WHY TAKING FREQUENT BRAIN BREAKS SAVES TIME

By now most teachers have heard of brain breaks. They are short mental breaks for students during worktimes, often involving movement. Brain breaks are recommended after about 10-15 minutes of work for elementary school students and after about 20-30 minutes of work for middle- and high-schoolers. In a seven-hour school day, that’s a lot of breaks, and teachers can understandably be concerned about the loss off instructional time. 

But did you know that taking time out for frequent brain breaks will actually save instructional time? Here are five reasons this is true:

1. “Too much, too fast, won’t last.”

In order to retain information, students’ brains need time to process it. Their brains cannot continue to absorb information for extended periods of time without breaks for processing. By allowing brain breaks, teachers are reducing the amount of repetition and reteaching that will be needed in order for students to recall what they have been taught.

2. Brain breaks increase attention spans.

The brain uses neurotransmitters to carry information across gaps between brain cells. These neurotransmitters are crucial for focused attention and memory. However, they can become depleted after as little as ten minutes of carrying out the same type of learning activity, leading to lack of attention and inability to learn. Brain breaks that switch the activity give the neurotransmitters an opportunity to replenish so that students can focus again.1 Teaching for a shorter amount of time when students are focused will result in much more learning than teaching for a longer period of time to unfocused students.

3. Brain breaks reduce anxiety.

For new learning to take place, the information must pass through the student’s amygdala to get to the prefrontal cortex, the thinking area of the brain. The amygdala is an emotional filter for the brain—like an alarm warning the brain when things are not right. When the amygdala sounds the alarm, communication with the prefrontal cortex is cut off, and the student is unable to learn. Lengthy lessons in school can easily overwhelm the amygdalas of some students, sending the amygdalas into overdrive and making the students unable to learn. Brain breaks give the amygdala a chance to reset, making the flow of information to the prefrontal cortex possible again. As in reason #1, this reduces the amount of time that will be needed for repetition and reteaching.

4. Brain breaks improve behavior.

Many students, particularly those with executive functioning difficulties, such as students with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), need to be given frequent movement opportunities in order to learn. It is easy to look on students with ADHD as having behavior problems in the classroom. While other students may be sitting quietly still during instruction and focusing on the teacher, the child with ADHD may be bouncing in his seat, lying sideways across it, spinning things on the desk, and making noise, which often leads to reminders from the teacher to “pay attention.” But research has shown that students with ADHD actually learn best when they are allowed to move while learning, including using fidgets.2 Giving them frequent movement opportunities, such as during brain breaks, can also help satisfy that need. Children with ADHD who have a chance to jump or dance before instruction will have their brains better prepared to learn, and they will be less likely to be disruptive to the classroom. This reduces the number of interruptions during a lesson and saves instructional time!

5. Brain breaks reduce learned helplessness.

Learned helplessness occurs when a student has had so many negative experiences learning new material that the student shuts down during instructional time, convinced that failure will always be inevitable. Brain breaks, for all of the above reasons, enhance students’ ability to learn. With their brains more prepared and able to learn, the students learn that success is possible. Self-confidence is enhanced, and students are more motivated to keep trying. This reduces the amount of time the teacher needs to spend urging students to do their work, do their best, keep trying, and the like.

Brain breaks are a crucial way that both general education and special education teachers can reduce negative behaviors and save instructional time. This leads to greater success for both students and teachers! In the next posting, we’ll look at examples of the two main types of brain breaks and when to use each type.

1 https://www.edutopia.org/article/brain-breaks-restore-student-focus-judy-willis
2 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150611082116.htm