In the framework of this project, the four partner high schools from Greece, Hungary, Latvia and Spain intend to cooperate in order to improve their students' verbal skills in their native languages and English using debate as an educational tool, in an international environment. Although rarely used in a general educational context, debating develops the participants' skills in public speaking, listening for the logic of arguments, self-expression while reacting, reading comprehension while researching the topic, and concise writing during, for instance, online debates. Critical and logical thinking are inevitable for successful communication, and can be improved through building up arguments in a debate. In addition, debates can enhance students’ skills in information management and research as well as cooperation. Debating also builds empathy and tolerance helping the acquisition of democratic values. Debates in the classroom highlight the differences of perspectives, deepen the knowledge of the subject and foster organized interaction among peers. Debate contests provide a source of motivation and a controlled environment for sharing distinct arguments. Teaching debate or teaching with the help of debate require plenty of preparation from unexperienced teachers. The project will involve teachers of different academic subjects including languages (native and foreign) with different debate experience but equal enthusiasm for learning or perfecting this practice in order to serve their students' needs with an innovative and interdisciplinary pedagogical approach. The objectives of the project include the methodological preparation of teachers, the improvement of students' verbal skills and linguistic competences, international cooperation and sharing of good practices among teachers and the opening of a new window to the world for students. The 2-year project would start with a teachers’ meeting, where they share their experiences and ideas about debating in the classroom, prepare the final debate format to be used in the student contests, agree on topics and discuss the content of the assessment instruments. The main short-term teaching/learning/training activities of the project will be four one-week contests in each partner country, where the first two days will be spent with debates of national teams on a previously announced topic with the teachers as judges and observers. Then, international teams will be formed with one student from each country, and will debate on a topic announced on the third day of the week, with one day of preparation. Both contests will have a winning team and we will choose the best speakers of English, as well. These contests are to be filmed and edited into a tutorial video made by and for students on how to debate successfully. In addition to these contests, the partners will launch a debate website, where different topics are going to be discussed in the same debate format, but in writing. Teachers will prepare a self-assessment instrument for students, where they can examine how much and how these activities improved their skills. In addition, teachers are to prepare a booklet with topics, lesson plans, an assessment rubric on debate skills, pieces of advice and experience to make it a starting point for teachers of foreign languages as well as other subjects who want to introduce debate in their classrooms. As for the project's impact, we expect improved student performance on oral exams, language exams, school-leaving exams and national assessment studies in reading comprehension, an increased number of classroom debates led by motivated teachers and the establishment or continuation of debate clubs also active in contests outside the institution.
Dispute, Discuss, Develop was a 2-year-long project focusing on debate as an educational tool implemented by four secondary schools from Greece, Hungary (coordinator), Latvia and Spain. The aim of the cooperation was to involve students in a highly challenging activity, which improves their general verbal skills in their native language and English and offers them several opportunities to cooperate with their peers locally and internationally. Project participants had the chance to experience all the benefits of debating including the fact that it develops one's skills in public speaking, listening for the logic of arguments, self-expression while reacting, reading comprehension while researching and concise writing during online debates. Critical and logical thinking are inevitable for successful communication, and can be improved through building up arguments in a debate. Moreover, debates can enhance students’ skills in information management and research as well as cooperation. Debating also builds empathy and tolerance helping the acquisition of democratic values. Debates in the classroom highlight the differences of perspectives, deepen the knowledge of the subject and foster organized interaction among peers. Debate contests provide a source of motivation and a controlled environment for sharing distinct arguments. During this project, the benefits of debating affected both students and teachers. Participating teachers got first-hand experience on the large amount of preparation teaching debate requires, though they also had the chance to feel how rewarding it is. The project involved teachers of different academic subjects, including languages, with different debate experience but equal enthusiasm for reinforcing this practice to serve their students' needs with an innovative and interdisciplinary pedagogical approach. A further aim of the project was for teachers to share the methodology of teaching debate. To help this, they have prepared a booklet of 60 pages full of lesson plans, debate transcripts and other related tools. The project activities followed a clear structure in order to provide a relatively safe and predictable environment for participants to improve. It started with a meeting for teachers only, where all the elements of the debate contests were clarified and agreed upon. The main short-term Teaching, Learning and Training activities of the project were four one-week contests in each partner country, where the first two days were spent with debates between national teams on a previously announced resolution with 3 teachers and 4 students as judges. Then, mixed teams of three were formed with one student from each country, and debated on a resolution announced on the third day of the week, with one day of preparation. Both contests had a winning team and we also chose the three best speakers.The debate resolutions of a given project team were chosen by the host school within the topic assigned to them, which were Natural Sciences, History, Technology in Education and Civics and Active Citizenship. These contests were all filmed and edited into a tutorial video made by and for students on how to debate successfully within the Karl Popper Debate Format. In addition to these live contests, four resolutions related to the above mentioned topics were discussed in writing in the form of online debates, which were held on the debate website launched by the partners. The language tests carried out at the beginning and end of the project showed that there was tremendous improvement in the English language skills of the participating students compared to those of their peers in all four institutions. In addition, in their final personal evaluations, students pointed out that they managed to improve a whole range of skills from organised thinking to public speaking in English, and reported to have gained confidence in social interactions. Further social benefits included new friendships and meeting debaters from different backgrounds. Also they learnt how to defend their ideas and accept those of others. The project’s impact on teachers was also manifold including learning new innovation techniques and content-based teaching methodologies. The project also affected their relationship with students in that they developed a new kind of honest and enthusiastic collaboration with them. Several teachers reported it was extremely rewarding to see their students' growing confidence as the result of their brilliant performances and to experience how much they enjoyed debating. What is more, all the participants agree the project has had a lasting impact on the school community and on the way they continue to work. Although the continuation of the project did not receive funding this year, Dispute, Discuss, Develop has definitely left its mark on the institutions’ life in the form of new optional debate subjects, active debate circles and students who continue competing on a national level.