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Building Effective Debriefs for Learning Experiences
by Kevin Eikenberry
In debriefing any learning experience, it is important to consider your overall goals for the exercise or simulation, as well as understanding a basic flow that will help learner’s gain the most from the experience. Effective debriefing helps learners with a thought process that moves them through a cycle of learning.
Recognize that learners will learn things from the experience that you can’t anticipate or that don’t relate to your desired learning outcomes. This is great! It is your role as a facilitator of learning (e.g. one who makes learning easier for others) not to prescribe what other should have learned, but rather to do all you can to assure that they learn the desired things (along with whatever else they might have gained).
Below are some questions to ask yourself in helping you plan a successful debrief of a learning exercise, game or simulation.
Plan to Meet the Learning Outcomes
- What is/are the learning objective(s)?
- What are the key (3, 5, or however many) points that you expect to arise from the experience?
- In what ways have you seen these key points demonstrated in the past?
- How large is your group?
- How do you plan to engage each learner in the debriefing session?
- How has the exercise played out before, and how do you factor your experience with the exercise into your debriefing plans?
- How might you do your debrief:
- Written
- In small groups
- Fully in the large group
Survey the Event
- How much time do you have for the entire learning experience?
- Have you allowed enough time for debriefing?
- What hot buttons do you think the experience may push in your group? How might you build on, or downplay those items in your debrief?
Examine the Experience
- Prepare questions that help people examine what happened during the experience.
- Give the group a chance to describe what happened:
- To them
- To their team
- Within the overall experience
- Determine the best method for facilitating this examination.
Expand on the Experience
- Prepare questions that help people decide why things happened during the experience.
- Describe ways in which the experience might have been different (including things you might have done different in running the exercise), and have the group hypothesize how the results might have changed, or how what they saw might have changed.
Generalize the Experience
- Prepare questions that help people determine how this experience is like real life.
- Ask people to evaluate how this experience is similar to/different from the things they experience in a real situation.
- Encourage them to elaborate on the real experiences they are comparing this experience to - as a way for the full group to better understand the connections - and to form their own connections.
- Prepare your own examples to help you draw out the essence of the learning outcomes you are striving for.
Apply the Experience
- Prepare questions that help people decide how to use their experience in the exercise to improve their performance (or achieve better results).
- Provide an opportunity for personal reflection.
- Consider giving people a chance to discuss their action plans in pairs or small groups.
- Encourage individuals to share major ah-ha’s with the full group.
©Kevin Eikenberry 1999. Kevin is Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group (http://KevinEikenberry.com), a learning consulting company that helps Clients reach their potential through a variety of training, consulting and speaking services. To receive your free special report on Unleashing Your Potential go to http://www.kevineikenberry.com/uypw/index.asp or call us at (317) 387-1424 or 888.LEARNER.
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