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Reviewing Skills Training

ABOUT ROGER GREENAWAY | REVIEWING SKILLS TRAINING | MISSION STATEMENT | DEFINITIONS | CONTACT DETAILS | CLIENTS & COSTS | REVIEWING FOR ALL
 

Roger Greenaway 2016
Roger in Shanghai 2013
Roger Greenaway 2015
Roger at ITOL convention in Edinburgh 2006
Roger Denmark Workshop 2010
Roger Greenaway
working with pictures
Roger Greenaway
Roger in Shanghai 2013
Roger Poland 2014
Roger Denmark 2010
About Dr. Roger Greenaway 
email: roger@reviewing.co.uk

I love developing ever better ways of doing reviewing. Most reviewing methods that you find here are ones that I have invented, developed or refined to improve the quality of reviewing in some way - whether it is to make it faster or deeper or more engaging and inclusive; whether is it to make reviewing more focused or more fun - or all of these things at the same time.

After 18 years of teaching, training and trainer-training, I realised that my growing interest in reviewing skills and methods was an area of practice that is critical for success for anyone who facilitates learning from experience.

For many teachers, trainers and consultants it is the reviewing process (also known as 'debriefing') that happens to be the most challenging part of their work.

Exactly what people find challenging varies from one culture to another (work culture or national culture). But whatever the challenge I have found that the solution often lies in giving learners something to do that will assist their reflection and their ability to communicate their experiences and ideas to others.

I firmly believe that the ability to learn from experience is one of the most important skills that a person can have. So I train people to develop ways in which they can help those they work with to learn from what they do.

Effective reviewing skills are at the heart of successful experience-based learning. That is why I chose to specialise in 'Reviewing Skills Training'.

Active and creative reviewing techniques (basic or advanced) ...

  • can help to speed up, clarify or enrich communication about experiences
  • can immensely improve the quality and enjoyment of discussion-based reviews
  • and can be used by learners of all ages, abilities, 'learning styles' and cultures.

What I contribute to active learning ...

My ideas about facilitation ...

Facilitation is about making learning easy [but not too easy - see my article on 'The Art of Reviewing']. We can facilitate learning by...
  • enhancing learners' experiences - by raising their awareness levels during experiences and making it easy for them to communicate their experiences during reviews.
  • developing learners' own reviewing abilities - initially by encouraging and helping them to reflect on their experiences from a range of different perspectives
  • improving learners' understanding of their own learning processes - so that they become better (experiential) learners.
This approach keeps learners centre stage and it focuses on the obvious but essential elements of learning from experience - what learners experience and how learners learn from these experiences. Our job is to make learners experts.

How I started ...

I provided my first training course in reviewing skills in 1983 while I was working for the Brathay Hall Trust - still very much a centre of innovation in development training with youth and adult courses.

In 1993, with the publication of my second handbook about reviewing Playback: A Guide to Reviewing Activities (for the Duke of Edinburgh's Award), I decided to make reviewing skills training my main specialism. I have been training trainers, educators and facilitators ever since - in the fields of youth and adult training and education. (See my client list.)  

What I provide and where ...

I have worked in 36 countries as well as throughout my home country (the UK) to provide training and consultancy in reviewing and related skills. There seems to be no limit to the kinds of environment (indoors or outdoors) in which people want to develop reviewing and facilitation skills. I enjoy the challenge of developing new ways to adapt and apply these skills in new situations.

I have provided training in reviewing skills in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, Macau, Malaysia, Namibia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the UK and the USA. I have also presented workshops at EEEurope conferences in Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy and Slovenia. And I have worked as a trainer and facilitator in the UK, Ethiopia and Iran.

Clients and costs ....

I provide training and consultancy throughout the UK and worldwide for developing practical debriefing (reviewing) and facilitation skills.

Management Development

While working at Brathay (1981-87) I designed, marketed, facilitated and directed outdoor management development programmes. Clients were from banking, retail, industrial and public sectors, including IBM, JLP, Barclays, Plessey and Sainsburys. My PhD was a study of Powerful Learning Experiences in Management Learning and Development (University of Lancaster, 1995). Since 1995, my primary involvement with management development has been in training providers of management development programmes in facilitation and reviewing skills (see 'Clients of Reviewing Skills Training'). In recent years I have been training managers in "Big Picture Thinking" and in converting reviewing methods into management tools.

Published writing on reviewing / debriefing

Roger's Articles on debriefing include:
Active Reviewing, The Group Relations Training Association (1983), How Transfer Happens, Brathay's Organisation Development: Topical Papers (2002);  The Art of Reviewing, The Journal of the Institute of Training and Occupational Learning (2002); Practical Debriefing (2004) and Training for Transfer (2005) both in Fenman's Trainer-Training series.

Roger's Chapters on debriefing include:
Facilitation and Reviewing in Outdoor Education in 'The RHP Companion to Outdoor Education' (2003); and Dynamic Debriefing in ‘The Handbook of Experiential Learning' (2007); The Value of Other Ways of Learning and Development in 'Other Ways of Learning' (2008); Reviewing and Reflection: Connecting People to Experiences with Clifford Knapp in 'The International Handbook of Outdoor Studies' (2016).

Roger's Books on debriefing include:
More Than Activities (1990)
Playback: a Guide to Reviewing Activities (1993)
Reviewing Adventures : why and how? (1996)
Active Reviewing (2015)

More details of articles, chapters and books are in my full list of publications.

I also regularly publish my own articles about reviewing / debriefing here in: The Active Reviewing Guide.

Workshops and presentations on reviewing / debriefing

Workshops at conferences include:
Active and Creative Reviewing, Washington DC (1994); Processing the Experience - a Balancing Act, AEE, Nova Scotia (1996);  Moving Bodies, Moving Minds, EEE, Italy (2001); Visual Voices, EEE, Netherlands (2003); Expanding Experience, EEE, Czech Republic (2004); Learning from Reality and Learning from Metaphor, EEE, Turkey (2005); Making and Using Metaphor Maps, EEE, Germany (2006); Seeking New and Better Ways of Learning, EEE, Scotland (2007); Generating Participation and Developing Questioning Skills, EARCOS, Thailand (2007); 'Less is more' applied to programmes and activities, EEE, Estonia (2011); Seeing the Big Picture: zooming in and zooming out, EEE, Slovenia (2011); Highways and Byways: Ten Time-Savers for Facilitators of Learning, Metalog, Germany (2013); Reviewing Often: "always on" reflection, EEE, Hungary (2013); Learning from triumphs and disasters, Poland (2014); Experiential learning in the workplace, EEE, Italy (2015); The Experience of Reviewing, EEE, Romania (2016); Quick and Inclusive Reviewing, Festival of Outdoor Learning, Lindley (2016). Also see this list of workshops offered by Roger

Presentations include:
The Transfer of Learning and Development (keynote), Germany (2004); Why Active Reviewing? How can we use it with teams?, Business-Edu, Romania (2007); Reflecting with Energy (keynote), ICEL, Santiago, Chile (2011); The Game After the Game (keynote), Agile Games, Boston, USA (2013); Strategies and methods for reviewing with large groups, Metalog, Germany (2013); Experiential Learning: What makes it work well? (keynote), Experiential Education Pakistan, Karachi (2016).

Clients of Reviewing Skills Training

Clients I have worked for include:
Ashridge Business School, England; AS Training and Consulting, Romania; Centrex National Police Training, England; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Ethiopia; RAF Cranwell, UK; Organisationspsykologerne, Denmark; Industrial Management Institute, Iran; Interaction Learning and Development, England; I Will Not Complain International, China and Japan; Institute of Adventure Counselling, Hong Kong; Schouten and Nelissen, Netherlands; Professional Way, China; Adventure Learning, Chile; Tshwane University of Technology, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa; Youth in Adventure, Namibia; Management Development Network, UK. (See my full client listing and testimonials)

Roger's Education

BA (Hons) American Studies, University of East Anglia, 1973; PGCE (Distinction), Bangor, UCNW, 1975; PhD in Management Learning, University of Lancaster, 1995.

Contact
If you have any questions or comments please write to me at roger@reviewing.co.uk


Reviewing Skills Training

Practical, inspirational and flexible training
that helps to make your courses
more satisfying, effective and successful.

For the latest information about workshops, seminars,
training, consultancy and publications,
or for enquiries about tailor-made events, please contact:


Roger Greenaway, Reviewing Skills Training
9 Drummond Place Lane   STIRLING FK8 2JF   SCOTLAND
tel/fax +44 (0)1786 450968 during office hours GMT (UK time)
e-mail: roger@reviewing.co.uk

View my public profile on LinkedIn

NEXT: The Mission of Reviewing Skills Training

[Workshops are introduced on a separate page.]



Mission, Vision & Values 

Mission

Reviewing Skills Training promotes active approaches to learning and development.

Vision

The vision of Reviewing Skills Training is to be a leading UK and international provider of services promoting the development of imaginative and effective reviewing.

Values

Reviewing Skills Training promotes methods of work that enable people of all abilities to use their experiences (in life, education, training or work) as a major source of learning, development and empowerment.



DEFINITIONS AND EXPLANATIONS

Some of the terminology in the Mission Statement may not travel well, so here is a clarification of the terms used in the mission, vision and values statements above.
'reviewing': bringing out responses to experiences in ways that enhance their value, their impact and their benefits. Alternative terms for 'reviewing' are 'debriefing', 'reflection' and 'processing'.

'active approaches to learning and development': are commonly found in fields such as: PSD (personal and social development), vocational training, outdoor education, development training, managerial learning and development, HRD (human resources development) and OD (organisation development).

'services': these currently include training, consultancy, presentations and publications. Services will be extended - face to face, via the internet and other media - depending on what new technology makes possible.

'experience-based approaches to learning and development': a broad and varied collection of alternatives to more passive and academic styles of learning. Alternative and associated terms are: 'hands on learning', 'learning by doing', 'learning from experience', 'experiential learning', 'experiential education', 'development training', 'experience-based learning and development', 'lifelong learning'.

NEXT: Reviewing for All

  

Reviewing is for everyone. We all do it.
It is how we learn, grow and develop ...

  • Anyone can benefit from reviewing everyday experiences - whether these experiences disappoint or delight us.
  • We can add value to successful experiences by reviewing them. While celebrating our successes we can also learn more about how success was achieved.
  • We can also learn from mistakes and 'unsuccessful' experiences. We can learn how to cope with them, avoid them or turn them to advantage.
Reviewing is a balancing act: if you only review when things go wrong people associate reviewing with 'bad' experiences, and may lose their interest in reviewing. Remember to review success as well! See Reviewing Success for ideas about how to do so.

For a more detailed introduction to reviewing and its benefits see
Reviewing & Debriefing - What, Why and How

About Reviewing   About Roger Greenaway

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ROGER GREENAWAY | REVIEWING SKILLS TRAINING | MISSION | DEFINITIONS | CONTACT DETAILS | REVIEWING FOR ALL
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