Debates & Critical Thinking Skills

Janpha Thadphoothon & Jenifer Olat

“Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills of Undergraduate Thai Students Through Debates” 

(Work in Progress)

Eventhough there are several ways to enhance students' thinking skills, one particular method I would like to recommend is the debate. Debates create conditions in which students express their ideas and reasons, and they have to rebut and exercise a variety of communication strategies. They have to work in teams and every student has an equal opportunity to perform. It's indeed a student-centered approach to teaching.

Often the case, we find it hard to gather concrete evidence to push for the use of debates in traditional classrooms, especially in Asian classes where teachers are more in control of the class. This has brought us to try setting up a debate task (10% of the evaluation) for the students taking EN 124 Oral Interaction 2 in the present semester (3/2012). Nine students have registered for the course --- two male and seven female. This is a prelim report of what we have been doing.

What we observed from the first practice dated 13 May 2013:

- The nine students realize that there is a significant different between "I disagree with you." and "I disagree with what you have just said about XXX."

- They have realized that debates are a normal practice of a democratic and open society. Debates are a way to work and live in a globalized society.

- They have learned the values of active listening. They, first of all, focused only on what they had to say. Through the pratice, they gradually realized that they needed to pay attention to what the others said and did not say before they could rebut and build thie own arguement.

- They have learned that social conventions are very important. They have learned that debates are rule-based and a way to give everyone a fair go.

We will report you more soon.

DPU students in one of the debate sessions, EN 238 (Cross-Cultural Communication)

Here are some of what I have learned from using debates in EN 238:

- Some students may not feel easy about it, as they have to do it in English. They may feel shy. So, it's important to provide them language support.

- It takes time to prepare, so one should be extra patient.