Debriefing Strategy in Online Primary ESL Classroom during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study

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International Journal of Advanced Research in Education and Society e-ISSN: 2682-8138 | Vol. 3, No. 4, 75-78, 2021 http://myjms.mohe.gov.my/index.php/ijares

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Debriefing Strategy in Online Primary ESL Classroom during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study

Shanty Carmelie Rif ^1*, Tan Kim Hua¹

1 Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

*Corresponding Author: [email protected] Accepted: 15 December 2021 | Published: 31 December 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.55057/ijares.2021.3.4.8

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Abstract: The meaningfulness of the current educational landscape where online learning is heavily in-practice, is often doubt. Experiential learning which focuses on the learning process undergone by learners is able to help learners to make sense of the learning process via active participation and meaningful reflective practice. Debriefing is one of the experiential learning strategies that requires learners to reflect their learning experience and make connection of the experiences to real life situations. In regards, this case study aimed to explore the effects of debriefing in online ESL classroom. The case study was conducted in Bintulu, Sarawak involving two teachers who are actively conducting online ESL lesson during the pandemic.

Data collections were done through in-depth interviews and observation of recorded online ESL lessons. Based on the findings, debriefing has positive effects on English language learning as it helps improve critical thinking ability and enhance language proficiency, orally and written.

Keywords: debriefing, experiential learning, online learning, English as a Second Language (ESL)

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1. Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic had affected many aspects of the nation tremendously, including education where it had turned the traditional vis-à-vis classroom interaction into online learning approach. Mohammad Mahyoob (2020) stated that the COVID-19 pandemic had transformed the whole education process to online, including the primary English language education. In support to the recent demands for online learning, the Ministry of Education also encouraged teachers to adopt online learning through various medium such as the Google Classroom, Google Meet and Zoom. However, the effectiveness of online language learning is often doubt.

This is also expressed by Jabeen (2015) where she reviewed that several researchers have raised doubts about the effectiveness of online learning systems and questions the meaningfulness of the whole online learning system.

Experiential learning is one of the teaching and learning methods that promotes meaningful learning and one of the strategies commonly used in experiential learning is the debriefing strategy (Knutson, 2003). Debriefing strategy is a follow-up discussion or reflection that takes place after a simulation or experiential learning exercise (Cantrell, 2008). Cantrell (2008) also added that the discussion or the debriefing session, can be used to provide critique, to assess

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the impact of learning experience on learners, to encourage reflection and critical thinking and to ensure learners achieved a shared understanding of the learning content.

However, teachers tend to overlook into the importance of debriefing and often missed out this aspect in their teaching. This is due to their lack of knowledge to debrief. Fatemeh and Hamidreza (2012) also stated that the conceptual meaning of experience-based learning remains illusive and many practitioners are not clear about this approach as in how to use it and when to use it. Apart from that, teachers are also afraid to face the challenges of debriefing in language learning context. According to Deason, Howell, Efron and Kaufman (2013), teachers or trainers face the challenges of fostering an atmosphere that enable participants or learners to seek feedback and strive for improvement. One of the major challenges in debriefing that teachers often faced is the difficulty to gain the correct, sufficient and appropriate responses from learners. There are a lot of factors that contribute to learners’ silence during debriefing. This includes, not wanting to be the first person to response, afraid of the risk of sounding stupid or they may not understand the experience undergone (Deason et al., 2013).

Hence, this case study aims to explore the effects of debriefing strategy in online ESL learning setting.

The objectives of this research are as follows:

i. To what extent does debriefing strategy affects online ESL classroom?

2. Literature Review

Debriefing in Teaching and Learning

Debriefing is one of the strategies in experiential education to describe question and answer sessions with the participants or learners. Some of the activities in debriefing process are anchor pieces, sit and get, community puzzle and reflection (Reyes-Chua, 2018). The activities are believed to help audience to reflect and to give their insights on the task conducted which then, resulted in meaningful learning.

Debriefing is also believed to benefits learners in confirming knowledge, clarifying misunderstanding, correcting mistakes, and applying experiences to other situation and reinforce learning (Uz-Bilgin, Baek & Park, 2015). In language learning setting, the purpose of debriefing is to transfer concepts and activities to the setting outside the classroom and clarify misunderstanding and mistakes. Hence, the end-result of debriefing would enable learners to discover meaningful connections between the activities undergone and their daily routine. For instance, after undergone a language lesson, whereby a language game is conducted, learners would be debriefed and reflect on the language items learned. When they are able to reflect on the use of the language item learned, they would be able to apply the language in their daily communication, be it written or spoken.

3. Discussion

The pandemic COVID-19 had granted the opportunities for teachers to explore and experience debriefing strategy virtually via various video conferencing platforms. The following sections discussed the effects of debriefing strategy in online ESL classroom.

Effects of Debriefing in ESL

The findings from teachers’ interview and observation of recorded online ESL lessons indicated that debriefing stimulates critical thinking as learners are reflecting or reviewing on

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their learning experience. This is because debriefing allows learners to think, ponder and reflect previous actions as means of new strategy for learning. Raths (2018) also stated that debriefing provides opportunity for learners to reflect and explain the meaning of the experience they undergone which will help them integrating and retaining new learning. When learners reflected on their experience, with the help of teachers and peers, they would be able to make connections of the experience gained and apply the experience to real-life situations.

In addition, the process of debriefing helps English language learners in improving their proficiency and confidence to communicate, in both spoken and written form. This is because when learners are debriefed, they need to express their learning experience, verbally or written.

Fey, Scrandis, Daniels and Haut (2014) stated that, the characteristic of debriefing that are psychologically safe enable learners to freely express themselves without being penalized for making mistakes. This belief is important as the feeling of being unjudged in a lesson allows learners to participate in the experiential learning activities.

4. Conclusion

The findings implied that debriefing has positively impacted English language learning, in a way that it makes online ESL classroom meaningful when learners are able to make connection of the experiences gained with real-life events. Experiential learning is one of the theories that promotes learners to use knowledge in multiple contexts. This means that, in the process of learning, learners are active learners, who reflect and construct their own language proficiency.

Despite the number of challenges faced in conducting online ESL lesson, it is recommended that language teachers use this strategy in order to prompt critical thinking among learners and encourage sharing of ideas in online lessons. Teachers should foster assistance to struggling learners so that they could reflect and make sense of the learning experience and thus, apply the experiences for authentic, real world purposes.

References

Cantrell, M. A. (2008). The Importance of debriefing in clinical simulations. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 4(2), 19-23. https://doi: 10.1016/j.ecns.2008.06.006

Deason, E. E., Efron, Y., Howell, R., & Kaufman, S. (2013). Debriefing the Debrief. Educating Negotiators for a Connected World. 301-332. https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.

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Fatemeh Mollaei & Hamidreza Rahnama. (2012). Experiential Education Contributing to Language Learning. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2(21), 268-279. http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_2_No_21_November_2012/31.pdf Fey, M. K., Scrandis, D., Daniels, A., & Haut, C. (2014). Learning Through Debriefing:

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Jabeen, S. S. (2015). Effectiveness of Online Learning. Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering and Computer Science 2015, 1. https://www.researchgate.net/

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Knutson, S. (2003). Experiential Learning in Second-Language Classrooms. TESL Canada Journal, 20(2), 52–64. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v20i2.948

Raths, J. (2018). Enhancing understanding through debriefing.Educational Leadership, 45(2), 24- 27. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ362223.

Reyes-Chua, E. (2018). The Use of Debriefing in the Language Classroom. European Journal of English Language Teaching, 67-78. https://doi:10.5281/zenodo.1204678

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Tania, L. T., Sada, C., & Sumarni. (n.d.). A Study on the English Teachers’ Implementation of Questioning Skill. English Education Study Program.

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Uz-Bilgin, C., Baek, Y., & Park, H. (2015). How Debriefing Strategies Can Improve Student Motivation and Self-Efficacy in Game-Based Learning. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 53(2), 155-179. doi:10.1177/0735633115598496