The Longer We Sit, The Less We Learn Or Able To Contribute In A Session

Why Does Movement Trump Sitting in Sessions?

The trainer gives you to read something for 50 minutes while sitting…

The trainer starts with a 60 minutes slide presentation while all sit at their places…

The trainer says movement distracts learners from focusing on the content…

These are all myths, according to Sharon Bowman - author of the “Using Brain Science to make training stick” book, and not only…

These are examples of how to get fast your audience bored.

There are many ways how to avoid this, for example making things different, using writing instead of reading, and many more.

This post is about why movement is better than sitting in training. But the same principles apply in workshops as well and I have been using this method for a long time now to be able to say it makes a huge difference.

Why Does Movement Trump Sitting in Sessions?

🏃 Focus: It becomes difficult for most learners to remain focused on content when they have been sitting and listening longer than about ten to twenty minutes.

🏃 Memory: When learners move, oxygen to the brain increases, thereby enhancing both learning and memory.

🏃 Cognitive: Cognitive function increases when the human body moves and decreases when the body stays motionless for too long. So movement keeps your learners awake.

But what can you do to use movement more in your sessions?

🎲Body breaks: create a game out of this by asking the participants to stand up and to look who is doing which stretching movement and then copy that, change when they see another person doing another one. It is fun and helps for a few minutes to get some new energy. It can be done in person but also online.

🎲Beat the Clock (moving version): can be used as a closing activity but also in between depending on your topics. It generates engagement, enthusiasm, and positive energy that the learners take with them when they leave. It can be done in person or online.

• ask someone to pick a number between 15 and 20

• this will be the number of statements that they need to come up with in 1 minute

• start the clock

• the person who is speaking is standing up and fast saying something about a specific topic/question you asked them

• the person speaking is not repeating what someone else has said

• no 2 people speak at the same time. If more than one person stands at the same time, they must take turns speaking

🎲 Right or wrong?: give instructions for an activity and then check for understanding in a funny way: ask your participants to stand up if the statement is correct (i.e. “During this exercise you will stay muted / work in silence “) and to stay sited if it is wrong. You can also use this at a review part of one topic closer to check for their understanding and recap the things they did.

🎲 Change seating, change groups, ask them to work on a whiteboard, exchange pairs, and so on in an in-person setting - there are many ways you can introduce movement.

One-phrase summary:

You want your participants you have the outcomes they wish but also to have fun and energy through the entire session. Movement helps both of these and helps them as well to bring into long-term memory what they learned or created. So why not use it?

Resources:

• Book: “Using brain science to make training stick” by Sharon Bowman

I am inviting you to register your spot to the new on-demand training:

Facilitation - neuroscience behind - a 3h online session where I would explain some neuroscience principles I use in most of my workshops in order to create brain-based workshops that are universally applied independent of culture, industry, etc.