Active Learning Methods

The Chair Exercise

The Chair Exercise is useful for introducing a group to the issues they’re going to explore. In the launch events for Connect in Care we use it to prepare the way for the play “In a Fankle”.

It involves people in making personal responses to a series of statements. These responses are expressed physically (by moving) rather than verbally. In fact, discussion or comment is discouraged until the end of the exercise.

What kind of statements you choose is very important. There needs to be a mixture of positive/negative. They need to be strong statements but also have an element of ambiguity in some of them. Allow people time to consider their responses.

Instructions
Place a chair at one end of the room ensuring that there is plenty of space in front of it. Tell the group that you will read out a series of statements and you want them to demonstrate the extent to which they agree or disagree with each statement by standing in relation to the chair. If they agree completely with the statement then they will stand as close as possible to the chair. If they disagree completely with it then they will stand as far away as possible from the chair. All other positions are somewhere in between these two points.

Examples of statements we use with “In a Fankle”
I’d rather care than be cared for.
I never make assumptions about what other people want.
People under stress are difficult to work with.
Ageist attitudes affect the way older people are cared for.
When I’m old I’d like to live in a care home.
I need more time to listen and reflect.
I know what it means to be treated with dignity.
I want other people to think more positively about the care setting I work in.

Debrief
What did you notice about your own responses?
What did you notice about the group’s responses?

Interesting points to emerge
In our launch events this exercise follows on from Blind Lead. Perhaps as a result of this, there is always a clear consensus on the first statement: i.e. everyone would rather care than be cared for.

In response to the statement “When I’m old I’d like to live in a care home” the great majority of people (youthful and active) quickly move as far away from the chair as they can get (this includes care home staff). However, when we’ve had care home residents in the group, they’ve agreed with this statement. This suggests that it may be hard to imagine that a care home could be a positive option until you’re actually at that stage of life.
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