Using Think-Pair-Share to Improve Students’ Performance

What if your Grade 9 Chemistry students sit quietly, copy notes perfectly—but still can’t think or answer confidently?

This action research explored whether Think-Pair-Share (TPS) could improve students’ conceptual understanding, exam performance, and confidence, not just classroom silence and note-taking.

PROBLEM IN
CONTEXT

What the Data Revealed

In a Grade 9 Chemistry classroom at the Liberty Campus, students were frequently passive during lectures, hesitant to speak, and often gave surface-level answers. Despite content being taught, assessment results showed that many students were underperforming, especially in questions that required explanation, reasoning, or evaluative thinking.

Why it Mattered

This gap mattered because Chemistry is not a memorisation subject—it demands concept clarity, logical reasoning, and the ability to justify answers. When students lack confidence and participation, their learning stays shallow and their exam performance suffers. If not addressed, students risk losing interest in science and continuing to struggle in higher grades.

This challenge raised an important question: How can we shift Grade 9 Chemistry students from passive listeners to confident learners who think, discuss, and explain? To explore this systematically, action research tested whether using TPS daily could strengthen both academic performance and evaluative skills in a mixed-ability classroom.

A performance target was established: students would show measurable improvement in post-test scores and increased participation during lessons after TPS implementation.

Research Question

How does active learning through the Think-Pair-Share (TPS) strategy contribute to deeper content mastery and enhanced evaluative skills in Grade 9 Chemistry compared to traditional lecture-based methods?

Objective 01

Improve Academic Performance

To measure whether TPS leads to higher Chemistry achievement by comparing student scores before and after the intervention.

Objective 03

Strengthen Evaluative and Critical Thinking

To assess whether TPS improves students’ ability to reason, justify answers, and respond thoughtfully—especially in long-answer questions

Objective 02

Increase Participation and Confidence

To observe whether structured peer discussion enables shy and low-performing students to speak up and contribute more frequently.

Objective 04

Support Mixed-Ability Learning Through Collaboration

To examine whether peer pairing helps bridge learning gaps and improves understanding through discussion and shared thinking.

INTERVENTION TIMELINE AND ACTIVITIES

Week 1 – Baseline Assessment

  • Pre-test conducted to identify current performance levels

  • Observation notes recorded for confidence, engagement, and participation patterns

Week 2 – TPS Introduction & Modelling

  • TPS explained and demonstrated step-by-step

  • Students practised responding through “Think → Pair → Share” routines

  • Teacher facilitated structured sharing so every learner could speak safely

Week 3 – Daily TPS Implementation

  • TPS used daily (15–20 minutes within a 40-minute period)

  • Sticky Notes Reflection collected at the end of each session

  • Teacher maintained observation logs to track engagement and answer quality

Week 4 – Post-Test & Analysis

  • Post-test conducted to measure academic improvement

  • Student reflections + observation logs reviewed for confidence and thinking growth

FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS

Academic Performance Improved Dramatically

The total class score increased from 129 (pre-test) to 235 (post-test)—showing an overall improvement of approximately 82%, with every student demonstrating progress

Lower-Performing Students Made the Highest Gains

Individual improvements ranged from 61.1% to 108.3%, showing that TPS was particularly effective for students who had previously struggled to engage and perform.

Engagement and Confidence Increased

Qualitative reflections (Sticky Notes) showed students felt more comfortable, enjoyed learning more, and found peer discussion helpful. Teacher observation logs recorded higher participation and stronger quality answers during discussions.

Evaluative Thinking Became Stronger Over Time

The strongest improvement appeared in reasoning-based and long-answer questions, where students began giving more complete explanations and asking deeper questions—indicating growth in analytical and evaluative skills.

If you’re interested to learn more about the intervention, methodology, resources or the results, click on the relevant button below to access the full research report.

Beaconhouse Employees – Open Internal Report with BSS Login
Non-Beaconhouse Users – Access Report by Requesting on Google Forms

Here’s the report podcast if you’re interested.

Victoria Arshad

Teacher

Victoria teaches Grade Nine and Ten Matric Chemistry and General Science. As a reflective researcher, she applies active learning strategies such as Think-Pair-Share to increase participation, confidence, and understanding. By using evidence-based practices, she creates student-centered lessons that strengthen critical thinking and support meaningful learning every day.