Hosted by OSOS , contributed by avavouraki on 22 April 2018
“Debate Competition” http://antilogies.ea.gr is a competition between 11 year old students, who debate on issues related to scientific issues that
influence our everyday life. Through the activity students learn to form solid arguments and take position, as well as they
familiarize themselves with exposure to audience.
The Debate Competition however is not only about cultivating communication skills and about the Competition itself. It is an
extended educational activity in the framework of which students:
- are involved with scientific investigations
- are familiarized with scientific issues, issues of ethics, law, politics and science
- cooperate with their classmates, share information and ideas
- take up different roles (debater, judge)
- take a position on issues that influence our lives
- take action in the school and local community
The activity was enthusiastically embraced from teachers and students and was evolved from within.
Learning objectives
Through this activity, students are expected to:
- cultivate their communication skills, by analyzing and composing views and arguments, conversing, disagreeing and resolving conflicts
- cultivate their ability to effectively and creatively use the spoken language, so that they can actively participate in their school and wider community, by taking up different roles (debater, judge), and being actively involved in the process
- learn to collaborate, working in groups, sharing information and ideas
- cultivate scientific thinking but also scientific research and study skills by being involved in scientific research on the issues they are required to debate about
- acquire knowledge and skills related to scientific issues, by being involved in investigations related to the way science influences the quality of everyday life
- be prepared their dynamic inclusion in school life and later in adult society as responsible citizens, by taking a position on such kind of issues and by proposing their ideas and taking action to the school and local community
Available Partnership Opportunities
The “Debate Contest” activity is organized in collaboration with the Greek Institute of Educational
Policy the School Regional Administration Office, the School Advisor of East Attica, and the University of Athens.
We have already started cooperation with other eight interested schools within our Region.
The educational activity is under the aegis of the Greek Ministry of Education
Resources needed
No special equipment is required.
Organisation in charge of this Accelerator
This Accelerator has been developed by Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Primary School .
Agapi Vavouraki, avavouraki@ea.gr
Georgina Daliani, g.daliani@gmail.com
Ellinogermaniki Agogi (EA),
Dimitriou Panagea Str.,
GR 153 51, Pallini Attikis
Website: https://ea.gr
Feel
How can we be strong discussants?
How many times haven’t we all seen people around us shouting, getting angry being unable to handle a different view, a disagreement or even a misunderstanding? How many people at the street, at home, at the office, even in public debates, try to impose their opinion, using the intensity of their voice? How many people believe that the stronger the voice, the greater the correctness of the view, the greater is the assertion of the truth.
It is a fact that we do not know how to discuss, we have not learned to hear the person we have in front of us. We do not respect our discussant, we interrupt him without letting him complete his thoughts. We are trapped in our view of things, and we do not sacrifice our time or our ego, so that we can hear each other.
Thus, it’s time to learn how to become proper speakers and how to discuss using arguments. It is worth trying to bring about the change from where everything starts, from education, from school, from the early age, from where attitudes are set out and good habits are established.
We learn how to debate, and we move beyond organizing a "Debate Competition" for 6th grade students, who debate on issues related to scientific issues that influence our everyday life.
Imagine
Learning to Debate and Organise a School Debate Competition
The Debate Competition is not only about Competition itself, but an educational extended activity that includes, familiarization of students with scientific issues, issues of ethics, law, politics and science, cooperating with classmates, developing the ability of analyses and synthesize data and information to form arguments and take position, familiarizing self with exposure to audience, compete and take action in the school and local community proposing for a better world.
First, students are familiarized with argumentation and they learn how to develop arguments. It is better at this initial phase for students to start with argumentation topics that are familiar to the students. Students are encouraged to research to formulate their arguments.
Next, as students become more familiar with the argumentation process, the teacher together with the students choose topics for students to debate on. At this phase, topics chosen are about scientific issues that influence the quality of our life and students would like to debate on. Students have a preparation time to build their argumentation through scientific research. Then students are informed about the debate rules and perform their first debate. Students attend their students’ debates and become at the same time debate evaluators. Multiple Debate rounds may be organized.
Finally, the teacher in cooperation with the members of the school community organizes school Debate Contest. At the School Debate Contest the school community decides who will evaluate students’ debate.
Create
Prerparation for Debate and the School Debate Competition
We introduced and organized “Debate” with all 6th grade students. The implementation was organized in three phase
- Introduction to Argumentation (minimum time 4 teaching sessions)
The aim of this first phase of the project was to familiarize students with argumentation and argument development.
The first teaching session in the classroom was devoted to an introduction to argumentation using argumentative texts. We discussed the way arguments were presented into the chosen texts and the way these were used to support different views and opinions on the same issue. At the second teaching session we discussed based on a teacher presentation the basic elements and characteristics of a convincing argument giving emphasis at the explanation of each point, as well as to the for/against structure. At the third and fourth teaching session students tried to develop their first arguments. They were organized in groups of three and chose a topic to support or confute. We gave emphasis to the scientific support of an argument. Students searched on the internet/newspapers/magazines/books scientific articles related to the issues they had to support/confute, in order to formulate arguments based on scientific ground. Students presented their position and we all discussed the criteria for a strong position using convincing arguments.
Students were enthusiastic about the entire process and worked very well together. We tried argumentation with several topics extending this first familiarization phase for two more teaching sessions.
- Introduction to Debate and debate Competition (minimum time 2 teaching sessions)
The aim of the second phase of the project was to familiarize students with debate and debate competition rules.
The first teaching session in the classroom was devoted to an introduction to debate. We discussed the concept of debating, the rules, as well as the criteria and assessment process. Next, we organized Debate in the classroom. Students were organized in groups chose a topic and a position to take (for/against). They prepared their arguments in groups using scientific articles published in different information sources. All students knew and followed the process and kept the right time limits. (Preparation of students’ groups for20 min., Debate for 20 min., Evaluation for min.) Every student in the classroom participated in the debate, and every student acted as n evaluator of the debaters. It seemed that taking students the role of evaluator helped them more to understand the criteria of a convincing argument and a strong position.
At this phase, all students of 6th grade participated. We tried debate on several topics and created a resource bank with articles found for each topic we worked on. At the end of each round we recapped essential issues on the quality of arguments and evaluation, as well as on debate rules.
Time that is needed for this phase depends on the number of students’ groups that participate and of course the number of debate rounds.
- School Debate Competition
The project went further by organizing an internal School Debate Competition for 6th grade students. The students organized freely their debate groups and registered for the competition. Eighteen groups of four students participated to the Debate Competition. We organized nine Debate rounds using three different topics. All students of he 6th grade who did not participate into the Debate Competition watched the Competition. At this phase, evaluation committee was comprised by external evaluators. The School Debate Competition was embraced by all students and parents. The two student groups that scored higher are going to participate in the first Regional Debate Competition.