How Brain Breaks Affect Student Behavior.
This poster presentation examines how brain breaks affect student engagement at the elementary and secondary level. Our findings come from both peer-reviewed research and first hand accounts of being in the classroom at the third grade level at Adams Elementary and Lowell High School. What we were able to learn from this project is that brain breaks do work and help students stay focused and on task. However, not all brain breaks will help students. The effectiveness of brain breaks is reliant upon the type of students in the classroom, what kind of break the students are given, how long the breaks are for, and how the teacher implements the breaks into the classroom. At the elementary level, the students tended to respond better to shorter, more active brain breaks, which got them out of their seats and moving around the classroom. Secondary classrooms however tended to benefit from longer breaks and more reflection based breaks instead of getting out of their seats and moving around. This is extremely important to us being future educators due to the fact that giving our students the most optimal learning environment that we can is our number one priority.
EDUC 321, Classroom Relations and Management
Brian Kaelin
10 AM – Noon