Incorporating Innovation and Inclusion through Team-Building Icebreakers

A team icebreaker activity for which there is no obvious solution can help scaffold student behavior in group work early in a course. Before the teacher introduces subject matter content, the class can share in an interpersonal, skill-building lesson that is immediately applicable to real life and sufficiently complex to provide opportunities for decision making and self-awareness. In our example, a card-sorting activity for which there were multiple correct courses of action served as a clear signal to students that there would be no reinforcement for competitive behavior among them.