Teacher Guide
League tips
Start by thinking of a good question that students will be interested in and that will provoke debate.
For example:
- Which of these two people is more influential?
- Which of these two things is more important?
- Which of these two people made the more important contribution to the way we think today?
- Which of these two topics is more controversial?
Make sure that the things that are being compared make sense for your question and are likely to stimulate discussion. The idea is not to settle an issue with a vote but to provoke argument and critical thinking. Who has more power — George Bush or Osama Bin Laden? Who had more influence on the way we think in the 21st century — Karl Marx or Charles Darwin?
A simple question can provoke a complex debate. In an English literature lesson, imagine asking the question: "Who has more power, Macbeth or Lady Macbeth?" There is no right or wrong answer — and the discussion can cover complicated issues of character, motivation and free will.
How do you stimulate a good debate?
The risk with any classroom debate is that students will simply voice their personal opinions so that it becomes less of a debate and more a case of who is loudest and most forceful. The aim is to guide the debate in a way that enables everyone to have a say, and to help students develop opinions that are based on evidence, not assertion. The ability to see the shades of grey in an argument — and to appreciate others' points of view — is an important one.
Here are some ways you can structure the discussion to ensure a good debate:
- Set out ground rules for the discussion at the start: for example, setting time limits on the length of time each student speaks, or specifying that students must raise hands before speaking.
- Experiment with layout, perhaps sitting in a large circle or in groups around tables.
- Start with students working in small groups, and then choose one student from each group to present the group's thoughts to the rest of the class.
- Insist that students present evidence for each point they make.
- Provide sentence frameworks to help them construct arguments — "I think .... is more powerful because .... my evidence for this is ...."
- Outline some questions for consideration on the whiteboard. For example, if you are asking students to discuss who is more powerful, you could ask them to think about what power consists of, what different kinds of power there are, and how power can be exercised.
- To help pupils choose, generate questions as a class to help discussions: what do we know already, what are the most important characteristics, what are the pros and cons, what are the key differences between the two etc.
- Use turn–taking — make sure every student has a say.
- Guide the discussion by summarising the points raised, and then moving the debate on — or call on a student to summarise the discussion so far.
Top tip: Another way of encouraging students to see the wider picture and not just give their own gut reaction is by asking them to give the answer from someone else's point of view. Ask how would they vote if they were a poor farmer in Africa, for example, or a wealthy American, or a single mother, or a wheelchair user.
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