HOME |
ACTIVE
Reviewing Tips
|
HELP |
---|
Roger Greenaway's Active Reviewing Tips ~ ISSN 1465-8046
is no longer published but you
can view more back
issues in the ARCHIVES For Roger's blog and other writings please see the Guide to Active Reviewing |
|
Practical tips on
how to design a reviewing strategy for experiential learning
progammes. Reviewing = processing / debriefing / reflection ARTips 13.4 Designs for
Reviewing: 10 Tips
~ 1 ~ EDITORIAL: Planning to Improvise
~ 2 ~ ARTICLE: Designs for Reviewing: 10 Tips ~ 3 ~ EVENTS: ... including Roger's workshops ~ 4 ~ LAST AND NEXT ISSUE: More on design ~ 5 ~ About Active Reviewing Tips When I am not writing Active Reviewing Tips I am providing training workshops around the world on the topics I write about. |
~ 1
~ EDITORIAL: PLANNING TO IMPROVISE Have you ever heard (or said) this? ... 'I am responsive and flexible: I don't need to plan or prepare.' In this issue of Active Reviewing Tips I will show you how you can both plan and prepare for reviewing (debriefing) in ways that do not make you any less responsive and flexible. In fact planning a whole reviewing strategy for a programme can give you even more scope for responsiveness and improvisation. Improvised jazz often follows a clear structure but the notes to be played are decided in the moment. The notes and rhythms can match, echo or contrast, but if the improvisations are too predictable, the life goes out of the music. In facilitation, much the same principles hold true. Create an enabling structure. But participants will sense if you are following a script too closely. And you would surely feel frustrated if responses from participants seemed scripted, shallow and predictable? We can plan a reviewing strategy without turning facilitation into a tightly scripted and predictable activity. The best strategies can give us even more opportunity to respond creatively - bringing real energy and focus to the process of review and reflection. Having no plan at all (winging it) might sometimes work out well. But more often than not, poor preparation reduces the choices available both for facilitators and learners - as you and they slip into a mediocre and predictable default mode. However much you currently plan your reviewing strategy in advance, I hope you will find some useful ideas in the article below about how to do so in ways that help you to make reviewing a more engaging and significant process. Roger Greenaway roger@reviewing.co.uk PS Your feedback will spur me to write more frequently and will steer me towards the kind of articles and writing style that will make you a loyal reader and a global ambassador for Active Reviewing Tips! |
~ 2
~ ARTICLE: DESIGNS FOR REVIEWING: 10 TIPS [Later articles in this design series focus on the design of reviewing sessions and on the design of reviewing methods.] DESIGNS FOR REVIEWING: 10 TIPSThis article is about PROGRAMME DESIGN with a focus on reviewing. It provides 10 practical tips on how to design a reviewing strategy for experiential learning progammes:
1. ENSURE THAT YOUR PROGRAMME DESIGN PROTECTS REVIEW TIME You may have noticed that whenever a programme is running late it is usually review time that suffers. The first challenge is to design a programme in a way that protects this fragile review time. Do not fall at this first hurdle: if the time allocated for reviewing gets squeezed out - reviewing will be happening in a rush or not at all. The usual 'enemy' of review time is the activities to be reviewed taking longer than planned. So make a plan that reduces the chances these other parts of the programme will over-run. One small change can make a big difference. Instead of scheduling reviewing to happen straight after an activity, plan to take a break and start the next session with a review. Such a change helps to protect review time. This change also means that participants will be arriving fresh and energised for the review. This is not always the best choice, but if you are locked into the normal pattern of scheduling reviewing at the (shrinking) end of a session, you now have an extra choice: which is to plan reviewing into the start of the following session. This design strategy also lends itself to 'Reflection Before Action' which is described in a separate article at: http://reviewing.co.uk/articles/Reflection-Before-Action.pdf 2. SCHEDULE YOUR FIRST REVIEW AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE Consider the option of starting the programme with a reflective exercise - which can be playful if you want it to double as an energiser. It is not always necessary to generate a fresh experience before you can review something. We all have an extraordinary range of experiences on which we can draw for further reflection and learning. I try to make an early review a celebration of positive experiences related to the course objective. Brief Encounters is a handy way of achieving this. You will need to tailor the questions to the course objective unless the course happens to be about success: http://reviewing.co.uk/success/icebreaker.htm So you can start a programme with a review, but why would this be a good idea? - it demonstrates that review and reflection is a valued part of the learning process right from the start. - it saves time because you do not first need to generate an experience in order to facilitate experiential learning: you are off to a quick start. - it serves as a handy example of what reviewing can be (see next) 3. INCLUDE A PARTICIPATORY DEMONSTRATION OF ACTIVE REVIEWING Ensure that your programme design includes a section early on in which active reviewing is explained as being a significant part of the learning process. Ideal timing for this explanation is soon after the group have first experienced a fine example of active reviewing! You could for example, include an explanation soon after a reviewing activity such as Brief Encounters. Follow these first three tips and you will have a programme design that protects review time and you could have participants experiencing, enjoying and appreciating the value of reviewing within the first half hour of your programme. Both the programme structure and the participants are now supporting reviewing. And you are already way ahead of the competition who have yet to finish their introductory lecture about experiential learning ;-) 4. CHOOSE THE REVIEWING METHODS BEFORE YOU CHOOSE THE ACTIVITIES This is (in part) another strategy for protecting review time because it involves scheduling all the reviews before scheduling the other features of the programme. This is an alternative to the common practice of placing reviews in the time gaps left over when everything else is in place. This design process may seem illogical if you have yet to try it. The logic is as follows: - experiential learning is a combination of 'activity' and 'reflection' - participants are best served when there is an optimal balance between 'activity' and 'reflection' - when activities are the first items to be placed in a programme design, it is very likely that the balance will be skewed too much towards activities even at the design stage. - if review time is less than ideal, the quality of learning suffers, whereas it is relatively straightforward to find or devise suitable activities to fit in the time available. This is not an argument for tipping the balance in the other direction: it is simply an approach to programme design that is more likely to result in the optimal balance that you believe will be most effective. 5. BEGIN WITH THE EXPERIENCE IN MIND Design is a creative process, so it pays to work with a medium that lends itself to creative thinking. I like to work with a stimulating collection of picture postcards. - From a pool of pictures I ask programme designers to choose pictures representing participant emotions which they expect or want to happen at some point during the programme. - I ask the designers to place their pictures on a time line which starts before the programme and finishes after the programme. - I provide sticky labels for people to write labels for any pictures that do not have a clear enough meaning. - Once a sequence is agreed, an optional creative step is to ask whether the sequence would work in reverse. (Often it will and can lead to some creative breakthroughs in design.) - I now ask the design team to put cards with names of reviewing methods at suitable places on the timeline. A method might be 'suitable' because it is a good way of generating, or working with, the kinds of experiences represented on the nearby pictures. If you are designing a programme for experience-based learning then it is important at some stage in the planning to look at the desired (or likely) sequence of emotional experiences. Of course you will want to look at the desired (or likely) sequence of learning too. (See next) 6. DESIGN A PROGRESSIVE SEQUENCE OF REVIEW SESSIONS There are many candidates (models, theories, traditions, journeys, stories) from which you can create a suitable flow or sequence in a programme. Relying on just one sequence for design is unlikely to be sufficient if you are attempting to produce a holistic learning design, but I will use just one model as an example. The Active Reviewing Cycle is a model that arose from my study of facilitators with good reputations. It represents the kind of sequence that they generally followed within a single reviewing session. More recently I have been using this same sequence for programme design. In other words I am applying the cycle to a longer time scale. The first two stages of the cycle are FACTS and FEELINGS. Taken together these stages typically involve storytelling (stories of experience). Focusing on facts produces a descriptive account of what happened and focusing on feelings draws attention to individual and group feelings experienced during the event being described. This means that in the early part of a programme I will mostly be using methods that help learners to tell stories about experiences. This places experience at the centre of experiential learning. Paying attention to experience can be a remarkably effective way of generating a mutually supportive (and evidence-based) learning climate. Around mid-way in a programme I will tend to focus on the third stage: FINDINGS. This stage is represented by the spade symbol and involves digging deeper into the reasons why things happen. The review methods at this stage help people to find and discover new learning from their experiences. Towards the end of the programme I would have a concentration of reviewing methods that focus on the FUTURE while still making strong connections with experiences and learning so far. Some FUTURE methods also fit well at the beginning of the programme and immediately before an activity, but if you do too much 'future' work there is a risk that you are neglecting the core process of reflecting on past and present experience Single review sessions will generally include at least one complete reviewing cycle, but over the programme as a whole, reviewing methods that bring out FACTS and FEELINGS tend to be used most near the beginning, methods that are good for bringing out FINDINGS are most useful in the middle, and methods that look to the FUTURE are most useful towards the end. There are many other good rationales for sequencing and shaping a programme, but if you want to see some examples of reviewing methods matched to the Active Reviewing Cycle see: http://reviewing.co.uk/learning-cycle/index.htm 7. WORK BACKWARDS FROM THE END, FORWARDS FROM THE START AND OUTWARDS FROM THE MIDDLE This kind of planning is most easily done with cards and a time line, and ideally with other people in your planning/design team. - Ask your planning team which reviewing methods they think will be most suitable and effective for the participants to achieve their learning objectives. - For each proposed reviewing method, write down its name on a card (one name per card). - The first card sort involves placing each card into one of three sets: 'beginning', 'middle' and 'end'. (If you provide 'pre-work' and 'follow-up' create extra sets of cards for reviewing methods that can be used before and after the programme.) - The next card sort involves arranging each set of cards into a likely sequence. - If the timeline includes start, finish and break times you can also do a provisional test to see if you have too many, too few or about the right number of cards (methods) to fit the schedule. - With different coloured cards you can now create cards for each activity or input or any other element that you want to fit into your programme. 8. PLACE THE ACTIVITIES AND OTHER PROGRAMME ITEMS IN THE SPACES A useful experience-focused question to ask is: 'What
kind of activity is likely to create the kinds of
experiences that would be good to review using this method?' Some examples might help: - if you want to use Action Replay, then the more action there is in the activity the more suitable it will be for a replay. Action Replay is a struggle if the activity involved a lot of sitting or standing around without a lot of movement. Because Action Replay can be used for subgroups to inform each other about what they were doing in a separate location, a replay does not need to be limited to activities in which the whole group was together. - if you want to use the Missing Person method it works best when the group can refer to a number of group activities rather than referring to just one activity. It also fits better after a challenging activity that highlights the need for better teamwork - and while there are still a few activities to come in which the 'Missing Person' can help the group focus on better performance. - if you want to use a group feedback exercise such as Spokes, then it is important that the activity being reviewed was one in which everyone was busy doing something that was mostly in the view of everyone else. In other words, if everyone has had the chance of being noticed during the activity there is more chance that others will be able to comment on their performance. - for paired feedback exercises such as Learning Buddies, Goal Keepers, Empathy Test or Egoing, the quality of feedback is better if each pair was working closely together during the activity. Such activities might be ones where pairs sit together or walk together or where the group moves in a line and they are next to each other in the line. This also works for activities where the group is split into two shifts that alternate between the doing shift and the observing shift. The more that you use active reviewing methods the more you will notice a blurring between what is an activity and what is a review. I choose to put a positive spin on any such confusion by referring to it as 'integrated practice'. I feel that I have reached this point both by working backwards from review processes and by developing review methods that pay attention to what participants are doing and experiencing during the review method itself. I will save examples of integrated practice for a future issue, because to do so now would spoil the relative tidiness of the programme design processes that I am outlining in these tips. 9. HOLISTIC CHECKS AND BALANCES When designing a programme in which you want to tap into the power of holistic and experiential ways of working, there is probably an infinite array of dimensions that you could consider. But it is unwise and unnecessary to overload your design effort with a multitude of holistic considerations. Fortunately many of these dimensions are present without being designed in to the process. This is largely because you are working with whole persons who bring 'everything' with them and who will be breathing life into your programme design as they participate. However ... there are some handy design tools and models that can help you to check that there is sufficient variety and balance in the opportunities that your programme provides. 9.1 Learning Style Preferences Over 100 so-called 'learning style preferences' have been identified by various theorists. Most individual theories include styles in these 5 areas: doing, sensing, thinking, planning and integrating. Because any group of people (whatever their job roles) is likely to include a broad range of learning style preferences, a review strategy should aim to include all such preferences - if you want full participation in reviewing sessions. There is no need to exclude people with an 'activist' self-description from active reviewing! 9.2 Right Brain, Left Brain A simpler check is to see whether your overall reviewing strategy will continually exercise both 'right brains' and 'left brains'. Does your reviewing strategy regularly include creative, intuitive and expressive tasks as well as tasks involving logic, language and analytical thinking? Recent research has shown that the brain is not nearly as dichotomous as the popular version of right-left brain theory implies. For example, the best maths is achieved when both halves of the brain work together. (Source: http://digbig.com/5bfadk) My belief is that the best reviewing methods are those that get the whole brain working. Why use half a brain when you have a whole one? 9.3 The Combination Lock Model Colin Beard has certainly applied his whole brain to developing the Combination Lock model which he describes in The Experiential Learning Toolkit. Unlike the previous two 'models', this one is designed specifically with experiential learning in mind. The model works a bit like a fruit machine with a row of 6 variables. There is no jackpot and there is no preferred combination. It is more of a creative tool to help a designer of experiential learning to consider a wider range of possibilities in these six areas: Belonging, Doing, Sensing, Feeling, Knowing, Being. All of which, in my view, apply just as much as they do to reviewing processes as they do to the experiences being reflected upon. A full review of The Experiential Learning Toolkit is now at: http://reviewing.co.uk/reviews/experiential-learning-toolkit.htm 9.4 There is always another dimension Any list of holistic 'things' is never-ending, but I feel I must include one more design perspective because it is so different from those already mentioned - and because I find it so useful. It is John Heron's 6 x 3 matrix found in the Complete Facilitator's Handbook. You may not want to include all 18 combinations, but it is worth paying close attention to the 3 items in the second dimension: Hierarchical, Cooperative and Autonomous ways of working. John Heron describes the value of moving around between these three basic facilitation modes. So one check you can run on the reviewing methods selected for your programme is to look at the overall balance of power across the facilitation modes associated with each reviewing method. Are you keeping tight control at the right times? Are you giving it all away at the right times? Do the chosen methods involve 'working with' participants at appropriate times? None of the four 'holistic checks and balances' listed above will give you a sequence for your design. But any of these checks will help to ensure that, overall, your reviewing sessions are varied and balanced in terms of the model to which you are referring. If nothing else these sorts of checks and balances will get you out of a rut you didn't know you were in, and in doing so you may happen across ways of helping participants get out of theirs. 10. TEST AND EVALUATE No design is complete until it is tested - so a suitable test needs to be built into the design. Some people approach this kind of process by trying to tweak a design until it is as perfect as can be. As a result of the 'tweaking' approach people tend to stay close to the original model 'because it has been tested'. But what about all of the other possible models that haven't been tested? Could they be even better? So when evaluating a programme (or a reviewing design) be clear whether you want a gentle tweak test or something more revolutionary. If you make bold experiments with a range of very different designs you will get a much better feel for what really matters - and you could find yourself saying goodbye to a few sacred cows. You might even conclude that most effective programmes are the freshly designed ones. You will find 42 ideas about programme evaluation at: http://reviewing.co.uk/evaluation/methods1.htm Your feedback will spur me to write more frequently and will steer me towards the kind of articles and writing style that will make you a loyal reader and a global ambassador for Active Reviewing Tips! I'm just a click away - and so are your friends and colleagues who may be interested in these ideas about design. Roger Greenaway roger@reviewing.co.uk POSTSCRIPT: The second article in this design series is now at: http://reviewing.co.uk/archives/art/13_5_designing_review_sessions.htm |
~ 3 ~ EVENTS:
FACILITATION TRAINING (VARIOUS PROVIDERS) If you are a provider of facilitation training, please send me the details if you would like the details included in future issues of Active Reviewing Tips. 9th November 2011 Essential Facilitation Skills London, Liverpool & Birmingham (+ Scottish venue on 10th November) with ITOL the Institute for Training and Occupational Learning http://itol.org/index.php?page=essential-facilitaion-skills-dates 10th November 2011 Council for Learning Outside the Classroom Annual Conference 'Striving for Excellence in LOtC' Condover Hall, Shropshire http://lotc.org.uk 11th November 2011 METALOG® training tools Workshop Newcastle METALOG® training tools are multifaceted interaction activities and learning projects for indoor and outdoor use http://www.metalogtools.co.uk/en_gb/workshops/ 12th November Brecht and Stanislavski - Two Giants Toynbee Studios, London Mandy McKenna Through practical exercises you will explore the different approaches of these two giants of theatre and experiment with their effects on performance. You will finish the day by making two scenes using the same subject matter but using the techniques of each practitioner. http://dramaresource.com/courses/directing 16th November 2011 Reviewing / Active Learning Copenhagen Roger Greenaway with Jacob Lindeblad Day 1 (16th) is in English. Day 2 (17th) is in Danish. http://www.lindeblad.dk/ticket2learn_narrativ.asp 18th November 2011 Active Reviewing in the Outdoors with Roger Greenaway Borwick Hall, Carnforth, Lancashire LA6 1JU http://digbig.com/5bdnra 18th November 2011 Lead Practitioner training - Supporting my Teen to Learn Train to lead this 12 hour programme to introduce parents and carers of 12-19 yrs olds to a range of strategies and approaches that will support their Teens to become more effective, successful learners and to overcome barriers to learning. University of the First Age Birmingham http://www.eventelephant.com/SMT2L 24 -26th November, 2011 Using Creativity in Outdoor Programmes Venue: Gilfach Wen, Brechfa Forest, near Carmarthen Provider: University of Wales Trinity St David For outdoor educators interested in tasks for "opening up" groups through the use of creative approaches such as art, film, drama. Course Leader: Bill Krouwel Contact: w.krouwel@tsd.ac.uk or ring on 01267676663 28th November - 2nd December 2011 Ecopsychology: A Revolution at Home David Key & Mary-Jayne Rust Schumacher College, Devon http://digbig.com/5behrd DISCLAIMER: READER BEWARE I do not guarantee anything about the quality (or even the existence of!) events advertised in this message. You are advised to make your own judgements about quality and authenticity of any events listed above. For details of events after November, see the full calendar at: http://reviewing.co.uk/outdoor/notices.htm ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ REVIEWING SKILLS TRAINING WORKSHOPS If you would like to host an open event or arrange for an in- house customised trainer-training programme please get in touch. Write to: <roger@reviewing.co.uk> Or view the sample training workshops at <http://reviewing.co.uk> Up to index
|
~ 4
~ PREVIOUS AND NEXT ISSUE OF ACTIVE REVIEWING TIPS PREVIOUS ISSUE Real Reviewing: Getting Beyond Cliches is now at: http://digbig.com/5beysb FORTHCOMING ISSUES Future issues will continue with the design theme: - designing active reviewing sessions - designing active reviewing methods - sample designs for learning and development - integrated practice in experiential learning (when does an activity become a review? when does a review become an activity? examples of integrated practice - and do these challenge or demonstrate experiential learning theory?) Please let me know what you would like to see in a future issue of Active Reviewing Tips. |
~ 5 ~ About Active Reviewing Tips EDITOR: Dr. Roger Greenaway, Reviewing Skills Training 9 Drummond Place Lane STIRLING Scotland UK FK8 2JF Feedback, recommendations, questions: roger@reviewing.co.uk ARCHIVES: <http://reviewing.co.uk/ezine1/art001.htm> The Guide to Active Reviewing is at <a href="http://reviewing.co.uk/">http://reviewing.co.uk</a> FROM GUESTBOOK: "I like the way you look at everything and then return to what is simple, effective and memorable." COPYRIGHT: Roger Greenaway 2011 Reviewing Skills Training |
Each month Active Reviewing Tips brings you:
|
ARCHIVES CONTENTS of this issue
HOME |
HELP |