This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This web site reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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Understanding Early School Leaving
An overview of the current situation of early school leaving in Europe
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Methodological and Pedagogical Aspects
A definition of what experiential education is
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Theatre as Experiential Learning Tool
The role of theatre as a site for learning in a community context
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Practical Examples of Theatrical Laboratories
15 proposals of theatrical laboratories
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Contractual Partners
From this section it is possible to access to a description of each contractual partner of OFF-Book Project. There are 8 partners from 3 different European countries.
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Schools
From this section it is possible to access to the information about the schools involved in the OFF-Book Project in the 3 European countries participating in the project. The school teachers and students contribute to the testing of all the intellectual outputs.
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Associated Partners
As a result of the exploitation activity a number of associated partners officially joined the project in order to contribute to the improvement of the project impact on their target groups and to ensure the project sustainability by continuing using the project deliverables in the next years.
Information & Events
Latest News
The students have to deal with maltreatment, possible neglect, bullying and discrimination issues in the...Events
The OFF-Book project has been promoted trough conferences and articles.
Conferences
The OFF-Book project was presented in a number of events in order to report about the activities carried out and the results achieved
Press Review
The OFF-Book project partnership made contacts with web sites focusing on the fields of educationThis section of the OFF-Book portal provides administrative information for the project contractual partners and for the European Commission and it is password protected.
Teachers’ Guidelines
Homepage > Teachers’ Guidelines > Theatre as Experiential Learning Tool
The role of theatre as a site for learning in a community context and how it can provide informal learning opportunities for young people experiencing social difficulty
Theatre as Experiential Learning Tool:
Step by Step Process to Implement Theatrical Laboratories in Classroom
8 Final Debriefing with Users
The OFF-book Theatre Lab places at the centre of the training process the people with emotional, cognitive and behavioural components as well as creative potential. The OFF-book Theatre Lab is therefore characterized as a privileged educational tool to meet the training needs not completely covered by traditional training. Learning is fixed by a final reflection (debriefing moment). In this phase, trainers focus on what happened in the experience (what?), on the consequences of the behaviours implemented (so what?) and on the possible behaviours useful in everyday life in the school environment (now what?).
At the end of each laboratory stage, therefore, the trainer must design a relevant space dedicated in the classroom to the conceptual elaboration of the experience, to the development of effective behavioural models and concrete action plans. In this phase the trainers provide support and orientation to ensure that the training process proceeds in a coherent and effective way towards the defined objectives.
The transfer of learning content to the school context is the fundamental phase of the training process. During the reflection and the conceptualization phases, the trainers stimulate and facilitate the connection between what happened during the experience and the reality of group’s daily life. In order for the transfer to be as deep and effective as possible, the planning phase is important: already from the construction phase of the program, it is necessary to keep in mind the context in which the participants "read" and give meaning to the experience, providing space and appropriate times. Space will be represented by the classroom, for the time we consider necessary from 4 to 8 hours of work.
We write down the following small user guide, composed of general indications and possible questions, for the trainer to manage the debriefing phase.
General indications:
Possible questions for further study:
Useful techniques to encourage everyone's participation:
Useful techniques to summarize:
At the end of each laboratory stage, therefore, the trainer must design a relevant space dedicated in the classroom to the conceptual elaboration of the experience, to the development of effective behavioural models and concrete action plans. In this phase the trainers provide support and orientation to ensure that the training process proceeds in a coherent and effective way towards the defined objectives.
The transfer of learning content to the school context is the fundamental phase of the training process. During the reflection and the conceptualization phases, the trainers stimulate and facilitate the connection between what happened during the experience and the reality of group’s daily life. In order for the transfer to be as deep and effective as possible, the planning phase is important: already from the construction phase of the program, it is necessary to keep in mind the context in which the participants "read" and give meaning to the experience, providing space and appropriate times. Space will be represented by the classroom, for the time we consider necessary from 4 to 8 hours of work.
We write down the following small user guide, composed of general indications and possible questions, for the trainer to manage the debriefing phase.
General indications:
- Stimulate reflection on targeted questions
- Encourage everyone's participation and dialogue
- Summarize the meaning of the interventions
Possible questions for further study:
- Before the story of positive events in the debriefing phase: What struck you? Why do you consider it important?
- Before the problems highlighted during the debriefing phase: Why does this happen? (Please ask the question several times, to get to the root causes)
- In the face of a criticality not sufficiently analysed: What would be a significant improvement?
- Before the difficulties emerged: What would it take to improve?
- Before accepting the difficulties and challenges: Why is it difficult to change? What are the obstacles?
- Before challenges: Who could you help? Who could help?
- Before the alleged exceptionality of the laboratory with respect to everyday life: What could be done differently? (repeatedly, to generate alternatives)
Useful techniques to encourage everyone's participation:
- Conversations in pairs
- Discussions in small groups
- Movements between subgroups
- Brainstorming
- Post-it
Useful techniques to summarize:
- Ask: what is the common theme?
- Ask: what does this tell us?
- Explicit the common theme and ask for consent (it seems to me that here there is a common theme ...).
- The explicit part of the common theme and ask what is missing (is there anything else?).
- Ask what the consequences of the statements made are.
- Create a logical thread starting from the comments made by the participants (so, in summary, you said first of all that ... then ... then ...).
Online Resources
- Debriefing Strategies Can Improve Students’ Motivation and Self-Efficacy in Game-Based Learning.Debriefing is an important step in game-based learning environments. Fanning and Gaba defined debriefing as “facilitated or guided reflection in the cycle of experiential learning.” In the present study, the effect of different debriefing strategies in terms of two factors, grouping (self vs. team) and timing (in-game vs. postgame), was investigated on the motivation and the self-efficacy levels of the students.
- Completing the Experience: Debriefing in Experiential Educational GamesBy including more debriefing activities in an experiential game, the learning experience can be more effective. These debriefing elements in games can also assist teachers who want to use these games as at-home supplements to classroom lessons, by ensuring that the students go through the critical debriefing process.
