Crossing Borders with Students 6: Learn After the Trip

Reflection is essential for meaningful learning, especially following stretching life experiences like crossing borders. Many students are inspired to change some of their "American" beliefs and behaviors due to a cross cultural experience (e.g. materialism, waste, and American arrogance). However, upon return home, the American culture quickly rushes back to overwhelm them and convinces them to lead unchanged lives. Reflection and learning/discussion sessions following a trip helps to solidify the learning that occurs on a trip. In the introduction to this series on Cross Borders with Students, this point was summarized as follows:

Learn After the Trip. Due to students being homesick and eager to see their families, educational trips often end with little to no reflection on learning. Time should be set aside to debrief and reflect. Additionally, students should be challenged with "how now should we live" type of questions. The research, unfortunately, points to little change of behavior after returning from a "life-changing" international trip. Intentional reflection, discussion, and challenge by the team members and leaders help the lessons learned to stick with the students. 

Of course, reflection should occur throughout the cross cultural experience, as students will be observing and learning new things each day. This can be accomplished through individual journaling, conversations with team leaders and team members, and full group discussions each night. However, reflection and learning can be most powerful after the trip; setting aside specific time to challenge students and reflect on the experience is essential to facilitating this learning. As you plan a trip, don't forget learning after the trip.

I have found that simple, open-ended questions often lead to the best discussions and allow students to form their own conclusions about the trip.

1. Signature Photo -- Choose one picture that summarizes the trip for you and explain why.
2. Review the Trip -- Walk through the experience from the first day to the last, remembering and reflecting on what you learned.
3. Worldview Shift -- How do you see the world differently? What is one thing you learned through this experience?
4. Magic Wand -- If you had a magic wand and could change one thing about the trip, what would it be and why?
5. Highs and Lows -- When did you feel "high" and when did you feel "low" during the trip? or What was your favorite experience and your least favorite experience? 
6. How then shall we live? -- What do you want to do differently when you return home?  Challenge each other to commit to one thing and write it down for accountability.

Of course, these reflection activities can be used throughout the trip in journaling and group discussions, but revisiting them following the trip helps solidify the learning.

Structured Reflection Time

Learning after the trip requires some structured time because our natural inclination is to rush back home to see friends/family and return to our lives. This often happens with cross cultural trips ... they return without meaningful reflection, and the learning from the experience gets shoved aside as we are overwhelmed by American culture. Plan these reflection times/activities before your trip so that they don't get forgotten.

On the way home ... It is wise to build in time at the end of the trip to debrief, reflect, and recover from the experience. This can be done while still in the country (at a different location), in the airport (during an extended lay-over), or in an American city (but not your home city). I have seen each of these work well to encourage learning after the trip. Here are a few personal examples ...

• In the Country -- My primary research involved studying a team traveling to Vietnam; they spent most of their time in Ho Chi Minh City, but the final day was spent in a more Western hotel in Hanoi before flying home. Being "on their way home" allowed students to look back on their experience and reflect on their learning. They were able to rest and relax, and the Western hotel allowed them to begin the process of returning to American culture.
• In the Airport -- While not as advantageous as a fancy hotel, a reflection time can happen during extended lay-overs in the airport. One trip that I led to Cambodia had our team with a lay-over in Seoul, Korea for approximately 8 hours. The airport in Seoul has many luxuries that many airports do not have, like showers, excellent wi-fi, and comfortable seating areas that helped us relax and reflect. Although lay-overs in airports do provide the time needed to reflect, it does not facilitate reflection as much as an overnight stay in a hotel.
• In an American city -- Leading one trip to the Dominican Republic, I planned an overnight stay in Atlanta, our lay-over city. We were arriving in Atlanta in the evening and were schedule to leave an hour or two later; however, I was able to delay the return trip until the next day and secure hotel rooms for the night. We were able to reflect on the trip together, begin our transition back to American culture (including eating some unhealthy American food), share photos, get hot showers, and a good night sleep before returning home. While some "lay-over" cities may be more appealing than Atlanta, I would recommend not staying too long (everyone is ready to get home) and not becoming tourists. It would be tempting to see New York City if this was your lay-over city, but you want to stay focused on the carefully planned cross-cultural trip (e.g. the best thing about the trip to Rome shouldn't be seeing the Statue of Liberty).

Pair and Share -- Learning does not have to happen with the team; in fact, one thing that I learned through conducting my research is the therapeutic learning involved in sharing the experience with someone who did not attend the trip. In my phenomenological research, I am always surprised by how appreciative the students are just to share their experience with me. I am also shocked to hear that many students haven't shared the full experience with another. This has led to one of my "requirements" for the students in teams that I lead; I have students choose someone not attending the trip to be a "prayer partner" for them during the trip and a listener after the trip. Students need to find someone who is committed to spend an hour or two just listening as they share about the entire trip ... the full "day by day" experience (with pictures) and what he/she learned. These are powerful conversations that provide an opportunity for personal learning and reflection.

3-6 Months Following -- Often students return from cross-cultural trips committed to thinking and living differently; unfortunately, research has shown that 3 - 6 months following a trip little has changed. By reconnecting with the team after a few months, team members can challenge each other to continue in their commitment to live differently. As mentioned in the "how then shall we live?" point above, writing down one thing that each team member is going to do differently will help this reflection time. It is also a perfect time to reconnect and enrich friendships that were developed on the trip. Obviously, 3 months works well for high schools and colleges; early summer teams can meet after the school year begins.

Cross cultural trips can be such powerful learning experiences, but most trips let the learning fade away after the trip. Intentionally setting aside time for reflection can solidify this learning. If you cross borders with students, remember to continue to learn after the trip.