Emphasis is put on communication skills in our medical school. Can you describe some basic exercises which are useful to teach about the importance of non-verbal communication in groups of 5 to 20 students? Can you share your experiences?
The task is to count from 1 to the number of students loudly, with each student saying one number. they have to start from the beginning, when two say the number at the same time or if anybody says something different than the expected number. usually, it first fails, but then the group develops kind of a nonverbal communication strategy to solve the task.
it works quite well to crush the ice at the beginning, but the group should not be to small (worked well with 16 students, 8 solved it in the first try).