thinking strategies that was implemented into a community college nutrition course over an academic year during a mixed-design research study. Here, Nixon and Fishback talk about the benefits of word-sort to student learning.