1. Debriefing Participants

2. Why do Participants attend your Courses?
Facilitate discussion, write up some answers on board… likely answers should be:
Social reasons – friend/sibling attending, to make friends
To learn new skills
To refine existing skills
To get better
Influence of others… parents, employer, state maritime, etc.
Highlight main reason generally would be “To Learn” and that’s what we’re going to focus on in this session.

3. How can we Learn? Read See Hear See & Hear Discuss Experience
Teach Someone Else
Facilitate discuss around how we all learn, or how we CAN learn.
Identify when each of these types of learning takes place in a ‘Learn to Sail’ course:
Read: Going through syllabus, reading slides from a PowerPoint
See: Watching the instructor, watching a video, watching a fellow participant
Hear: Listening to instructor, peer, video
See & Hear: Combination of seeing and hearing
Discuss: Group discussions, one-on-one, questioning & answering
Experience: Doing the skill, participating, practicing
Teaching Someone Else: Doesn’t happen that much but sometimes peer teaching

4. Retention of Learning v
Interestingly if we look at retention of learning (pyramid images easily found online, different models that basically say the same thing)… some of the more common teaching methods (read, hear, see, etc) have the lowest rate of retaining the learning.
We’re not going to address the approach today, however it’s food for thought when we look at the “How we are teaching/instructing”
The question today is, how do we know if a person has learned what they needed to learn?

5. The ‘Debrief’ impacts the Learning Outcome?
Opportunity to:
Confirm learning
Re-assess learning
Clarify learning
Provide guidance how to extend skills/knowledge:
Action Plans
Tips
Allows participant to ask any questions they may have
Learning opportunity for others, as they hear feedback being provided
Facilitate a discussion, what impact can a debrief have…

6. Do differences in Programs impact Debriefs?
Tackers/Dinghy/Windsurfing participant
Format of discussion?
Requirement to include anyone else in the debrief?
Keelboat/Powerboat participant
Discuss how in the different programs, our approach to debriefs may change. Factors to consider:
Format of discussion: one-on-one, in front of group, peer chat, direct feedback, etc.
Audience: may want to include a parent, adult learners vs. Children impacts delivery

7. Is there a resource to help guide your feedback?
Ask the question articulated in slide heading.
Answer: LOGBOOKS/SYLLABUS

8. The competencies outlined in the logbook are what every participants needs to be able to complete or in some instances at the bare minimum needs to have experienced.
Any debrief should be clearly relating to a set skill or piece of knowledge outlined in the syllabus.

9. Tackers is no different
Tackers is no different! Although the approach is different in terms of games-based, a high focus on fun and enjoyment… the courses are still based on participants reaching certain competencies/skills/outcomes… aka – what they need to learn.
These outcomes can be found in the back of each section of the Tackers Manual.

10. What are we missing? By now we should know:
Why (to help achieve learning outcome/s)
Who (participants – adult, child, parents, etc)
What (always linked to syllabus)
Where (at a course)
The ‘How to’ is next…
Hopefully some of these strategies came out of previous activity, but reinforce some key strategies to help prevent inappropriate behaviour.

11. Start Positive!
Beginning any sort of debrief with a positive will set the platform, regardless of the situation. Doing this will:
Ease the participant’s mind
Change the focus to a positive, if the participant themselves feel they have ‘failed’ the task
Break down the perceived fear of receiving feedback/critique
Example would be if a person was to ‘come alongside’ and hit the dock – A positive to break the mood would be “I really liked the angle you started on, that was great”. The participants knows they ‘failed the task’ so you stating that straight away doesn’t help anything. Identifying something positive changes the participant’s mindset. From there, you would address the incorrect technique/skill and question the participant about why they think that occurred. A good question to ask is “Where do you think this all start to go wrong?”. In this example, it may be the speed that was the critical factor, not so much the hitting of the dock.

12. Participant-Centred vs. Instructor-Centred
What do you think the difference is between these two approaches?
Scenario: A child is struck by the boom whilst tacking, due to not ducking and slow change of sides.
Provide an instructor-centred debrief of that skill.
Provide a participant-centred debrief of that skill.
Is one approach better than the other?
Question group about the two approaches:
Instructor-centred = Instructor is the master of all knowledge, direct feedback given to participant, Instructor provides ‘solution’ to problem – therefor minimal ownership and potential retention.
Participant-centred = Begins by asking open-questions (e.g. Where do you think that began to go all wrong?), Engages participant to determine solution, after they too discover their own error. More likely to retain the information as they are explaining the situation to the Instructor. Provides ownership of solution.
Ask for a volunteer to provide you some feedback using either the Instructor-centred or the Participant-centred approach. Provide feedback.
Final discussion – Is one approach better than the other?
Answer = No… it depends on the situation. Depending on the stage of learning, an instructor-centred approach may be very useful to identify the problem and for the easy solution to be offered to participant, thus providing confidence and competence. At times the participant-centred approach would work better as then it provides a challenge to the participant to identify where they went wrong and importantly determine he solution.

13. Questioning
The better your questioning technique is will ultimately impact your ability to be participant-centred, rather than instructor-centred.
Avoid closed questions:
“Does everyone understand?”
“Everyone good to go?”
Use open-ended questions:
“How do you think that could be done differently?”
“Where do you think that began to go all wrong?”
“Who can explain the activity to the rest of the group”
“Why do we do that?”
Explain the key to an effective participant-centred approach is being able to ask the right questions.
Provide examples of each type.

14. Main Aim: To get the person back again…
Finish on the main purpose of an instructor is to teach skills BUT also to retain the person in the sport. A good debrief, albeit delivering areas for improvement, can be the difference in a person/child returning to participate in the next course/session or walking away from the sport having had a negative experience.

15. Questions / Comments Provide opportunity for questions.
Park any issues that are taking too long to resolve, or elect to speak ‘offline’ with the person/people.