An investigation on university students’ perceptions about icebreakers in classrooms / Che Nooryohana Zulkifli and Mohamad Putera Idris

This study presents the importance of having ice-breaking
activities in classrooms and how it can help learners to feel
welcome and comfortable as well as it can provide them with
a platform to initiate episodes of conversation with others who are first considered strangers to them. Argued by Dixon,
Crooks and Henry (2006), icebreakers normally serve as early
activities that participants in a particular group take part
before any other social relationships could be developed as
it could influence one’s social presence in a particular setting.
Thus, considering this notion, this paper examined the
usefulness and effectiveness of ice-breaking activities to
learners as part of their learning experience. There are 46
learners cum respondents had undergone three ice-breaking
activities before they were asked to answer open-ended
questions which are related to the significance of ice breaking
and how the activities could help them to socialise and build
appropriate network whenever necessary. The main goals of
this study are to investigate the learners’ point of view about
icebreakers to unearth the types of information they usually
provide when introducing themselves and to what extent icebreaking activities can help them in their daily interaction in
classrooms. The results, however, show that not all respondents
felt comfortable and ready to break the ice with those whom
they barely knew. Nevertheless, the data proves that to feel
less anxious is important whenever the learners are required to
engage in any of the classroom activities and this can be
done through icebreakers.