SCENARIO 2
Debriefing
A 60-card deck to reflect on our interior condition for democratic culture.
Learning to show up in the world of education with democratic values in mind
Content
- Introduction to Scenario 2
- Activity Example
- Aim
- Expected Outcome
- Preparation
- Procedure
How you show up in the world matters. This is why Cards for Democracy are an important tool today. They help us develop our interior condition to support democratic environment in our life and work.
Ready to use the Cards for Democracy? We offer some suggestions for you in the form of loose frameworks in which you can develop your creativity, as an educator, facilitator, or trainer.
These frameworks – we call them “Scenarios” – are intended to help you find inspiration to create your own activities.
L2C will share activities for download regularly in the C4D community of practice: Cards for Democracy Facebook group and on its media pages.
For an Introduction to the Cards for Democracy click here.
Scenario 2: Debriefing
All sorts of activities benefit from a process of debriefing and reflection to draw out the learning, make ideas/issues explicit and think deeply about our personal values, attitudes and actions, and how these might be better aligned. As such, debriefing activities are an essential part of the learning process and need to be given time and space to be effective.
Through debriefing learners can:
- Experience the impact powerful questions can have on our personal development.
- Reflect on our behavior and choices from a higher perspective.
- Assess the underlying values, feelings and beliefs that make us behave in a certain way.
- Unearth hidden drivers that influence our behavior and prevent us from being the person we truly want to be, including inherited subconscious values and limiting beliefs about ourselves and others.
- Boost our personal development by letting go of old scripts that were useful in the past but are not so any longer.
The cards can provide a framework to support this type of reflective debriefing, either as part of a small group, as a pair or individually. They offer a flexible resource for exploring attitudes, values and actions.
The activity described here can be done using a variety of cards, depending on the topic being explored and the learning outcomes you are working towards. The number of cards can also be changed to make the activity as long or as short as you would like, as long as they align with your learning outcomes.
You, or your participants, can simply pick one card randomly, read it, reflect, and have a conversation. As a facilitator you may suggest activities to frame this conversation to suit your pedagogical aims. In Scenario 2, the cards are designed to consolidate thinking, as well as open up opportunities for new learning and actions.
Here is a suggestion for an activity.
Teachers learning with the Cards for Democracy
Activity Example: Small group reflection
Aim
- To develop our competence for articulating our values, beliefs and actions
- To develop an awareness of the extent to which values, beliefs and actions align
- To help each other grow in terms of how we enact our values and beliefs
- To become more open to reflection and feedback regarding our values, beliefs and actions.
Expected Outcome
- Participants will explain how they think their values and beliefs are reflected in their actions.
- Participants will feedback on the actions they have observed and help each other explore how these reflect their beliefs and values.
- Participants will discuss how their behaviors could be modified to better align with their beliefs and values.
Preparation
Make sure you have printed all the cards that you want to use (this may vary depending on what you have explored and how long you want this part of the session to last).
The cards are available in the products section of Learn to Change.
You can become a member by clicking here.
Procedure
Step 1: Form small groups (minimum 2, maximum 4)
Place cards on a table between participants. Participants are given time to read the cards and reflect on what is written.
Step 2: Start a round
Each participant takes a card which they feel demonstrates a behavior they have displayed in the session. Participants take it in turn to describe what they have done which reflects the statement on the card, and why they felt able to exhibit this behavior. The other members of the group ask questions, which can either be for clarification, elaboration and/or to challenge the participant’s claim about their behavior.
Step 3: Start another round
This is similar to Step 2, but this time each participant chooses a card which doesn’t reflect a behavior they have exhibited or have not fully embraced in their actions.
Participants explain what it is about this behavior they found difficult to enact.
The other members of the group ask questions for clarification and/or elaboration.
Step 4: Group statement
Participants in their small groups, individually write down a statement that sums up their experiences during the session, which can focus on what enabled or hindered them from exhibiting particular behavior.
Then each person shares their individual statements within their small group, and the group must agree a group statement to sum up their experience.
Step 5: Sharing group statements
Each small group reads out their statements. The facilitator writes notes down on a board/flipchart raised in the statements. The facilitator then guides a discussion through questioning.
Possible questions could include:
- Did anything surprise you?
- What similarities are there in people’s experiences?
- What are the common challenges people face in putting their beliefs and values into practice?
Step 6: Disbanding
The participants return to their small groups and discuss what they could do differently in future and agree to contact each other when they have demonstrated the particular behavior being discussed.
Download the activity
By downloading Scenario 2 – Debriefing, you will have a PDF resource to keep and consult for your activities.
