The First Class: Using Icebreakers to Facilitate Transition in a Tertiary Environment

Abstract

Transitioning to university can be difficult and encompasses many changes. This paper is concerned with identifying how initial student experiences on campus can be enhanced in order to influence students’ perception of university. Universities are now under pressure to develop in graduates a wide range of skills, and we highlight the fact that equal emphasis needs to be placed on successful academic and social integration. Research reflecting processes to develop the concept of “social support” and overcome the feeling of “not belonging” at university is scarce. In this paper the concept of icebreakers in the first weeks of student university experience is explored. Icebreakers can also be used as students move to new learning situations through their learning journey. We trialled icebreaking activities in a workshop program designed to facilitate student engagement and develop particular graduate skills. Practical examples from both across and within disciplines are provided. Comments from workshop participants highlight the outcomes of these activities and provide criteria for success.

Full text

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The First Class: Using Icebreakers to Facilitate Transition in a
Tertiary Environment
Marie Kavanagh (Corresponding author)
Faculty of Business, University of Southern Queensland
PO Box 4196, Springfield Central, Queensland 4300, Australia
Tel: 61-7-3470-4514 E-mail: kavanagh@usq.edu.au
Marilyn Clark-Murphy
Faculty of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University
270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, Western Australia 6027, Australia
Tel: 61-8-6304-0000 E-mail: m.clarkmurphy@westnet.com.au
Leigh Wood
Faculty of Business and Economics, Macquarie University
Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
Tel: 61-2-9850-4756 E-mail: leigh.wood@mq.edu.au
Received: February 1, 2011 Accepted: February 23, 2011 doi:10.5539/ass.v7n4p84
Support for this project was provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, an initiative of the
Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The views expressed in
this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Ltd.
Abstract
Transitioning to university can be difficult and encompasses many changes. This paper is concerned with
identifying how initial student experiences on campus can be enhanced in order to influence students’ perception
of university. Universities are now under pressure to develop in graduates a wide range of skills, and we
highlight the fact that equal emphasis needs to be placed on successful academic and social integration. Research
reflecting processes to develop the concept of “social support” and overcome the feeling of “not belonging” at
university is scarce. In this paper the concept of icebreakers in the first weeks of student university experience is
explored. Icebreakers can also be used as students move to new learning situations through their learning journey.
We trialled icebreaking activities in a workshop program designed to facilitate student engagement and develop
particular graduate skills. Practical examples from both across and within disciplines are provided. Comments
from workshop participants highlight the outcomes of these activities and provide criteria for success.
Keywords: Icebreakers, Transition to University, Student experience, Business education
1. Introduction
Students enter university programs for disparate reasons (Batchelor, 2006; Briggs, 2006) with different
expectations about what their experience is going to be like (Crisp et al., 2009; Kuh, Gonyea, & Williams, 2005),
and how they will spend their first year at university (Kuh & Pace, 1999). In this paper we concentrate on the
first interaction with students in a class setting with the use of “icebreaking” activities to create a vibrant,
inclusive learning environment and develop enthusiasm in order to “hook” students into the university
environment and discipline area. Icebreaking activities are designed to establish common ground in the first class,
get students to introduce themselves to others and talk to others in a semi-structured “fun” environment.
Effective delivery of the icebreaking session requires a competent facilitator (lecturer) who engages students in
simple activities (for example, find someone who has a brother) in order to encourage students to interact. While

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these activities can be adapted to online environments, we will focus in this paper on face-to-face activities. As
the time allowed for face-to-face learning continues to reduce into the future, the importance of the quality of
face-to-face interaction and subsequent online interaction will increase further.
In this paper we will use the term “icebreaker” to cover activities designed to help students meet each other and
transition to their new learning environment when they start at university or when they move to a new learning
environment.
In all learning, more than content is being taught. We are inducting students into a discipline, a way of thinking
and a way of working with others and understanding how they themselves prefer to work. We are working with
knowledge and with people; both are important. We will consider the relationships between the student and
teacher; student and student; and assist students to understand themselves. We will show how to develop and
adapt icebreaking activities to introduce students to content areas, particularly in business.
Studies of first year students both in Australia and the UK (McInnis, James, & Hartley, 2000; Trotter & Roberts,
2006) suggest that the first class in first year is our opportunity to create a positive learning atmosphere for the
rest of the semester – and perhaps the rest of a student’s experience at university. Indeed the first year has been
shown to be the most critical in shaping persistence decisions. While the experiences in our classrooms are
influenced by external conditions such as the enrolment processes, expectations from peers, physical
environment and so on, in this paper we concentrate on the learning conditions in the first classroom and
introduce the concept of icebreakers as a means of easing the transition and enhancing outcomes for students.
1.1 Learning environment – content
The first class provides an opportunity to set expectations for learning in the subject: “The first class meeting is
often a defining moment in a course: it establishes expectations and an implicit learning contract on the part of both
students and lecturer.” Holden (2004, p. 4) The first class also sets expectations for interaction – the classroom as a
social as well as a learning place – and sets up conditions for the class to work productively.
Icebreakers assist the teacher to show enthusiasm about the content area and learning, and about the students
themselves. One way to do this is to make a link with prerequisite knowledge and relate the content to what a
student will be familiar with. Particularly in first year, it helps with learning if the lecturer describes links between
the unit and the profession that a student may be working towards. Several studies show that students demonstrate
a deeper learning approach if they are aware of the outcome of their learning (Wood & Solomonides, 2008; Reid et
al., 2005).
For students in later years, icebreakers can review content from previous study, for example:
 What were the three most important things you learned in (prerequisite subject)? Why?
 Knowledge gets rusty fast – why?
These quick icebreakers can lead into discussions about learning and how best to learn in your subject. At best it
can lead to a discussion on the nature of knowledge in your discipline area.
1.2 Learning environment – relationships
The main relationships we will concentrate on in this paper are: the student-teacher; student-student; and the
students learning about themselves. Developing relationships is an important part of learning: what all first
sessions in a unit have in common is that they signify the beginning of a relationship between the teacher and
students, and between student and student. How the session unfolds sets the pattern for later interactions (McKay,
2002).
With the reduction in the number of hours for face-to-face learning, we need to find ways to make connections
between people quickly and effectively in large and small groups. Icebreakers are an effective way to create
these connections and can contribute to a positive learning environment as well as introduce important content.
Students will also make a judgement about their participation and whether it is safe for them to contribute: it is
our role to set conditions where students will feel safe to take risks and actively participate in class activities.
The use of icebreakers can also contribute to developing cultural awareness and tolerance, breaking down
barriers, and overcoming isolation and loneliness.
1.3 Alignment
Design of curriculum involves many aspects: the learning materials, tasks, assessment and relationships. How do
these align? To take an extreme example, our learning objectives may be to develop critical thinking and
teamwork but our assessment tasks are all individual and require rote learning. Clearly the assessment and the

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learning objectives are not aligned. Students’ every experience of the subject must give a consistent (aligned)
message and this is established in the first class. Our use of icebreakers aligns with learning objectives that work
to establish trust and participation in the community of scholars and set the scene for a collaborative learning
environment.
The paper is structured as follows. The background to the study is discussed in section two. In section three,
factors influencing the context (including the need to develop graduate attributes and skills) and the workshop
are outlined. Section four presents examples of icebreaker activities, drawn primarily from the workshop
designed to develop and assess the graduate skills of business students in Australia (www.graduateskills.edu.au),
which was funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC). In section five, the success of the
icebreaking activities and student reactions as evidenced by quotes from the workshop participants are presented.
A discussion of the process and outcomes concludes the paper.
2. Background
The transition to university and its challenges are well recognised (Krause et al., 2005; James, Krause, &
Jennings, 2010), highlighting the many changes required to shift into university environments of academic and
student life (Harvey, Drew, & Smith, 2006). There is sometimes a considerable difference between the students’
expectations and the experience that institutions offer (Crisp et al., 2009). The first year experience may have
significant consequences for student attrition and failure, in turn affecting university reputations and finances
(Wilcox, Winn, & Fyvie-Gauld, 2005). Expectations of what it will be like to be a university student play a
determining role in student attitudes towards study and in the quality of their experience and achievement levels.
James, Krause and Jennings (2010) found that the school-to-university transition appears to be improving in
quality and half of the students felt that school is preparing them well for university. This was not the case,
however, for students from rural areas and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. The changing role of
universities and the growing diversity of students entering universities have highlighted the ongoing demand for
research into the first year transition process.
Studies of Australian first year students (McInnis, James, & Hartley, 2000; Krause et al., 2005; James, Krause,
& Jennings, 2010) show that initial experiences on campus are important and influence students’ persistence in
higher education. There is also general agreement in the literature that a high proportion of students either
withdraw or fail because of adjustment or environmental factors, rather than because of intellectual difficulties
(Tinto, 1996). Pitkethly and Prosser (2001) suggest that a coordinated, informed response to transition issues will
improve the learning experience of all first year students. Jamelski (2009) suggests that first year experience
programs are essential and can have marked effects on student grade point averages (GPA) and retention. While
it is easy to blame this new generation of students for falling retention rates, it is far more productive to
concentrate on those issues that impact on retention and how we as academics can alter the environment that
students encounter.
This is not only true in first year but in each new learning situation. Transitions are inherently challenging, as
illuminated by the separationtransitionreincorporation phases identified by Bridges (2003). Separation is the
move away from established beliefs and values; transition is the in-between stage where ambiguity may be
experienced; and reincorporation is the stage where the individual becomes accepting of and accepted by the
new context of being. Given the nature of each stage, it is hardly surprising that transition involves emotional
challenges. Reid and Solomonides (2007, p. 31) describe students moving through “cognitive and emotional
borders” as students focus their attention on different parts of their anticipated professional and internal life,
depending on whether they focus on some future profession, or being a learner, or being a student at university.
Students’ decisions to withdraw are significantly affected by the degree of their intellectual and social integration
into the life of the institution (Krause et al., 2005; James, Krause, & Jennings, 2010). The concept of “not
belonging” is becoming a prevalent theme in accounts of the first year student experience at university (Palmer,
Kane, & Owens, 2009; Solomon, 2007). Crissman-Ishler and Schreiber (2002) examined students’ experiences
of “friendsickness” during the early phases of university life, while Johnson (1994) suggested that a student’s
psychological state is strongly associated with student withdrawal, and further that transition depends on how
students rebuild friendship networks. Peat, Dalzeil and Grant (2001) found that a workshop to develop peer
networks facilitated the formation of social networks and peer groups, which eased the transition to university.
Wilcox, Winn and Fyvie-Gauld (2005) suggest that to improve higher education student retention, equal
emphasis needs to be placed on successful integration into the social world of university as into the academic
world, and that social ties, developed through living and associating with compatible friends, are central to the
issue of transition.

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Students report a need for both physical and social opportunities, and spaces for making contact with others
(social integration). For example, international students experience loneliness and adjustments to new learning
situations; problems with contributing in class where language is difficult; wanting an international experience;
and seeking opportunities and skills to be able to interact (Krause et al., 2005). This is particularly important
given the growing number of first-generation students as well as a widening of the gap in relation to
understanding the role of the university (Skyrme, 2007). Palmer, O’Kane and Owens (2009) discuss the concept
of turning-point experiences in the transition process. They suggest that universities are now placing emphasis
on dealing with issues such as creating a sense of community through increased social activities and
opportunities  both with peer groups and other students  and involving students in university life in group
projects or extra-curricula activities. These activities are designed to overcome students’ feelings of not
belonging to university life.
Research into graduates’ reflections on their experience at university shows that many graduates would have
appreciated an opportunity to meet with others in their class (Wood & Reid, 2005). Our paper seeks to draw on
the work of Solomon (2007) regarding the notion of not belonging, and Palmer, O’Kane and Owens’ (2009)
findings about the turning points that allow students to make meaningful connections to fit into university life.
3. Context
Recent shifts in education and labour market policy have resulted in universities being placed under increasing
pressure to produce employable graduates with governments (particularly in the UK, Australia and Canada)
making public funding for universities contingent upon demonstrable graduate outcomes. Employers now expect
that graduates will commence employment with a broader range of attributes and vocational skills to
complement their technical skills. As a result, universities have begun to focus on developing generic skills in
students that might make them appealing to multiple employers across multiple work contexts and disciplines
(Bridgstock, 2009). An emphasis has been placed on the production of “work-ready” graduates, competent in
their disciplinary field and able to cope in a changing work environment (Barrie, 2006). Oliver (2008) observed
that, “the attributes for success in commencing and advancing in a career and being an effective ‘global citizen’
are communication, teamwork, problem solving, self-management, planning and organising, technology,
life-long learning, initiative, enterprise and the raft of skills generally called ‘emotional intelligence’.” (p. 1) In
spite of the push to change the focus in terms of skills development in universities, the development of these
skills has remained problematic (Green, Hammer, & Star, 2009). For example, in a report compiled for the
Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE) in the UK, Archer and Davison (2008) documented the fact
that, despite 86% of employers considering good communication skills to be important, many are dissatisfied
with the ability of graduates to express themselves effectively.
The need to incorporate the development of graduate skills becomes evident. An Australian Learning and
Teaching Council (ALTC) grant was provided to seven universities to conduct a project titled “Embedding the
Development and Grading of Generic Skills in the Business Curriculum” as part of a larger project to assess
graduate skills (www.graduateskills.edu.au). A major activity of the project was holding a workshop with five
students from each of the seven universities coming together to trial various deliverables of the project, including
the icebreaker activities as well as case studies designed to enhance the expertise of the students in the skill areas
of ethical practice, critical thinking, teamwork and sustainability. From that project the icebreaker examples
listed in the next section have been refined as engagement activities. It is important to note that while these
examples of activities are applicable to tertiary education in general, they have been developed and trialled in
business education in Australia.
4. Examples of icebreaker activities
The principal purpose of icebreakers is to get students talking to each other about as many different aspects of
their lives and backgrounds as possible. This obviously facilitates communication, but it also makes students
aware of the similarities and differences among them. For example, in a class with a good mix of international
students, the “siblings” exercise below will find most Chinese students in the “only child” group and many
African students in the “or more” group. Icebreakers can also be targeted to achieve a specific purpose  for
example, introducing group work – and can be made or designed to be discipline specific. Examples of all these
activities are included. Wherever possible the lecturer should participate in the icebreakers, since the students
need to feel at ease and get to know something about you. It is also an important means of understanding the
demographics of your class and getting to know students individually.

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4.1 Getting to know the group
Ask students to form groups in a number of different
ways. Then allow five minutes for discussion, after which
they move to the next grouping.
Make sure you give students
time
to introduce themselves within their
groups before moving
to
the next. The groupings you choose should not be complex and should include things
that students can easily relate to and that are relevant to both the students’ personal life and their university life.
Specifics will depend on the nature of your group but could include:
 Form a group with other students majoring in the
same
discipline as
you.
 Are you studying full or part time? Form a group
with
others doing the
same.
 Find all the students born in the same month as you.
 Point to the four walls of the room and tell students to gather on each wall based on certain criteria, for
example:
o Do you have a cat, a dog, both, neither.
o Do you have no siblings, one, two, more.
o Your ideal relaxation is reading, socialising with friends, gardening, sport.
These types of groupings can also be related to the content you are about to teach. For instance, in a marketing
class you might ask students to group by specific brands; their favourite soft drink, the car they drive and so on.
In a finance class you could group by usage of particular financial products or services. The complexity of the
group “names” will depend on the knowledge level of the students and what they should be able to respond to.
 Pick a student born close to your current location, ask all other students to form a circle so that the next
person born near to the current location is on the first student’s right and the person born farthest from
the current location is on the first student’s left. This typically involves not only getting to know each
other but some interesting conversations about geography!
 Find the individual – Everyone takes a piece of paper and writes down four or five adjectives to
describe themselves. Papers are collected and redistributed at random. People must try and find the
author of the paper they have been given by looking and asking questions. They then return the paper to
its author. Keep going until everyone has their own paper back.
4.2 Going deeper
Depending on the size of your group and the time available, you may want to allow for some deeper
conversations, for example the instructions for the activity could include:
 Interviewing
Students move around the room pairing up with people (one at a time) they do not know. On a sheet of
paper in the middle write the name of the person they are interviewing. In each of the four corners write
answers to the following:
a. What job they would love to do most.
b. The person in the world they would most like to meet and why.
c. The place in the world they would most like to live.
d. Something unusual or exciting about their lives they are willing to share with the group.
The interviewer asks questions of the other person to understand why.
The interviewer then introduces their partner to the group and reports what they have said.
 Form groups of four or five. Each person tells the group three things about themselves, two true and one
false. Other members of the group have to guess which is false. Each group reports back to the whole
group the true things they learned about each other and how good they were at spotting the falsehoods.
4.3 Introducing group work
If your teaching will involve the students in group work it is a good idea to introduce this early on in the unit, in
an easy task with no consequences related to grading. There are many exercises that can be used and we outline a

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very simple one below. If you are taking a more advanced class you might want to use something related to the
discipline that would remind students of the knowledge they should be bringing to the course.
 Marooned
Form groups of whatever size you plan to use in your course. As a group they must pick five items they
would want to have if marooned on a desert island. They write their items on a large piece of paper and they
must defend their list to the whole group.
5. Success factors
As with any program to engage students, careful consideration needs to be given to the design of the activities and
the manner in which students are encouraged to engage in the activities. Using observations and feedback from the
staff and students involved in the trial, the following factors have been identified as being essential to the success
of using icebreakers in the classroom:
 Good facilitators
 Good activities – need to be conscious of expected audience and learning outcomes desired
 Time – need to allocate time to the activities; at least 40 minutes, but time well spent
 Space – can be done in almost any space where students have room to move around
 Link to learning –activities should be linked to the learning objectives of the class
o Example: using activities to introduce a marketing metrics class where you can introduce the
types of variables that you are using; this could also be used in a consumer behaviour class.
o Example: using the distance from birthplace to allocate students to groups. This meets a
learning objective of intercultural development that may be part of an international business
curriculum.
 Follow up – in the next class the lecturer can refer back to the icebreakers.
5.1 Student reactions
Students commented that the icebreakers were important for setting the atmosphere in the class and conveying the
expectations of the learning environment:
The first hour I think we did some introductory icebreaker type things and then learning, which
set the environment and the atmosphere in the room and how, what we were learning about, so
you were all meeting all these people and even though you’re only making 30 seconds of
contact and maybe you’re learning two things about someone, it already begins to break down
those barriers and those, you know, maybe insecure barriers of like trying to talk to people you
don’t know and trying to do work with people you don’t know, and that’s not even, like that
doesn’t even really occur in uni[versity].
Others commented that being able to relate to others and combine skills relevant to life in the real world is very
important:
I think the university should be a total experience where it does grow a person not just like in a
mental academic sort of way where they’re just learning information. It should be ... that
combination of different things because once you get into the real world then it is very much a
mix of everything.
Participating students found that icebreakers helped them to recognise and acknowledge different personalities
and the impact the combination of personalities has on group work and satisfaction. This is supported by the
literature (Burdett & Hastie, 2009):
The other thing was a lot of the students thought that at the very beginning the icebreakers were
really effective. But I thought it was good to understand the different personalities of the
students and that the tutor can pick those different characteristics up to group students together
rather than expecting students to formulate their own groups.
The emergence of a need to understand the perspective and opinions of those from other cultures was another
valuable insight provided by the icebreaker activities:

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All the icebreakers we had were so amazing. I thought coming over here would be [cool]; like
interacting with different people from different cultures would be very difficult or not very
pleasing for me. But as soon as I came over here, we had so many icebreakers. ... It was
actually pretty good. Because you got around and you kind of talked to different people who
you might not have talked to.
Overall the engagement and the sense of collaboration and even friendship which emerged from the icebreakers
surprised the facilitators, who had underestimated the impact:
We were all strangers two days ago and we wouldn't have even looked at each other twice if we
walked through the street and passed each other in the street and that sort of thing. Now it sort
of feels like it’s a real sort of mateship and friendship.
The dynamics of the whole group changed with students relaxing in one another’s presence and becoming more
focussed on the task at hand:
We had the icebreakers, we had all that, and I think a lot of cohesive … this is built on
humour and all that kind of stuff and able to feel relaxed. I mean, you need to feel relaxed to
then be able to really function properly.
For many there was a sense of awe in terms of the change in group dynamics that eventuated. Even for those
who had experienced group work at their own universities, the value of the icebreakers as a critical introduction
to the group process became most evident:
Back at uni[versity], back at home it’s sort of like you get into a group work and then you just
sort of don’t actually get to know each other and build those relationships. It’s just like
straight onto the task, and I think that’s one of the detriments to the whole lack of uni culture
now. It is very much you go do your thing, you get away, you get your mark.
6. Conclusion
This paper has examined the place of icebreakers in the transitioning process as students move to new learning
situations. The focus on developing softer skills through social integration to assist students to develop feelings
of belonging has been highlighted. The comments of students who took part in a workshop to trial icebreakers
indicate that these activities may result in turning points, which can shape or alter the way in which students
make meaningful connections with university life. The outcomes of this research support and add to the literature
in showing that expectations align with levels of student satisfaction. Their early experience of learning and
connections with the university are known to make or break persistence with their study thus impacting on
retention and attrition. Therefore the process and activities outlined in this paper should have resonance and be
of interest to all educators who are concerned with enhancing student outcomes, in particular those involved in
easing students’ transition to learning.
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