Project Description

Moving to Learn

Dr. Deborah Breen

Boston University

When we picture a lecture, we easily imagine students sitting in rows listening to their instructor while perhaps watching a slideshow or demonstration. This form of learning engages our listening and viewing skills; interactive lecturing can help us expand sensory connections with course materials through kinesthetic learning. Kinesthetic activities engage the brain in different ways and allow students to process, retrieve and retain concepts through learning that involves movement.

As you plan kinesthetic activities for your classes, remember to:

  • Consider the logistics of your class and its space: you may need to modify an activity depending on the number of students and the classroom space.
  • Consider the mobility needs of your students and adapt the kinesthetic activities as needed to make them accessible to all students.
  • Pace your kinesthetic activities to engage and refresh students between mini-lectures that reinforce content.

Here are 3 ways to integrate movement into your interactive lectures:

1. Kinesthetic polling:

A simple exercise that incorporates movement is to ask students to either stand where they are or move to a specific part of the room in response to a question from the instructor. You can use this as a community builder but also to connect to relevant concepts in class. For example, in a lecture on engineering and infrastructure, you could ask students to simply stand or move to a part of the room according to the way they arrived on campus; in a class on changing economic patterns, you could ask students to respond to their preferred means of purchasing; and so on.

2. The Gallery Walk:

There are many versions of the gallery walk activity, which essentially involves students moving about the room to interact with materials collated or created by the instructor or the students themselves. Here are two options for integrating gallery walk activities into your lectures:

  • Have students work in groups to create posters around learning concepts. Arrange the posters around the walls of the classroom space and provide time for students to circulate and ask questions of each other about their topics. This activity supports learning by asking students to explain class concepts to each other.
  • Divide students into groups and ask them to brainstorm their responses or questions about the content of the reading or lecture for that day. Provide large poster size notes for them to write their responses and arrange these around the walls of the classroom. Next, give students a number of small sticker dots and ask them to move about the room and place their stickers beside the questions or responses that are most significant to them. As with the previous example, this activity engages the students with analytical and critical thinking as they clarify and prioritize their responses to the points made by their peers. This class feedback also helps the instructor in at least two ways:
    • first, it allows you to quickly identify the questions that are important to the students so you can expand on or clarify concepts;
    • second, you can ask for more information from students to hear their own analysis of critical points

3. Use the outdoors:

Combining movement and fresh air can be a wonderful boost to learning. Ask small groups of students to “walk and talk” together about key concepts from the previous lecture; set a reasonable time limit (how long will it take students to get out of the classroom and then return?) and ask for some quick report-ins on their return. This activity will help students retrieve information from prior classes, an important step in building knowledge (see Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning) and refresh their focus for the next part of the lesson.

As with all interactive elements in your classes, explain the why and how of the activity to your students to help them connect the activity to the learning goals for that day or unit. Remember, too, that any change in mode of activity takes time to set up, do and process, so build that time into your class plan. When the kinesthetic activity is complete, connect it back to content so that it supports and strengthens, rather than disrupts, your students’ learning.