28/03/2020 Icebreakers: Contemporary Approaches to University Teaching

Icebreakers
An icebreaker is an activity designed to ease tension or relieve formality. It briefly takes attention
away from the unit material and attempts to help everyone to feel relaxed and get to know each other.

Below are examples of different icebreaker activities.

Name tags: Although this may seem a little corny, not knowing names is a particular problem in
classes with many students. Some students find it hard to remember other people’s names, to
pronounce them, or to know how to address others. This makes getting to know everyone harder.
Name tags can also be expanded to target other pieces of information to help build an inclusive
classroom. For example, country of birth or most recent work experience could be written on the
name tag and used as a discussion starter. Students might like to personalise them in some way. You
could also connect them in some way to the discipline of study, e.g. favourite English author, or
favourite mathematical theorem.

People Bingo: Make a bingo board with descriptions, e.g. a person who has travelled more than
10km to class, a person who has a birthday in the same month as you, etc. Walk around the group
and ask for the relevant information. The first to complete shouts ‘Bingo’.

Introductions: Either each student can introduce themselves briefly, or they introduce themselves to
a partner or small group, and then another person introduces them to the class.

Two lies and a truth: Ask participants to list three interesting things about themselves, e.g. I own
two dogs, I once shook hands with Wil Anderson, I love to paint. Two must be lies and one must be
true. Other students must vote to determine which interesting thing is the truth. The student with the
most incorrect votes wins. Alternatively students could be put into small groups and find out through
teamwork which are the truths and which are the lies.

Speed meeting: This is a technique to get to know people quickly. You have three minutes with each
person to find out more about them, and then you move to the next person at the sound of a bell (or
something similar). You can split the class into two and form two lines or a circle. Each student has to
find out three important pieces of information about each of the others.

Fact hunt: Each student writes down a unique fact or story about themselves. Everyone draws a fact
out of a pile then circulates, trying to find the student who wrote it.

Whatever the icebreaker, make sure you offer students some choice about what and how much to
share about themselves. Icebreakers are a great way to help students start making meaningful
connections with one another, but students will be more comfortable participating in your class if they
feel control over the information they are disclosing.

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