The Power of Debriefing

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You've just led your students in an exciting, learning-packed activity. Now what do you do? Read on to discover THE POWER OF DEBRIEFING.

Tips: The Power of Debriefing

Designing dynamic and meaningful activities is essential to effective instruction. To ensure that students get the most out of lessons, it's also essential to provide opportunities for students to discuss what they've learned with one another after completing group activities. Follow-up discussions, or debriefings, allow students to process what they've learned, ensuring that activities aren't left dangling, with students wondering what they accomplished and why. Some say debriefing is so important that it is the learning experience.

When debriefing facts they've learned, students need to be asked to draw their own conclusions and make their own generalizations. The teacher becomes the guide in this process, adding or interpreting information if necessary, but avoiding drawing conclusions or forming generalizations — students must be allowed to feel the success and power of doing this on their own.

Students can debrief in any of the following ways:

• Whole class discussion
• Small group discussion
• Writing an individual summary
• Writing in a journal

Debriefings can serve three distinct objectives. You can plan debriefing sessions that meet one, two, or all three of these objectives, depending on what your goal is for the lesson. Below are descriptions of each possible objective.

Objective #1: Summarize Curriculum Information

One possible objective is to summarize the curriculum information covered by the activity — the factual knowledge.

Questions you might ask students:

• What did you learn about _____ [topic of study] during this activity?
• Rate your satisfaction with your group's product.
• What did you observe about the answers you got right? Wrong?
• What did you notice about your group's answers?
• List the strengths of your group's responses.
• What new things did you learn about this topic?
• Where do you need more practice?
• How does this topic relate to other topics you've studied?

Objective #2: Evaluate Interpersonal Skills

Another possible objective is to evaluate students' interpersonal skills. One of the purposes of doing activities in groups is to give students practice interacting with one another in decision-making situations, much as they will likely do on the job someday.

Questions you might ask students:

• How did your group interact during the activity?
• Make a list of words that would describe your participation today.
• What were the successes and weaknesses of your group's work?
• Compare the interaction within this group with other groups you have been a part of.
• What could be done differently or more effectively in your group next time?
• What was the overall group climate?
• Was it a successful learning adventure? Why?
• How did it go for you personally? Why?

Having students work together doesn't always run smoothly, especially when you are trying out a new activity. What you do in your debriefing session to point out positive and negative social experiences can save you time and energy when you do your next activity. You will be setting the stage for future successes.

Objective #3: Identify the Thinking Processes

The third possible objective is to have students identify the thinking processes they used during the activity. This type of reflection is called "metacognition." Asking critical thinking questions can help students figure out what steps their minds took as they went through each part of the activity.

Questions you might ask students:

• What types of thinking did you use while doing the activity?
• How did you come up with the generalizations or conclusions you derived from the activity?
• What path did your mind follow to get to those ends?
• Could your thinking have taken an easier path? A different path?
• Did you develop any new thinking patterns by doing the activity?
• What strategies did you use to complete the activity?
• Could your thinking processes be applied to any other learning situations?

Before asking these questions, establish a common language for discussing thinking processes by introducing some critical thinking terms to your students. One critical thinking model is Questions for Life. For more information, see "Taking It Further" below.

Guidelines for Debriefing

When meeting all three objectives, you can determine the order in which you cover them, as well as the amount of time you allot for each one. Those decisions should be based on how each activity goes and what your goals are for the lesson. Sometimes, for one reason or another, students miss the point of a lesson or an activity. When this occurs, a debriefing discussion can drive home the main objectives.

If you run out of time and immediate debriefing is not possible, hold a whole-class debriefing session next time the class meets. (Option: Consider assigning debriefing questions as homework so students can have a chance to think about them before discussing them as a class.) The most important thing is to make sure debriefing happens. Debriefing can even be an effective way to segue into your next lesson.

• Vary the order and amount of time.
• Facilitate debriefing sessions immediately after the activity.

Note: Though the focus of this issue is on debriefing group activities, the process is important after students work individually as well. Many of the "Questions you might ask students" listed above can be adapted for debriefing activities students do individually.

Source: The above concepts are based on the following PLS graduate courses: Achieving Student Outcomes Through Cooperative Learning™ and Meaningful Activities to Generate Interesting Classrooms™.

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