Abstract
Helping students connect abstract concepts to concrete situations is often a challenge. Students who are unable to make the basic connections are at risk of spending the semester and beyond misunderstanding key points and their application. In this article, we provide a framework that includes debriefing, bridge building, and assimilation to help mitigate the challenge of making the abstract, concrete. We use “It’s a Puzzle,” a fast-paced group activity based on principles of experiential learning theory, to illustrate how we use this framework to help students understand and apply self-organization concepts to concrete situations. “It’s a Puzzle” provides participants with an opportunity to experience self-organization as a group, to reflect on the self-organizing interaction from the perspective of self and group, and to apply the learning experience to self-organization concepts. We have successfully used this activity as an introduction to self-organization at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
Although one of the greatest challenges facing organizations is to respond effectively to a rapidly changing environment, we continue to view organizations as mechanistic systems that, in order to survive, require managers to focus their efforts on maintaining organizational stability through the planning, organizing, and controlling functions (Eoyang, 1997; Hatch & Cunliffe, 2013; Wheatley & Kellner-Rogers, 1996). As “[o]rganization stability disappears and new organization orders emerge from the internal dynamics of the organization rather than at the behest of top management” (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2013, p. 316), self-organization may provide a new approach to help organizations better respond to changing conditions. Self-organization is “ . . . a collective process of communication, choice, and mutual adjustment in behavior based on a shared goal among members of a given system” (Comfort, 1994, pp. 397-398), and occurs when “people and resources organize without planning into coordinated, purposeful activity. Leaders emerge and recede based on who is available and who has information” (Wheatley & Kellner-Rogers, 1996, para. 7). Table 1 compares traditional organization characteristics with self-organization characteristics.
Comparison of Traditional Organization Characteristics and Self-Organization Characteristics.
Helping students shift their view of how organizations function is critical to their ability to contribute to the development of more effective organizations in a rapidly changing environment. However, no paradigm shift can occur unless students understand the unfamiliar, complex concepts that surround self-organization. A common challenge in teaching complex concepts such as self-organization is helping students translate abstract concepts into practical applications. One way to mitigate this difficulty is to engage students in an activity, such as “It’s a Puzzle,” to help them experience self-organization in a concrete way.
In the “It’s a Puzzle” activity, students bring their personal experience and beliefs about organizations and working together. This activity presents them with the opportunity to examine their experience and beliefs as they become part of an interdependent system (group) without an obvious plan (strategy) or control by a single individual (leader). The students have the opportunity to create and reflect on a system that spontaneously reorganizes from a group of individuals into a functioning system to accomplish the task.
Theoretical Framework
Beginning with Dewey’s (1938) Experience and Education and continuing through Kolb’s experiential learning theory (e.g., D. A. Kolb, 1984; A. Y. Kolb & Kolb, 2005), advocates for experiential learning have emphasized the central importance of students’ active involvement within the learning process. Research on adult learners (e.g., Ross-Gordon, 2003) highlights the benefits of such teaching practices as experiential learning, as adult learners prefer an active, learner-centered classroom environment.
As practitioners, our primary research focus has been on implementing and assessing evidence-based practices in our higher education classrooms. In our search for such practices, we discovered Schenck and Cruickshank’s (2015) Co-Constructed Developmental Teaching Theory (CDTT). CDTT provides explicit guidance on how to facilitate an experiential activity, not just a description of how students learn experientially. Schenck and Cruickshank (2015) have proposed that effective teaching facilitates a spiral of increasingly complex learning and understanding. This process involves five parts: Framing, Activity, Direct Debriefing, Bridge Building, and Assimilation.
Framing involves setting up the learning experience, particularly in terms of selecting the learning goal and paying attention to learners’ psychological processes (Schenck & Cruickshank, 2015). Schenck and Cruickshank (2015) note that the activity itself must also be carefully constructed so that learners’ attention will be maintained, their interest engaged, and their need for feedback met. Direct debriefing involves student reflection on their experiences during the activity, while bridge building involves making connections between key course concepts (in this case, self-organization) and what they have just experienced and observed. Finally, assimilation is accomplished as students apply key concepts to personal past or current experiences.
“It’s a Puzzle” Activity Description
Framing the Activity
Learning Objectives
The first two learning objectives are specific to this activity. The last learning objective demonstrates a greater internalized understanding of self-organization as concepts are reinforced over the course of the semester. Depending on your overall course objectives, you may or may not choose to pursue the final longer term learning objective.
Through reflection and dialogue, students will be able to appropriately apply selected abstract self-organization concepts to describe concrete activity experiences. This objective is achieved during direct debriefing and initial bridge building.
Students will be able to appropriately apply self-organization concepts to the puzzle activity experience and to current and/or past organization/group experiences. This objective is achieved during continued bridge building and assimilation.
Optional: By the end of the semester, students will demonstrate internalized mastery of self-organization concepts. For example, they might appropriately describe a group project experience from a self-organization framework, using appropriate key concepts. This objective is achieved through continued bridge building and culminates in stronger assimilation, leading to deeper learning.
Materials
The activity materials require one eight-piece children’s puzzle for every one to two participants. Usually four unique eight-piece children’s puzzles are packaged as a set with a common theme. For example, a set of farm animal-themed puzzles might include four puzzles, each depicting a different animal (e.g., cow, chicken, horse, and pig). Other puzzle set themes might include fish, dinosaurs, construction equipment, or cars, to name a few. The use of unduplicated puzzle set themes (rather than a single, larger puzzle) provides the students with a complex task with multiple options to consider. It also challenges students’ preconceived notions about a task.
Setup
Remove one puzzle piece from one of the puzzles. The missing puzzle piece can be used in the debriefing to introduce the concepts unpredictability and unplanned change, and their impact on self-organizing systems. Once the piece is removed, mix all of the remaining puzzle pieces together. It is critical that the puzzle pieces are thoroughly mixed together. Ensure that the students cannot see the completed puzzle pictures on the boxes. Push tables or desks together, place the mixed-up puzzle pieces face up, and spread the pieces evenly along the length of the table. This activity works best with at least 8 students and no more than 15 students participating in a group. If there are more than 15 students in the class, break the class into groups. Each group will receive a set of puzzles to complete. In this case, you will have multiple groups simultaneously completing puzzles. Randomly assign the students to groups.
Facilitating the Activity
Ask the students to place themselves along both sides of the table. Once the students are in place, instruct them to “Put together the puzzle pieces.” Give no further instructions. If students ask for further clarification, just repeat the previous instruction. Note that there is no mention of the number of puzzles or instructions on how to accomplish the task. The brief instructions are meant to mimic the ambiguity that normally occurs in project teams and other work group situations. The ambiguous instructions set up an environment for self-organization and can be used during the debriefing to discuss the relationship of ambiguity, self-organization, and experimentation/innovation. Depending on the group size, puzzles are usually completed in 15 to 20 minutes. See Appendix A for examples of student reactions during the activity. Some challenges may occur during the facilitating of the activity and debriefing and discussions. Table 2 outlines possible challenges and potential solutions. The total time to complete all activity steps ranges from 65 to 90 minutes.
Puzzle Activity Challenges and Potential Solutions.
Facilitator Role
Throughout this activity, the instructor acts as a facilitator. The facilitator role is to observe the interactions and to share those observations during the debriefing. Facilitator observations are a critical part of the group reflection debriefing and can be used to guide the students to more deeply reflect on their individual and group experience. As with the individual student written reflections, observations should focus on the initial process, changes in the process over time, individual actions, and changes in individual actions over time. If there is more than one group, the groups’ differences in their interactions and process should be explored.
Debriefing
The debriefing session occurs in two stages—individual reflection (10-15 minutes) and group reflection (15-20 minutes). The individual reflection is written self-reflection using guiding questions. The group reflection establishes a common understanding of the self-organization process through guiding questions, leading to the development of a timeline based on individual reflections.
Direct Debriefing: Individual Reflection
After the students complete the puzzles, ask them to individually reflect on their group’s process, their individual actions, their interaction with others in the group, and the impact their actions and interactions had on the outcome. Students should write down their reflections. See Appendix B for sample individual questions.
Direct Debriefing: Group Reflection
Once students have completed their written reflections, use the group reflection questions (Appendix B) to guide the sharing of individual student reflections and facilitator observations. If the class was divided into smaller groups, ask students to share with their group, and then have each small group report their key insights as part of the class debrief. See Appendix C for typical individual student reflection–shared comments and accompanying facilitator observations. As reflections are reported, record them on a Group Reflection timeline for the beginning, middle, and end of the process. This timeline is key to helping students build a bridge from abstract concepts to concrete experience. The timeline provides a visual tool to help students see the process from multiple perspectives and to create a more cohesive group view of self-organization. Conclude the debriefing by asking the class to summarize the key learnings from the puzzle activity and debriefing.
Bridge Building
Bridge building (15-20 minutes) fosters the development of connections between concrete experience and abstract concepts. Through guiding questions, students develop names (self-organization concepts) for their experiences. This process enables students to create connections among the concepts and develop a more holistic meaning. These connections can be applied to content throughout the semester to reinforce and deepen the students’ understanding of the concepts.
To begin bridge building, introduce key self-organizing concepts (see Appendix D for concept definitions and discussion questions). After the key concepts are defined, ask the students to identify how those concepts may apply to the individual and group reflections discussed in the debriefing. To help the students apply concepts, use the Group Reflection timeline created in the debriefing. See Appendix E for a detailed example of how to conduct bridge building.
Assimilation
Assimilation is an important step used to encourage students to broaden their ability to apply self-organization concepts beyond their puzzle experience. For immediate assimilation (10-15 minutes), ask students to apply the concepts to their experience with current or past organizations or other group/team experiences. To facilitate the discussion of broader application, it sometimes helps introduce examples such as disruptive technologies (e.g., wind and solar power on the utility companies, online learning on education, automation on jobs); the impact of natural events (e.g., warmer climate on agricultural practices); or the impact of policy decisions (e.g., vouchers on public education, deregulation of air quality on communities surrounding refineries), to name a few.
Longer term assimilation continues throughout the semester as students revisit the self-organization concepts, puzzle activity experience, and bridge building conversation. That understanding is reinforced as the students continue to connect the abstract concepts with new experiences. As students continue to practice connecting a variety of concrete experiences to abstract concepts, they strengthen their skill in making abstract to practical connections.
Summary
The framework of debriefing, bridge building, and assimilation, when coupled with an experiential exercise such as “It’s a Puzzle,” establishes a foundation and scaffolding for developing students’ ability to apply abstract concepts (i.e., self-organization) to concrete experiences (i.e., It’s a Puzzle, other personal experiences, and additional class projects and activities). The ability to engage in self-reflection and group reflection learned during the debriefing, the ability to take abstract concepts and connect them to a specific concrete experience learned in bridge building, and the ability to assimilate and apply the initial sense-making more broadly to real life situations are key skills necessary to navigate within and successfully contribute to organizations and teams. Generally, students report that the activity is engaging and provides an experience that they can use to ground the complex concepts of self-organization.
Footnotes
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Appendix E
Authors’ Note
This article is based on a presentation given at the 2016 Organizational Behavior Teaching Conference.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.