Debrief Your Year!

While June marks the mid-point of the calendar year, for many of us in education it signals a break between one academic year and the next. As an experiential educator, I like to take time at the end of the year to reflect on what I’ve done and, more importantly, what I’ve learned from my experiences. If we don’t make space to look back, we risk missing out on important learning. After all, the learning is in the debrief! Or, as Experiential Learning expert David Kolb says, “Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.”

The following are some reflection questions (adapted for three different audiences) that you can use yourself—or with students or colleagues—to debrief the academic year. These questions are designed to help transform experience into learning you can use moving forward.

For Administrators:

• Professionally speaking, what did you do this past year? Identify projects, responsibilities, or areas in which you invested significant time or energy.
• What projects or accomplishments are you most proud of? What did you most enjoy doing?
• What challenges did you experience? What experiences pushed you outside your comfort zone?
• As you reflect on your experiences this past academic year, what are your biggest take-aways? What have you learned?
• How can you apply this learning in the coming academic year? What would you like to do more of? What would you like to do less of or do differently? How do you want to show up for yourself and others?

 
For Faculty:

• Professionally speaking, what did you do this past year? Identify projects, responsibilities, or areas in which you invested significant time or energy. Consider teaching, research, writing, committees on which you serve, etc.
• On a day-to-day level, how did you spend your time? Map out an average day or week. How much time did you typically spend prepping for classes, teaching, writing, researching, on administrative tasks, etc.?
• What projects or accomplishments are you most proud of? What did you most enjoy doing?
• What challenges did you experience? What experiences pushed you outside your comfort zone?
• As you reflect on your experiences this past academic year, what are your biggest take-aways? What have you learned?
• How can you apply this learning in the coming academic year? What would you like to do more of? What would you like to do less of or do differently? How do you want to show up for yourself and others?

 
For Students:

• On a global level, how did you spend your time this past year? Identify courses, extracurriculars, hobbies, etc. where you spent significant time or energy.
• On a day-to-day level, how did you spend your time? Map out your average day or week. How much time did you typically spend in class, studying, on hobbies, working, on social media, exercising, socializing, sleeping, etc.? Who did you spend time with?
• What’s been going well? What are you proud of? What have you most enjoyed?
• What challenges have you experienced? What experiences pushed you outside your comfort zone?
• Looking back, what would you do differently if you could?
• As you reflect on your experiences this past academic year, what are your biggest take-aways? What have you learned?
• How can you apply this learning in the coming academic year? What would you like to do more of? What might you like to do less of or do differently? How do you want to show up for yourself and others?

I’d love to hear what you learn through debriefing! Please share your take-aways in the comments section below.

Photo credit:  Drew Beamer, Unsplash