When carrying out a debrief with pupils try not to focus on right or wrong answers. It can be a good idea to start the debrief by asking the pupils to think about how they make decisions in general by starting with questions such as:-

“ When you last bought a pair of trainers how did you decide which ones to choose?”

You can then ask them to go through the same processes with the work they have done in the lesson. 

Then encourage pupils to reflect on strategies used by asking questions such as:-

How did you organise the way your group worked?
Why didn’t you do it this way?
Did you change your approach during the activity? Looking back how would you improve the way you worked?
How did you organise the way your group worked?
Did you change your mind about your answer at any point?
How did you and your group reach agreement?
What methods could you have used to get your partner to accept your point of view?
What do you think the purpose of this activity might be?
What have you learnt from this experience?
How did this activity make you think?
Why is it important to talk about your ideas?
"such as"...."and"......( to prompt pupils to go further with their ideas)

These questions are very open and therefore require pupils to be given time to think about their answers.

It is also a good idea to watch groups carefully during the activity so that you have an idea on how groups worked. You can then prompt groups into thinking about how they worked by asking questions such as:-

 “ Group A worked in an interesting way. Why do you think you elected a group leader?”

 This helps them because sometimes some groups may not be awarethemselves of how they worked.
For those teachers new to this teaching method visit launching and debriefing.

 Tara Houston

Daniel Hunt

Natasha Sirin

Guy Shears

Kevin Gardner

Tara Houston

Claire Dabner

Mary Bradley

Ian Glover