Giving Students a Break

Question

My instruction time has specified breaks, but often the students do not take them, even if I urge them to. This results in them working and listening to my instruction while they are overdone. I tell them this is a marathon, not a sprint, and they will have the rest of their lives to sit in a chair in front of a keyboard, but they do not take the break, or they get a sip of water in the hallway and sit back down. This is impeding their learning and making them unhealthy ("Sitting is the new smoking", right?).

Have you found any effective ways to get students out of the chair to take their full breaks, other than having them take up smoking (thus defeating the purpose) or yelling Fire?

Answer 1

I don't understand all the hate this question is getting. I'm guessing the answers depend on the context a lot.

Context of my answer

I regularly hold company trainings. Adult education. These are full day IT trainings, that means 9 AM to 5 PM. In the contract we offer 90 minute blocks with 15 minute breaks between and a 45 minute lunch break.

Importance of breaks

A break is not a waste of time. Researchers disagree on the amount of time an average human can uphold focused attention for, but all agree it is measured in minutes. I have learnt 4-5 minutes at the university, and I have read some researchers claiming it to be up to 20 minutes. But you can't expect an average human to uphold focused attention for hours at an end. It is possible to renew attention, this is where the teacher comes in by changing the rhythm, the tone, the visualization, the exercise. But from time to time, breaks are needed. (The 8 second attention span you hear about is different, it is the burst attention span or whatever it is called.)

It is not just the attention though, but moving/stretching as well. Most workplaces have recommendations, and though there are slight variations, most revolve around the "work for 60 minutes, get up and move for 15". This is not only beneficiary to the health of the individual, but also (many studies point this out) improves work performance.

Answer to the original question

My actual answer is: explain to them why breaks are important, explain to them how getting up, stretching, moving can help them concentrate, but don't try to force them to do so. If sitting is the new smoking, then dealing with it is similar: you can't just forcefully take the cigarette out of their hands. They know their own bodies and what type of break refills them. And they will learn the importance of breaks the hard way.

Answer 2

1. We do most of our work in vampire-mode, i.e. lights-off. Turning the light on for breaks goes a long way towards encouraging students to rest their eyes and stretch.

2. I put a 5-10 minute timer on the projector before every classroom context-switch, so a break doesn't take students by surprise. (It's easy to get lost in this sort of work.)

But you can't enforce rest. There will always be students who believe they can work forever without consequences, and should, and there will always be students who are just too excited about the day's content to slow down for every break.

Our reality is that students can take a break whenever they like; the primary purpose of my official breaks is to ensure students that it is okay to rest; many of us have been raised with a philosophy of overwork, and I don't have a single student who is in danger of failing because of laziness.

Answer 3

Breaks? I'm in highschool (not an adult) and I'd be kind of offended if someone told me to go "take a break", especially in an elective - I took this course to learn, not to get told that "sitting is the new smoking". You're wasting their time. (Also, don't assume your students spend their whole day sitting - a not insignificant number of them probably work out or do some form of activity during their day. No need to force it on them!)

Now, that being said - you don't need to rely on breaks to get people up and moving! There's activities for illustrating different sorting algorithms by having people stand in a row and shuffle themselves according to the algorithm; there's activities for "programming" each other, there's activities for just about anything you want to do.

These have the bonus of helping the information stick in the mind of the student ("remember that time we programmed Joe so that he walked into a wall?") and, most importantly, having actual substantive content - that is, not wasting student time.

Answer 4

If the class isn't too big or too small, you could organize some simple games. You can have a tournament, possibly with prizes. The prize can be as simple as a gold star sticker like the ones elementary school teachers have given out for years.

Darts
Basketball Free Throws
Baseball/beanbag: "hit a target"
Frisbee (Ultimate)
Make a circle of people and throw a few small balls back and forth around it, calling out the name of the recipient as you throw.
Musical Chairs
Hand slapping (Pease Porridge hot -- )

Or plan in advance and have people recite some poem - dramatically (weirdly).

The idea is to get them on their feet doing something together, possibly competitively, but not too competitively. Find something that will make them happy and laugh. Don't just make it free time. Change of pace can also free the mind.

If they will be together as a class for a long time you could ask the students for ideas for the activity.

If part of their work in class involves teamwork this can have a positive effect on team building as well as getting a bit of exercise. You may not even need "prizes".

Yes, I'm intentionally giving strange examples here, but you know a lot of this stuff from when you were a kid. You can find more online. Many of these games can be adapted to adults. It is hardest to do with teen-agers who are often too self conscious.

Note that PLoP Conferences in the Patterns Community have several sessions of "Game Time" each day. Fun and active. It is one of the main reasons that it is a community, actually. They often have a special role of "Games Master" to organize it. I've used this idea in intensive courses both to break the ice at the start and to get people doing things together as a team.