Dr Judy Thomas shares how to get students moving and learning actively.
Struggling to reduce sedentary behavior and increase engagement in your tutorials?
Dr Judy Thomas from Exercise Sciences developed a series of active learning activities to reduce sitting time, promote physical activity, and enhance student engagement. These types of activities can be adapted to various subjects and teaching contexts.
Try this!
Incorporate movement-based activities into your tutorials to make learning more dynamic and interactive. These activities not only reduce sedentary behavior but also foster collaboration, peer learning, and concept reinforcement using multi-modal/sensory tasks.
Addresses these teaching challenges:
- Reducing sedentary behavior
- Increasing student engagement
- Promoting collaboration and peer learning
- Reinforcing key concepts
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Implementation
- Game, Set, Match!
Objective: Reinforce understanding of key terms and definitions and act as a first-tutorial icebreaker.
How to play: Use posters with terms and definitions. Students walk around the classroom to find their match and share a fun fact.
- Last One Standing
Objective: Review key concepts in a fun and competitive way.
How to play: Students stand in a circle, questions presented with two choices. Indicating their choice with hands on head (‘heads’) or hands on hips (‘tails’), students answer questions, and sit down if incorrect until one student remains standing.
- Think, Pair, Walk, Share
Objective: Reinforce understanding through collaboration.
How to play: Students think about a topic, pair up to list key points, walk to another pair, and share/amend their lists.
Pro tips
- Use these activities at the start of a new topic or for review sessions.
- Encourage students to discuss and explain their answers.
Benefits
- Reduces sedentary behavior
- Enhances cognitive function through physical movement
- Builds a sense of community and collaboration
- Reinforces key concepts through active learning
Teacher’s voice
“In tutorials where these learning activities were included, students showed more engagement and energy in their learning, had more diverse student interactions, and got in some extra steps!” – Judy Thomas
Accessibility considerations
- Ensure all students can participate by providing alternative ways to engage, such as using text-based descriptions or audio cues.
- Physical activity can come in many forms, according to each student’s abilities.
Try this variation
- For an online variation, use digital tools like flashcards, virtual hand-raising, and posters in breakout rooms. When students find a match or answer correctly, they share a fun fact and everyone does a quick physical activity (e.g., 10 jumping jacks, 5 chair squats, or a 30-second stretch).
- Alternatively, replace physical movement with a brief mindfulness or breathing activity.
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Faculty: Science
Suitable for
Shared by
Judy Thomas
Professional Teaching Fellow
Faculty of Science
Faculty of Science
Level of effort required
Alignment with Signature Pedagogical Practices
Published
8 April 2025