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On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 11:03 AM, Heather Harkins <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
>
> *****************************************************************************
>
> Please email me if you practice debriefing at your own institution (you
> might refer to it in using another term), or if you have come across
> articles or resources about this kind of conversation in informal or
> formal environments, or if you have any other comments or insights.
>
>
When I co-facilitate, I always debrief with my colleague(s).  Mostly, this
is the sort of informal conversation you describe and I also find it very
helpful.  Sometimes, I have used a formal form to guide the reflection,
usually because I was working for someone else who required it.  Such a form
can be useful, if the questions/prompts are well-framed.  If not, it can
actually make the debrief less useful.

Project Kaleidoscope (www.pkal.org) taught me a debrief format for
leadership development activities that I think is useful in other settings
as well.  They spend ~10 minutes each on What (observations about what
happened, feelings, behaviors, etc), So What (what those feelings and
behaviors tell you about the leadership process, what you can learn from the
experience) and Now What (what will you do with these insights after you
leave the group).

In one of our large projects, we have college faculty and teachers as part
of the professional development faculty.  For that program, we do an
end-of-day debrief with the whole team and then we often do a second debrief
with just my program manager and me in which we focus more on the faculty's
responses, bigger picture issues with the participants (are they moving in
the direction we want with their learning? are there any large-scale group
dynamics issues?) and any management issues.

One thing I do not do at debriefs, that others seem to do a lot, is to
immediately go through the daily evaluations.  I prefer to debrief my own
impressions first and I find that my reactions to the participants' feedback
gets in the way of that.  Once I have done the debrief of my own reactions,
then I will got through the evaluations and incorporate that feedback.

Dave Smith

-- 
David L. Smith
Director of Professional Development
Da Vinci Science Center
Allentown, PA
http://www.davinci-center.org

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