TMA01 E108

Scott and Jean’s Icebreaker activities serve several different purposes, the first of which being to encourage the group to come together as a whole and get to know one another. The initial activity did a fabulous job of encouraging the youngsters to introduce themselves to their peers in a fun and non intimidating way. It ‘broke the ice’ (LGBT Youth Scotland clips 2-6). If the introductions had been done with a greater amount of formality, i.e sat around a table, the young people probably would not have responded in the same way. The laughing and body language demonstrated suggests they were obviously relaxed and at ease with themselves and other members of the group but what they evidently didn’t realise was that the activity was encouraging them to practise how to communicate with each other and also listen to and remember what each other had to say. They were practising active listening. ‘It’s putting skills across, but actually not maybe the young people realising they’re actually starting those skill sets already, right from the beginning’. (LGBT Youth Scotland clips 2-6). Encouraging the young people to work together as a large group in this way ensured that everyone was involved. They weren’t all acquainted prior to this activity but communicating in this way helps them build relationships in a positive way both with the other group members but also with Scott and Jean. No-one will feel like they are excluded because they are not already part of an estalished friendship group.
Informal education is totally different to the type of education that takes place within schools. Young people are not taught the objectives defined by a teacher as they would be in class, they are encouraged to work things out for themselves as an active learner. An educator’s role in informal education is ‘to create situations in which young people can identify their own goals for learning’ (Mackinnon, 2013 p13). In this instance (LGBT activity) the students were placed in small