The previous issue 'Reviewing for All' is now at

<http://reviewing.co.uk/archives/art/9_2.htm>

PAST: OCTOBER'S ISSUE

Do you ever press 'send' and wish you hadn't?

I had that feeling on sending out Reviewing For All last month. I

was quite pleased with what I sent out but I missed a connection

with an article of mine published 10 years ago called 'High

Quality Adventure FOR ALL'.

Whether or not outdoor adventure is part of your work, the basic

message applies - that 'high quality for all' applies to the

whole learning process and not just to the reflective part. But I

do still have a hunch that 9 times out of 10 it is the reflective

part of the process that is the least inclusive. In which case I

hope at least 9 out of 10 readers found some useful ideas in the

last issue about Reviewing for All.

If you happen to be an outdoor educator committed to equal

opportunities, take a look at High Quality Adventure for All

THE PRESENT ISSUE

The NEWS sections include:

- details of a 2 day open Reviewing Skills Training at the end of

January. Book by Thursday 13th December!

- details of other training events coming up in early 2008.

- the birth of a new announcement list 'EXPERIENTIAL-CPD' that

will keep you up to date with training events for experiential

facilitators in the UK. Free announcements for all providers of

events that qualify. Try it out (leaving the list is even easier

than joining it).

Go to http://reviewing.co.uk (panel top left)

This issue of ACTIVE REVIEWING TIPS is the 5th in a series:

REVIEWING FOR TEAMS will help you choose the reviewing methods

that will give you most chance of success in helping a team to be

more successful in what they do. They are mostly fun ways of

achieving serious goals.

This issue is also the 3rd part of my DYNAMIC DEBRIEFING series

in which I integrate experiential learning theory with

facilitation theory to produce a model of dynamic debriefing that

is about:

- sequencing questions

- keeping all learners engaged

- capturing the rhythm of learning and change.

- focused questioning.

- keeping in touch with learners' motivations.

- valuing learners' experience during the debrief.

- keeping the learning process moving.

- working with whole persons throughout the debrief.

- discouraging a routine approach to a dynamic phenomenon.

FUTURE ISSUES

Thanks you for suggestions received so far for future titles

which include:

Please fill in the blank with what you want! My contact details

are at the end of this ezine. Yes - you can influence what

appears in Active Reviewing Tips!

You can even directly contribute your own ideas. One way of doing

so is via the recently reopened Active Reviewing Exchange. ARTips

Exchange (as it is also known) is a moderated discussion group

You can learn more about it (and join) by visiting

http://reviewing.co.uk and clicking the link in the top left

panel.

Whether you join the group or write directly to me at

roger@reviewing.co.uk I look forward to hearing from you.

Roger Greenaway

~ 2 ~ REVIEWING FOR TEAMS

• Facilitating group development
• Facilitating team learning
• Facilitating team development
• Facilitating team building
• Facilitating team meetings
• Facilitating teamwork
• Developing each individual's teamworking skills so that they can readily play a useful role in any team
• Facilitating organisation development (big teams!)

~ 3 ~ FREE 4 FACILITATORS: 4 lists 4 you

NEW: EXPERIENTIAL-CPD is a brand new announcement list for UK

events. See option 4 below.

INTERACTIVE: If you want to discuss reviewing ideas with other

subscribers choose option 3 below.

1) YOU ARE HERE:

Active Reviewing Tips for Dynamic Experiential Learning

A free newsletter to recharge your reviewing and facilitation

skills maximum frequency: monthly

2) RECENTLY REVIVED:

Adventure Plus

Adventure and Experiential Education SiteFinder Ezine

Free site reviews for outdoor educators, trainers and researchers

maximum frequency: monthly

3) THE INTERACTIVE PARTNER TO ACTIVE REVIEWING TIPS

Active Reviewing Exchange (ARTips Exchange)

Active Reviewing Exchange is a moderated discussion group for

subscribers to the Active Reviewing Tips newsletter.

This group is for facilitators to exchange ideas stimulated by

the newsletter and to help each other develop ideas and practices

in active learning.

The focus is on maximising learning from experience - using

reflection and discussion or more creative and dynamic methods.

4) A BRAND NEW LISTING OF UK EVENTS

EXPERIENTIAL-CPD (continuing professional development)

Experiential-CPD is a new moderated announcement list where you

can announce or learn about upcoming training events in the UK

for outdoor educators and experiential trainers - on topics such

as facilitation skills, groupwork skills, course design, activity

design, working with specific client groups, etc.

Short, relevant announcements are welcome from all UK providers

of CPD for outdoor educators and experiential trainers.

(Announcements may be delayed for a week or so to group them into

one message.)

Go to http://reviewing.co.uk (panel top left)

~ 4 ~ DYNAMIC DEBRIEFING: MODELS OF DEBRIEFING

Dynamic Debriefing is the title of the chapter I wrote for the

Handbook of Experiential Learning (Silberman, April 2007)

Part 1 defines debriefing and asks 'What is Dynamic Debriefing?'

See <http://reviewing.co.uk/archives/art/9_1.htm>

Part 2 on The Role of the Facilitator is now at

<http://reviewing.co.uk/archives/art/9_2.htm>

Here is Part 3               [also available in Russian ]

MODELS OF DEBRIEFING

If the purpose of debriefing is to facilitate learning from

experience,it follows that a complete model of debriefing would

need to integrate experiential learning theory with facilitation

theory. Just as there are different kinds of experiential

learning, so there are different kinds of facilitation. This

creates many potential combinations for producing a theory of

debriefing!  John Heron (above) is one of the few writers who

combine both kinds of theory. Below is a list of what I would

consider to be the minimum requirements for a complete model of

debriefing. Against each requirement, I have suggested models

that have the potential for fulfilling that requirement - if

known.

A complete model of debriefing would include:

1. A model for sequencing questions to create a suitable flow and

direction to a learning conversation.

There are so many sequencing models to choose from (mostly

presented as cycles) that these are discussed later in a separate

section on 'sequencing in debriefing'.

2. A model for keeping all learners engaged when debriefing in a

group.

The pattern '1-2-All' is a good way to start a debrief (or a new

stage within a debrief). '1' = solo thinking time or writing time

or making a brief personal statement; '2' = talking in pairs;

'All' = whole group discussion. This kind of preparation helps to

generate higher levels of involvement and a higher quality of

group discussion. At any time, you can reverse the process using

'All-2-1'. The same or different pairs talk together and each

individual makes a note of their learning or of the next step

they wish to take. If appropriate, a session can end back in the

whole group with each individual invited to speak. '1-2-All-2-1'

can be used with most question sequences - because it is about

patterns of interaction rather than about the content of what is

said.

3. A model that captures the rhythm of learning and change.

John Dewey used the analogy of armies moving and resting; George

Kelly wrote about tight and loose construing; Kurt Lewin used the

terms freezing and unfreezing; for David Kolb it was convergent

and divergent thinking; for Terry Borton it was about switching

between analytic and contemplative modes. Borton recommends that

questions based on his 'What? So What? Now What?' cycle are asked

"... in two quite different manners. The first is the analytic

mode ... hard-driving, pointed, sharp, logical, tough and

rigorous. But [writes Borton] it is difficult for people to

change if they are put under much pressure, so we also employ a

contemplative mode, a more relaxed approach which avoids picking

at one's self and allows alternatives to suggest themselves

through free association and metaphor." (Borton, 1970:89) These

various to and fro motions are like the rhythm of pistons driving

a wheel: over-dependence on one piston could bring learning to a

grinding halt. The alternation of activity and debriefing

provides a large, slow, two-stroke rhythm; there is also scope

within debriefing to facilitate these 'to and fro' rhythms of

learning and change.

4. A model for focused questioning.

The debriefing funnel uses a succession of filters that focus in

at every stage (Priest and Gass, 1997:196). The six filters are:

review, recall and remember, affect and effect, summation,

application and commitment. Priest and Gass describe it as an

expansion of Borton's three questions: 'What? So What? Now What?'

The image of the funnel and its filters clearly aligns the model

with Borton's analytic mode but provides little encouragement for

divergent or contemplative thinking as part of the debriefing

process. A more complete model might include an inverted funnel

to prompt lateral or creative thinking or to promote a helicopter

view. The authors do encourage adaptation of this model and

encourage readers not to be bound by a single view of debriefing

as the only way to guide reflection. Thiagi's advice on preparing

questions for debriefing follows a similar pattern - moving from

'open' to 'probing' questions within each of his six stages: How

do you feel? What happened? What did you learn? How does it

relate? What if? What next? (Thiagarajan & Thiagarajan,

1999:37-47)

5. A model that keeps in touch with learners' motivations.

'Ripples on a Pond' (Race, 2003) emphasizes the driving force

that is missing from other learning models. Professor Phil Race

has developed his model based on questions he has asked to 'tens

of thousands of people' from schoolchildren to training managers.

He places 'wanting to learn' (or, as a second best 'needing to

learn') at the centre of his ripples model. The ripples lead

outwards through doing, making sense, feedback, training and

understanding. Race says you should also ripple inwards and keep

revisiting the central 'wanting to learn'. As an example, the

right kind of feedback (at the third ripple) adds to people's

desire to learn. The outer ripples will disappear if there is no

energy at the centre. Race points out that unlike cyclical models

of learning, all factors in his model are involved at the same

time. This is why he writes: "Any model based on a cycle won't

do". If following a cycle too rigidly, the learning process

becomes fragmented and loses touch with the whole as well as

losing touch with the heart: 'wanting to learn'.

6. A model that recognizes the importance of what learners'

experience during the debrief.

Race (above) underlines the importance of learners wanting to

learn, but this sixth 'requirement' goes further by recognizing

that the quality of the experience during the debrief also has a

significant impact on learners' motivations. It can also have a

significant impact on their learning and development: both the

experience being debriefed and the experience of the debrief are

potential sources of learning and development. These

possibilities are explored further in the next section about 'the

experience of debriefing'.

7. A model that helps to keep the learning process moving.

Perhaps 'spinning plates' is an apt metaphor here. It illustrates

how a facilitator needs to pay attention to many different

factors when debriefing in a group - and especially to the plate

that is most likely to fall next. The plate 'most likely to fall

next' may well be the 'wanting to learn' plate (as in Race's

model) but it could be any plate that has escaped recent

attention - and this keeps changing. (Greenaway, 2004)

8. A model about working with whole persons throughout the

debrief.

This is partly about how models are readily misinterpreted. As

soon as a model can be used as a sequence, it is - whatever its

author might say. Borton writes of his 'Sensing, Transforming,

Acting' model: "The model's three divisions are arbitrary, for

the processes do not function in a simple 1-2-3 fashion, but are

interwoven in a dynamic fashion." (Borton, 1970:78). After

describing all the factors in his 'Ripples in a Pond' learning

model, Race writes: "All these factors are involved at once"

(Race, 2003). It is difficult (though not impossible) to

represent dynamic, simultaneous or interweaving processes in a

model. Unfortunately, anything that looks like a sequence or a

cycle is likely to get applied as a one-thing-at-a-time linear

process - even when this is not the author's intention. Many

debriefing models are designed to be about working with whole

persons, but are interpreted and applied in ways that fragment

the integrated process intended by its originator. Borton warned

"do not dissect to disintegration," but many users of his 'What?

So What? Now What?' model do not know of author's warnings nor of

his advice about using the model.

9. A model that discourages a routine approach to a dynamic

phenomenon.

A primary function of a model is to provide a useful

simplification of complex realities. Is it possible to create a

model that simplifies while also staying in touch with the

complex reality that it models? In my own model of the debriefing

cycle (Greenaway, 2002), I use the four playing card suits

(diamonds, hearts, clubs and spades) with each suit representing

a stage of a learning cycle (facts, feelings, findings and

futures). A joker (representing freedom) is at the centre of the

cycle as a reminder that reality is more complex. Unlike other

cards, the joker has no preordained meaning - it is a wild card

that has an infinity of possible uses and it can be played at any

time. On its own, the joker would have little power, but when it

is ever-present as an option within a cycle (for the facilitator

or participants) the joker tends to bring about whatever is

needed. The joker makes it easy to customize or even abandon the

model. This inbuilt flexibility helps to ensure that debriefing

is both 'appropriate' and 'dynamic'. As a wild card, the joker

refuses any label, but is often seen wearing the blue hat

(process overview) of Edward de Bono's 'Six Thinking Hats' model

(de Bono, 1985). However, a multicolored rainbow hat would better

suit the image and function of the joker. (Greenaway, 2004)

A complete model of debriefing would include all of the above

(and more). But once a model gets too big and cumbersome, it

loses its value as a practical model even though it may have the

virtue of being more complete. Perhaps, every model should

include a wild-card joker as a reminder that a model is only a

guide and that good practice arises from using models

intelligently?

... to be continued in the next issue of Active Reviewing Tips

where you can learn about 'The experience of Debriefing' -

another extract from my chapter on Dynamic Debriefing in Mel

Silberman's 'Handbook of Experiential Learning' (2007). See

Amazon.co.uk: <http://digbig.com/4rwnf> or

Amazon.com:<http://digbig.com/4rwng>

~ 5 ~ EVENTS: REVIEWING SKILLS TRAINING OPEN WORKSHOPS

---

JANUARY 2008: Denmark

---

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~ 6 ~ TEAMWORK LINKS: REVIEWS OF TEAMWORK WEBSITES

TEAMWORK LINKS

selected reviews of websites about teams, teamwork and team

building exercises.

IDEAS ON TEAMS AND TEAMWORK

Bob Willard distils ideas from 40 books and presents them in well

indexed paragraphs. The original site disappeared earlier this

year but you can still retrieve this valuable document here:

TEAM LEARNING: UNLOCKING ORGANISATIONAL POTENTIAL

This report draws on a literature review as well as interviews

with practitioners to develop a checklist for the practice of

team learning. It finds that team learning involves:

 * building self-awareness, ownership and choice around the prior

 assumptions, beliefs and behaviour of each individual member of

 the team

 * identifying values and beliefs which they can share and

 promote with personal and group commitment

 * creating goals which are consistent with those values and

 beliefs

 * learning together, through practical application over a period

 of at least three months and with appropriate support and

 context, behaviours consistent with those values and beliefs.

Report compiled by Mary Ann Kernan with the support of Campaign

for Learning, published by The Talent Foundation, 2003

~ 7 ~ BOOKS for TEAM-BUILDING-WORKING-PLAYING-LEARNING

Please support SAVE THE CHILDREN by buying your books (and any

other Amazon goods) via the ACTIVE LEARNING BOOKSHOP.

The teambuilding-working-playing-learning 'bookshelves' are at:

where you will also find this review of Against Teambuilding:

AGAINST TEAMBUILDING

Teambuilding exercises can get a bad name because they do not go

far enough. In fact, the whole concept of 'building' a team has

been challenged by Ian Cunningham in his article 'Against

Teambuilding' in 'Organisations and People' [Vol.1, No.1, (1993)

Pages 13-15]. He prefers the concepts of 'team working' and 'team

development', warning that 'teambuilding' can have negative

consequences such as:

    * A team becoming closed and precious - and out of touch with

    the rest of the organisation - through thinking itself

    special and different.

    * Overuse of instruments and tests (e.g. Belbin, Myers-

    Briggs) so that the team's language and thinking is

    distorted.

    * Emphasis tends to be on quick fix events - the assumption

    is that once the team is 'built' it's OK to leave them to it.

    * Issues in the team are explored at a shallow level only.

    People's articulations of problems are taken at face value

    without exploring hidden agendas, power plays, status seeking

    etc.

    * Trainers and consultants often use exercises that are quite

    disconnected from work practice. Many fun exercises and

    simulations have a poor record of creating sustainable change

    inside organisations.

By whatever name, it is teams that make the world go round. What

do you have in your toolkit for making teams 'go round'?

Roger's Active Learning Bookshop has now raised over £500 for

Save the Children since January 2006. Thanks to everyone who has

been shopping at the Active Learning Bookshop.

If you have other purchases you want to make at Amazon please go

there via <http://reviewing.co.uk/reviews> Not only do you get a

good deal, so do children around the world who need our help.

I worked for Save the Children for 4 years so I know about the

value and quality of the work they do.

~ 8 ~ NEXT ISSUE: REVIEWING FOR BEGINNERS

Your friends can receive the next and future issues

Why keep it a secret?

FUTURE ISSUES: READERS LIKE YOU

What would make you think of a future issue as 'Reviewing for

Me'? or 'Reviewing for the People I Work With'? Your answer will

help me to extend the 'Reviewing For _' series by writing for

readers just like you!

Please send your answer to Roger at: roger@reviewing.co.uk