In this blog, Jordan Moore, Active Wellbeing Officer, and Sarah Robertson, Health Promotion Manager, from Oriam, Scotland’s Sports Performance Centre in Heriot-Watt University share their reflections on the development and implementation of Brain Breaks in teaching.

 

Introduction

Active Wellbeing works to ensure there are free, accessible and exciting opportunities for students and staff globally to be physically active. With a tagline of ‘encouraging more students and staff to be more active, more often’ there was a shift of focus towards activity in non-traditional spaces. Many were engaging in the on-campus activities of wellbeing walks, Couch to 5k and recreational sports, but these are not for everyone. An opportunity for wider impact could be seen through engaging in the learning and teaching space, and this is where Brain Breaks were born.

Why Brain Breaks?

Brain Breaks have been introduced at Heriot-Watt as part of the ‘Community, Belonging and Feeling Valued’ theme of the Student Experience Action Plan (SEAP) 2024-25. The Active Wellbeing team undertook consultation with the Learning & Teaching Academy, Directors of Learning & Teaching as well as the Disability Network Group and external sources to develop Brain Breaks.

The term Brain Break describes the opportunity to shift focus and attention, resetting readiness to return to the task at hand. For Active Wellbeing, this emerged as short, physical activity breaks during academic sessions of over sixty minutes. The Active Wellbeing team created a slide deck of 17 different movements to pilot with a select number of programmes globally.

Research suggests that students will retain focus, productivity and experience improved cognitive function following a short, active break (Lynch et al., 2022). With a goal to improve activity levels on all campuses and support physical activity awareness, creating something to support an academic’s goal of retaining student concentration and focus seemed a clear next step.

What are Brain Breaks? 

Brain Breaks are short, movement breaks designed to be accessible both physically and mentally. The movements are designed and tested in small, academic spaces, with many not requiring movement from one spot. The Brain Breaks are presented through a slide deck which lecturers can embed in a lecture or tutorial break.

Each slide is consistent in its structure and core point. They are designed to allow for minimal input from the academic or individual delivering the session, unless desired, and the key messaging outlines ‘do what you can’ – mindful that not all will feel comfortable, confident or able to participate.

A range of movements have been selected to allow for movement preferences to be captured. Over the course of a semester or academic year, students should experience a variety of different Brain Breaks, hopefully finding ones that work best for them.

All materials are licensed under Creative Commons Non-Commercial Share-Alike licence.  We encourage others to use and adapt these materials, and to let us know what they’ve done.

Impact

To ensure that the Brain Breaks are effective, we are evaluating staff and student use and experience. We have embedded evaluation questions in existing academic surveys, such as the End of Semester Survey. This has been key to the uptake and quality of data.

From the End of Semester Survey AY 24/25 (n=1841), the below was captured:

  • 40% of students had seen Brain Breaks during semester 1, with 67% expressing that Brain Breaks had a positive impact on their physical activity levels.
  • 80% strongly agreed or agreed Brain Breaks had a positive impact on their wellbeing and 79% strongly agreed or agreed that Brain Breaks enhanced productivity, concentration and focus for the remainder of their academic session.

Anecdotal feedback has been gathered from staff. Some highlights are detailed below.

‘Just for info, we did a Mexican wave exercise in C31CG with about 40 PG students halfway through a 2-hour lecture. I thought they rather enjoyed it, and it might have kept them interested in second half.’

‘A participant said that they introduced a brain break in class as they had noticed that students were getting very tired and unfocused at points during a long session. Not only did the students react well to this, enjoying standing up so much that they needed to be encouraged to sit back down but they then went on to suggest to their other teachers that they should introduce them as well.’

Brain Breaks Infographic Poster

Engaging in the sector

The Brain Breaks project has been presented at two conferences over the past academic year. For us, this is an important aspect of gathering insight and feedback from a variety of audiences. We use these opportunities to understand any similar projects taking place within the network and establish new working relationships. Both Scottish Student Sport and Scottish Physical Activity and Health Connections (SPARC) Conference were a success, with the poster presentation at SPARC winning best infographic.

Next Steps

The Active Wellbeing team will continue to gather feedback and measure impact through engaging with students and academics. The slide deck will remain consistent for the remainder of semester 1 to ensure a full data set can be gathered on this content. Looking ahead to AY25-26, the slide deck will be expanded and content developed to include more dynamic images and short videos.

The project is also expanding into the staff space. We see this project as not only having value in learning and teaching spaces, but also within wider staff meetings and conferences. Imagine this… a prompt to take some desk-based stretches as you sit in your third Teams call of the day, or even an opportunity to get up and make a cup of tea. We see Brain Breaks having just as positive an impact on staff as well as students.

Call to Action

If you would like to learn more about Brain Breaks, get a copy of the slide deck and embed them in any student or staff space, please be in touch. The Active Wellbeing team can be contacted below.

Sarah Robertson – sarah.robertson@hw.ac.uk

Jordan Moore – j.moore@hw.ac.uk

 

References

Lynch J, O’Donoghue G, Peiris CL. Classroom Movement Breaks and Physically Active Learning Are Feasible, Reduce Sedentary Behaviour and Fatigue, and May Increase Focus in University Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jun 24;19(13):7775. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19137775. PMID: 35805432; PMCID: PMC9265656.

 

Image credits:

Header image: Brain Breaks by Heriot-Watt University

Infographic: Robertson, S. and Moore, J. (2024) Brain Breaks, SPARC conference.

Slides: Brain Breaks © 2024 by Heriot-Watt University is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0