Learning from reflection: A case of a post-sojourn debriefing workshop with EFL university students

Abstract

Experiential learning activities have been largely used in education including English language teaching. Study abroad programs offer unique opportunities for learning from experience. Maximising learning from the sojourn experiences should be a major objective of higher education institutions with study abroad programs and designing post-sojourn debriefing workshops is crucial for this purpose. In this qualitative case study, Kolb’s (1984) Experiential Learning Model was used to design a post-sojourn debriefing workshop for three Turkish EFL university students. The workshop was supported by the Cross-cultural Reflective Model (Dressler et al., 2018) designed for reflective writing about sojourn experiences. Critical incidents written by the participants of the study were the main materials to be used in the workshop and reflection was a continuous process throughout the study. Data were collected from reflection reports, reflection forms, written critical incidents, interview transcripts and field notes. Findings of the study revealed that an experiential post-sojourn debriefing workshop guided by a model of reflective writing for EFL university students was especially beneficial for enhancing intercultural learning, facilitating critical reflection and increasing motivation to share sojourn experiences. It was also highlighted that the use of critical incidents played a significant role for reflection in the workshop.