DEBRIEFING WITH SERIALIZED THEORY DEVELOPMENT FOR TASK-TEAM LEARNING Exploring Experiential Learning: Simulations and Experiential Exercises, Volume 5, 1978 7 DEBRIEFING WITH SERIALIZED THEORY DEVELOPMENT FOR TASK-TEAM LEARNING Curtis W. Cook Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville How spontaneous or structured should be the debriefing of an experiential exercise? An adequate response to the question is manageable only in relation to the facilitator’s awareness of desired learning outcomes and the structural properties of the exercise. A position is herein advocated that the more structural debriefing form, emphasizing serialized theory development, is appropriate when (a) the exercise goals are to promote team development and learning of group dynamics more so than intrapersonal awareness and (b) the exercise requires work on a specific task, ideally one that involves object manipulation with differentiated member roles, that can be repeated (or serialized) several times. An overriding objective of this approach is to promote participant learning from current experiences with a carryover to future life coping more so than simply being sensitive to and involved in the experience alone. Affective realizations are thus useful as a means of cognitive stimulation to promote concept formulation rather than sought as a temporal end in themselves. Congruent with the cognitive extension is a debriefing process that moves outward from the individual toward strengthened concept patterns of both the structural and behavioral dimensions of task-team development. While data sharing or confrontation may enable a participant to center upon selected facits of his/her behavior so that there is new or reinforced learning about self and specific others in the group, the intended residual value is to transcend the individual so that one or more strongly held cognitions about performance factors in groups may be actively held as a patterned map for testing in future task group events. Serialized theory development debriefing employs two instrumental processes. One is the structuring of the exercise so that there is a series of task activity followed by debriefing sequenced into three or four successive iterations. The second element involves a guided emphasis by the facilitator of the debriefing sequence so that part of the data observations at each stage feed into a single theoretical/conceptual construct. In effect, the facilitator plans (or second guesses) the types of issues or behavioral phenomena that will likely be encountered and establishes a selective series of theoretical “mind-holds” or referencing points which facilitate centering part of the data observations generated after each task phase. Depending on the exercise and the facilitator, the synthesizing concept need not be rigidly bound by time frame (i.e., concept B might be developed after phase 1 rather than 2) nor is free-flowing participant spontaneity discouraged. Rather, some portion of Exploring Experiential Learning: Simulations and Experiential Exercises, Volume 5, 1978 8 each debriefing phase centers on flushing out the cognitive map the facilitator foresaw as relevant to and supportive of the exercise. The cognitive theory-development process can be used either to dramatize and reinforce previously introduced “theory” and/or to introduce for the first time as an outgrowth of data feedback a meaningful descriptive or predictive “theory.” The theoretical components can range from basic identification of conditions which impact on a particular phenomenon, to propositional statements indicating causal/probabilistic association, to models which identify key variables and specify the nature of relationships. Illustrative data is presented comparing learning results from a treatment group (using the method) and a control group (with general debriefing alone) using a blindfold tower-building exercise with four task repetitions. Advantages of the prescribed method are realized in incremental leaning, developing an organized frame of reference by which lessons of the activity can be remembered, and encouraging development of spontaneous insight as will as linear sequential problem-solving styles (i.e., right and left hemisphere modality) through self and peer-assisted debriefing discovery. Table of Contents Volume 5, 1978 Debriefing: The Key to Effective Experiential Learning A Kiss Before Debriefing Debriefing with Serialized Theory Development for TaskTeam Learning Insights Into Debriefing Experiential Learning Exercises The Two-Step Flow of Experiential Learning: A Preliminary Investigation Programmatic Experienced-Based Learning in an MBA Program The New Research Focus: An Analysis of the Simulation Game User An Analysis of Performance in Simulation Games Compared to Performance on Structured Course Criteria: A Case Study Le's Simplify the Administrative Requirements of Computerized Educational Simulations Assessment of Sex Stereotypes Within Task Group Simulation The Use of Program BAYAUD in the Teaching of Audit Sampling The Effectiveness of Progressively Complex Accounting Simulations in Increasing Decision-Making Performance The Natural Learning Project The Application of a US-USSR Trade Simulation to the Reaching of Business Russian The Use of Semi-Autonomous Work Group in Graduate Management Education: An Australian Experience Evaluation of an Experimental Course in Organizational Behavior for Managers of Japanese Banks Berkshire II: An Experiential Decision Making Exercise: An Exercise in Hegelian Inquiry Creating a Responsible Managerial Experience A Framework for Determining the Pedagogical Value of Simulation Gaming: Implications for Future Simulation Gamin Research Emergent Simulations in Administration Courses Measurement of Administrator Role for Feedback on Structure and Goals An Experiment in Assessing the Theoretical Recognition and Application Leaning Skills of Student Case Writers Some Game Information Systems Experience Using Job Control Language (JCL) for Group and Individual Simulation Considerations for the Use of Computerized Business Simulations Assessing the Effectiveness of Learning Styles as Predictors of Performance within Three Distinct Pedogogic Methodologies Learning Style and Performance A Psychometric Analysis of Kolb's Learning Styles Inventory Learning to Identify and Satisfy consumer Wants: A Classroom Game An Experiential Exercise in Product Benefit Segmentation Sales and Sales Management: A Case/Simulation Approach The SBI Case as Experiential Learning The Use of a Live Case in Teaching Organization Theory and management Principles to Graduate Students The Residency in Hospital and health Administration as Experiential Learning The Extended Live Case Approach to Teaching Marketing Research Experiential Learning in Marketing: Student Consultants The Brazil-Columbia Coffee Marketing Negotiations: An Experiential Exercise Aimed at Highlighting the Dynamics Involved in the International Business Negotiation Process Educational Values of Simulation Gaming Business Simulation Re-Revisited Simulation and Experiential Learning as Human Subject Research An Experiential Evaluation of a Didactic - Experiential Apporach for Teaching personnel Management Experiential Learning in Wage and Salary Administration Integrating Structured Experiences into Personnel Simulation Locus of Control and Performance in a Management Simulation Correlations Between Academic Achievement, Aptitude, and Business Game Performance Suggestions for Student Input of Decisions in General Management Simulations An Exploratory Investigation of Student Perceptions of Computer Simulation as an Educational Tool Time to Sell?: An Experiential Learning Approach to Stock Market Decisions through Interactive Gaming