Playful Learning 2026 Programme
Playfully Debriefing Playful Learning: Exploring the Diamond Debrief Model to Deepen Reflection in Playful Learning
Lead Author: Emma Darbyshire
Additional authors: Dr Emma Darbyshire, Dr Abhi Jones, Ailsa Dollard, Dr Emma Gillaspy
Timetable: ,
Description:
Effective debriefing is essential for transforming playful experiences into meaningful learning. The Diamond Debrief Model is a flexible framework designed to guide learners from expressive reflection to deeper analysis by providing a simple, structured and psychologically safe approach that moves learners from immediate reactions, through deeper exploration, to intentional application in practice. This workshop introduces participants to the Diamond Debrief Model and invites attendees to explore and experience the Diamond Debrief Model through play and creativity.
Drawing on our experiences using this approach in health professions education, we will share practical tips, adaptations, and examples of how debriefing can enhance learner engagement and improve reflective depth. Playful and experiential learning in interprofessional education, such as roleplay, team-based challenges, and games, helps students develop collaboration, communication and shared decision-making skills. However, without intentional reflection, these experiences risk becoming superficial or misinterpreted. Incorporating the diamond debrief model supports learners to acknowledge emotional responses, collectively explore meaning and dynamics, and develop actionable insights for professional practice. We will demonstrate how it can strengthen collaborative learning, enhance psychological safety, and support learners from diverse backgrounds to co-construct understanding. The workshop will model the strategies we advocate, demonstrating how play and structure can work hand in hand to elevate debriefing practice.
Participants will engage in short games, creative challenges, and hands on activities. These playful tasks will then be used as live material for modelling each stage of the Diamond Debrief process. Through guided participation, attendees will experience the model from the inside, exploring how it can help structure reflection, encourage multiple perspectives, and translate playful experiences into meaningful professional insight.
This workshop will involve the following,
1, Introduction: exploring the key stages of the model in a playful way using a ‘walk through experience’ to familiarise participants with the three phases of the debriefing model. Using movement, unpredictability, and humour, will allow cognitive shift across the diamond to be highlighted. (This can be adapted as required for accessibility).
2, Small group activities: improvisation will be used to create short, silly scenarios to base a debrief on. Reflection will be playful and often absurd, adding challenge and randomness whilst preserving structure and activating reflective muscles to ensure debriefing using the diamond debrief model can be practised in an emotionally safe, low stakes, setting. Each activity will be directly followed by a facilitated Diamond structured debrief, enabling participants to understand the model and build confidence in using it.
3, Debrief Bingo: ending with a whole group diamond debrief bingo activity to consolidate learning and witness a role-played exemplar debrief in action.
Participants will leave with a clear understanding of the Diamond Debrief Model, ideas for incorporating playful strategies into their own debriefing processes, and practical resources and confidence to support implementation within their own diverse contexts.
To support consolidation of learning, participants will be given paper resources and links to provide points of reference after the conference.
This workshop will be beneficial to those keen to develop effective debriefing techniques in the context of playful learning.
References, web links and other resources:
References:
1. World Health Organization. Framework for action on interprofessional education & collaborative practice. World Health Organisation; 2010. Accessed January 22, 2024. Framework for action on interprofessional education & collaborative practice (who.int)
2. Sarah Edwards, Lakshman Swamy, Michael Cosimini, Bjorn Watsjold, Teresa M. Chan (2023) Educator’s blueprint: A how-to guide for creating analog serious games for learning in medical education, AME Education and Training, 7:6, https://doi.org/10.1002/aet2.10907
3. Kimberly Battle, Kelly S. Lockeman, Alan W. Dow, Krista L. Donohoe, Lauren Hanley & Patricia W. Slattum (2024) Unpacking interactions among student teams in a practice-based IPE setting: a qualitative evaluation study, Journal of Interprofessional Care, 38:4, 713-721, DOI: 10.1080/13561820.2024.2345829
4. Bjorn Watsjold, Michael Cosimini, Mui P, Teresa M. Chan. (2022) Much ado about gaming: An educator’s guide to serious games and gamification in medical education, AME Education and Training, 23;6(4), doi:10.1002/aet2.10794.
5. Peter Jaye, Libby Thomas, and Gabriel Reedy. ‘“The Diamond”: A Structure for Simulation Debrief’. The Clinical Teacher 12, no. 3 (2015): 171–75. https://doi.org/10.1111/tct.12300.
6. Jenny W. Rudolph, Robert Simon, Ronald L. Dufresne, and Daniel B. Raemer. ‘There’s No Such Thing as “Nonjudgmental” Debriefing: A Theory and Method for Debriefing with Good Judgment’. Simulation in Healthcare: Journal of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare 1, no. 1 (2006): 49–55. https://doi.org/10.1097/01266021-200600110-00006.
7. Kirsten Walthall, and Jacky Hanson. RCEM Pre Course Reading Faculty Development Course: Debriefing for Educational Supervision and Simulation Training in Emergency Medicine, 2019.