While most of us know that reflection is a key to helping students learn new information, many people don't have a practical model to use when facilitating reflection exercises with their students. Let's examine a 4 step learning model and how it might benefit students in any setting.

Step 1: The Experience
This could be anything.  Maybe it's a test, a group project, a guest speaker, a lecture, a worksheet, or recess. Anything can be reflected upon for the sake of gaining valuable applicable insights.

Step 2: Observation (What)
As facilitators we often call this step the "what" step, because we ask a lot of questions that begin with that word. What just happened? What emotions did you feel?  What was challenging about the activity? What behaviors did you notice?  This is a time to observe the observable. Things like what people said to each other or how someone reacted to a rise in anxiety are excellent things to examine in this step.

Step 3: Add Meaning (So What)
People have a set of learned lenses that we use to examine life and add meaning to our experiences. In this step we take the observable data that we've talked about in step 2 and synthesize it into some conclusions about the experience. We call this step "so what" because we examine our behavior or the information gained during the experience and ask, "So what does this mean for our life, team, world, etc?" This is a key step for the facilitator to affect life change because this is where the lenses our students use when making decisions will come to the surface. The greatest degree of impact you can make in your limited interactions with students will come from challenging the lenses they see the world through. While giving information is great, changes in behavior, how they actually react to and use that information, will only come through changes in how they see their worlds.

Step 4:  Application (Now What)
At NLR we tell our facilitators that if we spend an hour doing a team building exercise and don't end that time with application, we've just wasted an hour of everyone's life. What good is an experience if it is never applied in a meaningful and practical way? This step seeks to help people move toward applying new information by asking the questions, "Now that we've had our experience and discovered something meaningful about it, what should our response be? How do we live differently with this new information?" Remember that life changing application doesn't have to be the stereotypical touchy feely moment that you may think of (although there's nothing wrong with that), but that any small behavior change has large implications in daily living. Something as routine as an elementary student deciding to apply information and always begin a new sentence with a capitol letter is a big deal that will influence them for the rest of their lives.  

Confucius is quoted as saying, "Study without reflection is a waste of time; reflection with study is dangerous."  May we, as people with influence over others, use reflection as a tool to do what we do more effectively.  And for those of you who are wrapping up the summer and preparing for another long school year, use these tools yourself.  What happened this year?  What does that mean?  What can you change in yourself to do an even more excellent job in the future? 
 
For a more in depth look at critical reflection you can read this article:  http://agelesslearner.com/intros/experiential.html

At camp I often hear our staff talking about the groups that we work with, and brainstorming together to find programming solutions that work for each individual team of participants. One helpful tool we use when deciding what activity is best for a particular group is to try and determine what stage of group development they are functioning in. The experiential education community has widely used Bruce W. Tuckman's stages of group development. Published in 1965, Tuckman identified four stages small groups may pass through. Whether it is a team of church staff, a youth group, a team of professionals, or a class of students, knowing the stage that the group is functioning in is a valuable tool when deciding how to help that group grow. I'll use this article to give you a brief description of each stage, along with suggested activities that may help facilitate growth within this model. Camp professionals, because we work with so many temporary communities, have tacked on a fifth group stage that I'll also cover.  

Group Stage #1: Forming
Forming is the polite stage in which students are trying to figure out the rules of the group. Initially, individuals may start to lead "silently" with body language, offhand remarks, or subtle pressure on others. The group is mostly positive in this initial stage. Usually no one has offended anyone at this point. This stage is key because a good leader can create group "rules" that are healthy and respectful to everyone, and make later learning easier. Because group members are using so much energy to understand the group's unique dynamics, there is usually difficulty teaching knowledge and skills to these students. This is normal.

Forming often includes these feelings and behaviors:

• Excitement, anticipation, and optimism
• A tentative attachment to the team
• Suspicion and anxiety about the future of the group
• Defining the tasks and how they will be accomplished
• Determining acceptable group behavior

Activities that can help create positive group norms:

• Group Juggle
• Sociometric Get to Know you Questions
• The Signature Game

Group Stage #2: Storming
The honeymoon is over. As leaders clash for control of the group, others pull away from conflict and are despondent. Some students respond to the anxiety by making jokes, pretending no conflict exists, or taking sides. Individuals begin to have a less positive view of the group, and have less fun being a part of the team. The up side of storming is that the group is beginning to understand each other, which is a prerequisite to the next stage. The group leader may want to use activities to help the group progress through storming, but they must understand that storming is only navigated successfully by being comfortable with conflict, and allowing it to come to the surface to be dealt with. Remember that storming isn't always obvious. Power and identity struggles can look very polite to those outside the group.  

Storming often includes these feelings and behaviors:

• Resisting the tasks
• Resisting suggestions made by fellow group members
• Sharp fluctuations in attitude about the team and the chances of success
• Arguing among members even when they agree on basics
• Defensiveness, competition, and choosing sides
• Questioning the wisdom of those with authority

Activities that can help groups move through storming (be ready to help facilitate healthy conflict):

• Helium Stick
• Lost at Sea
• All Aboard

Group Stage #3: Norming
The team is starting to work well together. Some groups never reach this stage, and most will bounce back and forth between storming and norming. Over time regressions will become fewer and of shorter duration. Students may start to talk highly of their group to others who aren't in the team and will be very positive about their role in the group. The natural leaders at this stage may not be the ones who were visible in earlier stages, as more balanced people tend to accumulate power over time.

This team still needs intervention and direction from people in authority, but not as much as when storming. As team members begin to work out their differences they have more energy to spend on learning. It is important to note that each group in the norming stage isn't a healthy group. Many groups have unhealthy norms that they have adopted. Whether a group of students has created outcasts, or acquiesced to an immature leader, attempts to re-create healthy group norms will require storming.

Norming often includes these feelings and behaviors:

• An ability to express criticism constructively
• Acceptance of membership in the team
• An attempt to achieve harmony by avoiding conflict
• More friendliness, confiding in each other, and sharing of personal problems
• A sense of team cohesion, spirit, and goals
• Establishing and maintaining team ground rules and boundaries

Activities to help the group create healthy norms:

• Group Consensus Building
• The Great Oklahoma Lizard Egg
• Fabulous Flags (be sure to focus on the variation at the bottom of the page)

Group Stage #4: Performing
A hallmark of a performing team is it's self-direction. People with authority become less responsible for routine management of the group, and move into the role of a facilitator, helping the group ask better questions, and discover learning on their own. These groups can function well in new environments and will seldom fall back into the storming phase. Adding new individuals to the group will cause little anxiety, as the healthy group norms are so defined that they are not threatened by the arrival of new personalities.
 
While I believe that it is possible for adolescent students to achieve a performing group, it is most often groups of emotionally mature, self-directing adults who reach this stage. Don't give up the dream, though, as students who are encouraged to do the work of reaching this level of performance as adolescents are more equipped to be members of effective teams later in life. Helping students reach the performing stage is not an easy or quick task. Expect months of intentional work. You'll know you've reached this stage when the group starts to work for everyone (helping lower performers taste success), and you don't have to use authority or coercion to pressure the group towards it's goals.  

Performing often includes these feelings and behaviors:

• Members have insights into personal and group processes, and better understanding of each other's strengths and weakness
• Constructive self-change
• Ability to prevent or work through group problems
• Close attachment to the team

Activities to help groups attain and maintain high performance:

• Five Pointed Star
• Group Mandala (older students only)
• The Tallest Tower

Group Stage #5: Adjourning
All groups adjourn at some point. For some teams adjourning is a breath of relief, but we're hoping that your groups of students will experience a sense of bittersweet accomplishment on that last day of the school year. Often high performing teams have a reluctance to say good-bye, and many relationships continue long after the group disbands. The key to good adjourning is to look back and learn from a positive group experience. This is a time that students can discover why things worked so well and how they can take responsibility to help replicate their experience in the future.  
Adjourning often includes these feelings and behaviors:

The group idealizes and romanticizes their experience with stories and memories

• A sense of accomplishment
• A bittersweet reluctance to let go of the group
• An excitement about what is coming next for the individuals
• A look back to discover what worked to make the team successful

Activities to help groups learn through adjourning:

• How to Create Customized Reflection Activities

Remember that each group is as unique as the individuals in it, and as a leader, you've never been a part of a group exactly like the one you're responsible for now. I hope that you'll try looking at your students through the lens of group stages, and try out an activity or two. If you'd like to talk about your group give me a call. Whether it's re-writing an activity for a specific age group, or brainstorming creative ways to reach difficult groups of students, we at New Life Ranch are excited to be a resource for you. Good luck, and enjoy the journey! 

Join the Conversation! Which activities work for you?