Using Debate in the Classroom: Encouraging Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration

Debate holds enormous potential to build 21st century skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and conflict resolution in the K-12 classroom, but teachers often struggle to implement and contextualize it effectively. Using Debate in the Classroom draws on research from a variety of academic disciplines to explain the benefits of debate across subject areas, and describes how teachers can use debate to enliven their curriculum and support the aims of the Common Core. Topics include:

• Introducing debate as a pedagogical practice to engage students, improve school culture, and disrupt the school to prison pipeline
• Using debate to teach critical literacy and improve students’ reading, writing, and speaking skills
• Implementing role-playing techniques to strengthen information literacy and reasoning skills
• Building students’ empathy, perspective-taking skills, and cultural humility as they confront difficult social issues through debate

Appendices provide a variety of tools to assist K-12 teachers in implementing debate in the classroom, including ready-made debate activities, student handouts, and a step-by-step guide to introducing students to debate in just one week.

Karyl A. Davis directs communications for the Glenn Pelham Foundation for Debate Education and is the owner and principal creative of the consulting firm kd Alice Communications.

M. Leslie Wade Zorwick is Associate Professor of Psychology at Hendrix College.

James Roland is Senior Director of Community Programs and Engaged Scholarship at the Barkley Forum Center for Debate Education at Emory University.

Melissa Maxcy Wade is President of the Glenn Pelham Foundation for Debate Education.