Warm-up exercises: can learning be fun?

Abstract

This article explores the principles and practice of warm-up exercises or icebreakers during interpersonal skills training for Project 2000 student nurses. Warm-up exercises--an example of an experiential learning activity--may be useful but they must always have an educational purpose and allow participants to opt out. The author suggests that in reality educational principles are not always the basis for such exercises and that the very nature of these exercises may make students feel opting out is not always possible.