Deconstructing the Debrief: A Guide for Educators

Personal growth is a process of endurance. Becoming a better leader requires us to reflect, an act marked by patience rather than haste. Just as you and I cannot attend a weekend seminar on how to become better writers or more effective public speakers and come away expecting to notice many instant improvements, the students that attend Bark Lake for three or five days will not magically be set on a path to become the next Mike Babcock, Angela Merkel, Richard Branson, or any other noted contemporary leader. It takes real world practice to become the leaders we strive to be. Bark Lake can instill in our students a desire to seek future challenges and embrace such opportunities as catalysts for personal growth.

At Bark Lake the learning model consists of two main stages. The first is an experience. This can be a group initiative, night hike, high ropes element etc. In the second stage, referred to as the debrief, students are tasked with reflecting on the experience they just had. It is during the debriefing stage that much of the learning occurs.

Outdoor education tends to utilize the experiential learning model outlined by David Kolb. In contrast, classroom teaching typically employs the didactic method, in which the teacher resides as the focal point. In the experiential model the focus is on the words and actions of the students. The teacher or facilitator is merely there to keep the process moving forward. It is student-led, which distinguishes it from the teacher-led didactic model.

Experiential learning is described by Kolb as “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping experience and transforming it.” Experiential learning requires students to do something, realize their mistakes and inefficiencies, turn them into lessons, and apply those lessons to the future. The drawing out of those lessons is the goal of the debrief.

Debriefing consists of three sequential stages: reflective observation, generalization, and application. The graphic below is adapted from Kolb’s model. The debrief comprises the final three components of the graphic.

The Three Stages of Debriefing

The debrief is designed so students can more readily process their experience, thereby reflecting on and drawing lessons from that experience. The debrief stages are set up to logically flow from one to the next. Like a hot bath, the immersion should be gradual. What would happen if we jumped right to the final stage and asked how the experience we just had applies in the real world? Students would clam up. We would be asking them to make too large a leap; they would be scared of giving a ‘stupid’ answer. But if we nudge them along at a logical, gradual pace they tend to become comfortable with the process. Keep in mind that the role of the facilitator throughout the debrief is to pry, prompt, and summarize, but not to serve the students with the answer. The crux of the process resides in the students’ ability to realize their own lesson.

The first thing we are in need of is for something to happen. Sounds simple, right? Surprise – it is. Throughout the course of the experience something noticeable is bound to occur. There will be effective communication or a communication breakdown; there will be serenity amongst the troops or infighting; there will be only a few people doing all the talking or everyone will be trying to talk. All of these variables contribute to the group’s performance. It’s the kind of material we’re attempting to draw out in the reflective observation stage. Basically, what happened; how did you feel; what was the crucial moment? Consider this the superficial phase – we’re just scratching at the surface of our experience.

In the generalization stage we’re going to delve a little deeper. The aim is for the group to take the information pertaining to their experience that they extracted in the previous stage – whether it be excellent planning or ineffective communication etc. – and explain how it impacted the exercise. In essence, why does this information matter to us; what can we learn from this; what can we do better next time?

Ultimately, we arrive at the application stage of the debrief. This is where the lesson that has been brought to our attention is summarized and transferred to the real world. How can we apply this lesson once we go back to our homes and school? Consider this the takeaway moment. Is this something that happens in real life; does this occur in school; what is the real world solution; what have we learned here?

Because of its sequencing the debrief process works quite well as a teaching tool. Students are encouraged to open up wider at each stage. They essentially build their own lesson. Strict pedagogy aside, debriefing can be very powerful. In this safe space the sometimes obnoxious student tends to show compassion; the shy student breaks through and feels comfortable speaking up. It is in these moments that students come to appreciate challenges and new experiences. They understand the connection between pushing oneself and personal growth. They are empowered, knowing that growing is a good thing, to find the leader inside them. With hope and luck, they take these improvements home with them.

For education in an outdoor setting, where there are fields and forests to play in and ropes courses to play on, it makes sense to use the experiential learning model. The Bark Lake environment naturally lends itself to doing. Many teachers and educators who teach primarily via the didactic method find it challenging to remove themselves from the experiential learning process. This is a fully comprehensible hiccup. However, it’s so important that both stages of the model – the experience and debrief – are the student’s own. The student-led process appears especially effective because it differs from the way students have chiefly been conditioned to learn at school. When students are provided the opportunity to own their learning, when they know the floor is theirs alone to stand on and speak from, it is remarkable what lessons they teach themselves, each other, and sometimes even us.

Adrian Mercer