The first time I heard about Kagan Cooperative Learning, I wasn’t even looking for a new teaching method. I was conducting a research project on Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA), which was later published in The Korean TESOL Journal, when I interviewed a fellow teacher. During our conversation, they casually mentioned using Kagan Teaching Methods, and how they'd transformed her classes.
I didn't know it them, but that moment would go on to change everything for me as a teacher. It stuck in my mind, and curious, later I started researching Kagan Teaching and what it was. That's when I came across Quiz-Quiz-Trade and soon uncovered the entire world of Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures. What began as a investigation into reducing student anxiety turned into a complete transformation of my approach to EFL teaching.
What Are Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures?:
Kagan Cooperative Learning is a research-based instructional approach designed to increase student engagement, collaboration, and active learning (Kagan & Kagan, 2009). Unlike traditional group work, where stronger students often dominate discussions, Kagan structures ensure equal participation and accountability (Gillies, 2016).
These structures provide clear, step-by-step formats that guide student interaction, ensuring that every learner actively contributes. Instead of passive learning, students engage in structured collaboration, which helps develop higher-order thinking, social skills, and language fluency (Slavin, 1995).
Benefits of Kagan Cooperative Learning:
The benefits of Kagan Cooperative learning have been proved to be many, with thousands of research paper and mountains of data supporting a wide range of poisitive outcomes for students. It maximises student engagement, with everyone participating instead of just a few students. Kagan Structures reduces student anxiety, with Low-stakes, interactive tasks helping learners build confidence (Horwitz, 2001). It encourages peer-to-peer learning, and students teaching and learning from each other, and this reinforcing their understanding. And it's particularly suited to EFL and language teaching as Kagan Methods support language development, with speaking and listening practice occuring naturally (Gibbons, 2006).
It essentially shifts the classroom dynamic from teacher-centered to student-centered tuition, and so Kagan Cooperative Learning ensures that learning is interactive, meaningful, memorable, and fun. In short - it's much more engaging for students.
What Is Quiz-Quiz-Trade?:
Quiz-Quiz-Trade is one of the simplest, yet most powerful Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures. It’s an interactive peer-learning activity where students quiz each other using question cards. When I first came across it, what I liked so much was that it's a whole class activity, with learners getting to practice their reading, speaking, and listenig skills in one simple activity. So everyone gets a lot done in a short amount of time. Here's how it works:
- Students pair up and quiz each other using question cards.
- Student A asks Student B the question on their card.
- Student B answers.
- Student A listens to the answer and offer support if needed.
- Student B then asks the question on their card and the process repeats.
- When both students have asked their questions they trade cards and find a new partner.
It's great to see how it instantly changes your lessons. The classroom in immediately energised with everyone up and out of their seat, moving around and - most importantly - TALKING! Something which, if you're anything like I used to be, I'm sure many of you fellow EFL ESL teachers sometimes struggle getting your learners to do!
The Qui-Quiz-Trade structure instantly increases engagement, movement, and peer interaction, making learning active instead of passive. It also lowers anxiety, which was my initial reason for looking into it, since students practice in a non-threatening, low-stakes environment (Kagan, 1994). Research shows that peer interaction and movement-based learning improve knowledge retention and reduce cognitive overload (Sweller, 1988; Cohen, 1994).
Why Quiz-Quiz-Trade Is the Perfect Entry to Kagan Strategies:
Looking back, I realise Quiz-Quiz-Trade was the perfect first step into Kagan Cooperative Learning. for me. It was easy to implement with only a set of question cards needed. Like all Kagan structures it's flexible and independent of anu curriculum, so it works for any subject or age group. It was engaging for the students, increasing active participation without putting students on the spot. And it was scalable, so later I learned to combine it with other Kagan structures, like Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up.
Research supports active, interactive learning strategies like QQT because they promote peer engagement, real-time feedback, and multiple practice opportunities, all of which improve retention (Kagan, 1994; Cohen, 1994).
After seeing instant engagement and reduced anxiety in my students, I knew I had to explore more Kagan teaching strategies. Over time, I incorporated structures like Timed Pair Share, Rally Robin, and Jigsaw, transforming my classroom into an interactive, student-centered learning environment.
How Kagan Teaching Reduces Foreign Language Anxiety:
One of my biggest motivations for adopting Kagan structures was to reduce Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA). Studies show that students learning a second language often experience stress, fear of making mistakes, and lack of confidence (Horwitz, 2001; Young, 1991).
• Lowering the affective filter – Kagan structures create a supportive learning environment, reducing pressure and increasing willingness to speak (Krashen, 1982).
• Encouraging repeated practice – Structures like Quiz-Quiz-Trade provide multiple opportunities to speak and interact, helping students build fluency (Gibbons, 2006).
• Balancing participation – Unlike open-class speaking, structured pair or group work gives all students equal talking time, reducing anxiety (Slavin, 1995).
This shift in classroom interaction is why I believe every language teacher should try to implement Kagan strategies in their EFL or ESL lessons.
Learning From Dr. Spencer Kagan Himself:
My passion for Kagan Cooperative Learning grew over the years, and I started using more collaborative structures in my lessons. Many years later, I was even invited to a two-day training course by Dr. Spencer Kagan himself. It was a career-defining experience that reinforced everything I had discovered on my own teaching journey.
Dr. Kagan explained that his structures are designed to ensure 100% student participation, shifting classrooms from passive learning to active engagement (Kagan & Kagan, 2009). After experiencing the training firsthand, I became even more committed to sharing these strategies with other teachers. And so here we are today...
Try Quiz-Quiz-Trade in Your Classroom:
If you’re new to Kagan Cooperative Learning, Quiz-Quiz-Trade is the best place to start. It’s simple, effective, and sets the stage for incorporating other collaborative learning techniques. Id you're an EFl or ESL languahe teacher, here’s why you should try it:
• Engages all students, not just the confident ones.
• Creates a safe environment for speaking and interacting.
• Reduces anxiety while improving language skills.
And if you want a ready-to-use set of Quiz-Quiz-Trade question cards you can check out the wide selection of Quiz-Quiz-Trade Resources on our store and start transforming your classroom today! We've created QQT cards in a wide range of EFL and ESL topics, and each set comes with a full set of instructions and a blank template so you can even make your own set of QQT cards too.
Final Thoughts:
From a chance conversation during a foreign language research project to attending a workshop with Dr. Kagan, my journey with cooperative learning started with a single classroom activity—Quiz-Quiz-Trade. I now regularly use in excess of 20 different Kagan Learning structures in my class, including the Roving Reporter, Jigsaw Reading Strategy, Stand up - Hand up - Pair Up, Three Step Interview,
Fan 'N' Pick, Rally Robin, Numbered Heads Together and Carousel Feedback.
If you're looking for a simple, high-impact strategy to boost student engagement, give Quiz-Quiz-Trade a try. You might just find yourself on the same journey I did — one that changes the way you teach languages forever.
References:
- Cohen, E. G. (1994) Designing groupwork: Strategies for the heterogeneous classroom. 2nd edn. New York: Teachers College Press.
- Gibbons, P. (2006) Bridging discourses in the ESL classroom: Students, teachers and researchers. London: Bloomsbury.
- Gillies, R. M. (2016) Cooperative learning: Review of research and practice. New York: Springer.
- Horwitz, E. K. (2001) ‘Language anxiety and achievement’, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 21, pp. 112-126.
- Kagan, S. (1994) Cooperative learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing.
- Kagan, S. and Kagan, M. (2009) Kagan cooperative learning. San Clemente, CA: Kagan Publishing.
- Krashen, S. D. (1982) Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
- Slavin, R. E. (1995) Cooperative learning: Theory, research, and practice. 2nd edn. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
- Sweller, J. (1988) ‘Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning’, Cognitive Science, 12(2), pp. 257-285.
- Young, D. J. (1991) ‘Creating a low-anxiety classroom environment: What does language anxiety research suggest?’, The Modern Language Journal, 75(4), pp. 426-437.