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Science Debriefing

Higher-level learning demands that students review, organize, analyze, clarify, interpret, and evaluate new information. Personal meaning is created, and other questions are generated for future thought. All of these processes are internal. Direct observation will provide little evidence of student effort or mastery. A structured debriefing in which students are asked to verbalize their learning can provide indicators of progress. In addition to monitoring student comprehension, the teacher has the opportunity to supplement, correct, or elaborate on student perceptions during debriefing.

Debriefing is significant in the learning sequence because it can enhance comprehension in several ways. First, learning studies indicate that the encoding of information in memory comes about because of active processing and elaborating of material to be learned toward the end of the process. It is then that new material is integrated in meaningful ways with information already stored. Second, studies indicate that learning processes leading to deeper understanding are enhanced by, and may even depend upon, dialogue and interaction with other persons. Third, research indicates that review affects the level of mastery and comprehension. A period of debriefing brings about each of these conditions.

Debriefing is significant because it allows for a check on the level and accuracy of student comprehension of the unit just studied. Research has demonstrated that individuals monitor their own learning poorly, even when they are capable of doing so. Research has also shown that active participation in checking other people's work improves learning; this affirms the value of feedback that students receive from dialogue during the debriefing period.

Debriefing strategies can be as simple as "think alouds" in which students share their understanding of material they have experienced. More complex activities include keeping journals that are read aloud or composing a story that assumes a role for themselves. Similarly, students could represent key themes or concepts pictorially or graphically, or rank processes or events in their order of importance. It is the dialogue from these activities that allows both teachers and students to profit from the debriefing.