Eliciting debriefing experiences: A scoping review

Abstract

Debriefing is a process in physical or online learning that encourages learners to reflect on their own learning experiences. Effective questioning techniques and evoking positive experiences are methods for regulating and guiding students toward an environment that promotes mental health. The purpose of this scoping review is to identify effective debriefing questioning techniques and experiences for addressing the three presences in the Community of Inquiry framework, namely social presence, cognitive presence, and instructor presence, among learners in an educational or occupational setting. The result of the synthesis provided a comprehensive picture of which question types and experiences are present for the projection of each or a combination of the three presences. On Google Scholar, Education Resources Information Center, ResearchGate, and ScienceDirect, a search pertaining to debriefing strategy and questioning techniques was performed. From 2002 to 2020, 265 articles on debriefing strategy and questioning techniques were eliminated, leaving only 60 articles that were largely relevant. Results indicated that open-ended questions that are oriented toward higher-order thinking with the purpose of stimulating, following up, and clarifying are prevalent. Based on the Debriefing Experience Scale, the majority of the learners’ experiences involve Learning and Making Connections with Learning, followed by Appropriate Facilitator Guidance, Facilitator Skill in Conducting Debriefing, and then Analyzing Thoughts and Feelings. Questioning is a relevant aspect of facilitating experiences in different types of presence, and the types of questions used can influence the quality of those experiences.

Keywords

• Reflective questioning techniques
• Debriefing
• Experience
• Community of inquiry
• CoI