If you’ve joined any of my classes, you’ll know I am passionately against ice breakers these days. Why? Because I am a trauma-informed educator and train adults in a trauma-sensitive way.
When you’re in my classroom, my top priority is your safety. I am not there to “push you out of your comfort zone” (who am I to say where that starts and ends anyway?) and besides, the science also shows, we learn best when we are comfortable.
Pushing people out of their comfort zone is also a power play, not a learning tactic. Trainers need to be acutely aware both of the implicit authority they have just by standing at the front of a class, but also of the experiences of their attendees, where unwanted power and control have been a factor in their lives.
People who join my particular courses, are there for their well-being. They’re not there to pass an exam, or to learn a language, or become an accountant (though that could also happen).
They’re there to feel better, to grow, to cope in more healthy ways. They do not need me standing at the front, pointing at them and saying “tell me two truths and a lie!” or “who are you and why are you here!”, or “get in to pairs with a complete stranger!”
Ice-breakers do not serve a useful function beyond sucking up time and creating discomfort among learners , same as putting people in to pairs with complete strangers and expecting them to get along. You wouldn’t walk in to a café, sit next to someone you don’t know and say “tell me two truths and a lie” so why would you do it in a learning environment?
There are ways and means of supporting introductions, and I often find they happen organically anyway (especially over a cuppa, which I also supply when I can). But one of the biggest mistakes trainers make when teaching adults, is treating them like children…To read more about why the ice-breaker needs to go, you could read my article on Medium.
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Copyright Delphi Ellis 2025
Delphi Ellis 