Participatory methods: personifying emotions and attitudes

Why should I try it?

To invite participants to reflect on a topic.

How do I apply it?

  1. Ask participants to imagine that person X (for example your co-facilitator) represents concept Y, e.g. quality assurance in adult learning, or collaboration with businesses.
  2. Invite participants to show their attitude towards the concept by with their body: by using physical distance, movement, gestures.
  3. After a few minutes, ask participants to share what you they are representing if they feel comfortable to do so. You can open up the floor for comments / interpretations of other participants.

What will I need?

Just some space!

What else can I do?

Use the activity to open up a discussion about the group’s general attitude or emotion about a certain topic, exploring how they could be changed. You could extend the activity by asking participants to reposition themselves depending on how they would like to feel about the concept.