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Debriefing Students
Index:
Debriefing: why?
Debriefing: making sense of experience
Debriefing: role in preparation and in monitoring
Debriefing and assessment
Models of debriefing
A possible schedule for the debriefing interview
Sample questions
Debriefing: why?
Students usually return from abroad bursting to talk of their experience. They typically feel that the experience has transformed them quite profoundly, that it has been an educational experience in the fullest sense of the word. It is important to them affectively to have the changes recognised by the home university. The value of residence abroad to the individual student may well be diminished if there is apparently no recognition by others, particularly those who hold authority for their university education, of the learning process they have undergone. The debriefing is thus important emotionally and psychologically for the students, in validating the learning experience they have undergone.
Debriefing: making sense of experience
Debriefing can also perform four other vital functions. Firstly, it can inaugurate the period of reflection which helps students make sense of their experience and evaluate more objectively what its value to them has been. This can also help to integrate the experience into their CV and preparations for seeking employment.
Debriefing: role in preparation and in monitoring
Debriefing can also be a means of passing the experience gained about particular places, roles, problems and strategies to those about to leave: the returner is a key source of information for the departer, and far more authoritative, in student eyes, than official briefings. It is therefore desirable that the findings of the debriefing should be fed into the preparation of students yet to complete residence abroad. Thirdly, debriefing also informs staff of the current reality of arrangements: any issues raised should feed into the support and monitoring of future cohorts.
Debriefing and assessment
Finally, debriefing contributes to the assessment of residence abroad. It is an occasion on which paperwork can be verified, projects or diaries submitted and discussed. It can be the final part of residence abroad assessment. If all or part of it is conducted in the target language, tutors can get an idea of language progress - either formally for assessment purposes, or as part of ongoing monitoring of and reflection on residence abroad arrangements. This may include empirical research into the period of residence abroad.
Models of debriefing
Various models of debriefing exist. It may take the form of a one-to-one interview with a member of staff, a group interview with a member of staff, or a student project which turns their experience into advice for others, in the shape of a group video, group booklet or group presentation.
A possible schedule for the debriefing interview
Departmental practice will determine whether it is conducted in English or L2, and whether the candidate=s L2 performance is assessed as part of year-abroad or final-year assessment. The local context will determine whether a single staff member has responsibility for debriefing, or whether every personal tutor undertakes his/her share. The fewer the interviewers, the less co-ordination is required and the more reliable are any resulting assessment marks; but having more interviewers reduces the burden on individuals and usefully involves everyone in residence abroad provision – which is after all as central a feature of a language degree as language tuition, and arguably more significant in its learning outcomes.
Departmental practice will have determined the specific objectives residence abroad seeks to achieve. It is recommended that these will have been incorporated into an individual learning contract which will be the outcome of a preparatory course unit/module, and which students will have signed after full discussion with staff.
Staff should bear in mind the multiple functions of residence abroad debriefing:
- to show the student that we value the educational experience s/he has just been through, and thus reinforce its value in his/her eyes too
- to help them reflect on the experience, make sense of the jumble of impressions
- to help them structure the learning during residence abroad into a plan for the future, e.g. how to maintain language proficiency, how to update their CV to reflect the changes
- to obtain feedback which will inform (a) our own practice on preparation, support and monitoring, assessment, arrangements with our links (b) students already there or about to go
- to contribute to assessment by verifying paperwork, projects, diaries, reports, etc.
As with any interview, the setting should be informal, both parties relaxed, arrangements made to prevent interruptions. However, staff might usefully consider recording some interviews, in order to (a) help standardise assessment across different interviewers (b) contribute to staff discussion on how to conduct interviews (c) feed into materials to be produced by staff or returning students which will help the preparation of students yet to go.
Sample questions
1. General questions: Factual: where did you spend your year abroad?
- How did you get on?
- Did you enjoy it?
- Did you feel you benefited from it?
- In what ways?
2. Specific Objectives: Do you feel your language improved?
- Which aspects of language: Speaking, understanding speech, writing, reading?
- Do you think you have changed as a person? How?
- Did you improve any transferable or work-related skills which might contribute to your CV?
- Do you feel you know the French/Germans/Italians/ etc. and their way of life better now? Can you give some examples?
- Were there any surprises?
- How did the project/dissertation research/teaching/work placement go? What were the courses like at the university? Did you pass the assessments?
- Do you feel that you are now better equipped to live and work in a different culture? How have your attitudes changed?
3. How do you plan to build on what you learnt last year? Specifically, how will you keep practising the language?
Prof. James A. Coleman
2000