The “Debating as a New Approach to Learning” project is being submitted by a partnership of European schools and associations working in the field of Education, located in Finland, Italy, Lithuania, Slovenia, Spain in order to satisfy the following current education needs: - rethinking education patterns and methods to foster the basic and transversal skills to meet the goals pursued at school and the society requirements - improving the foreign language skills in multicultural social contexts; - supporting students and teachers, both primary and secondary schools, to develop and to foster a new, effective approach to learning through debating. - experiencing mobility in an international environment. Authoritative educational research have been reporting the need to change the way education is carried out in order to direct teaching to the pursuit of basic and transversal skills such as critical and analytical thinking, creative problem solving, communication and teamworking. Debate methodology is a powerful, most efficient tool for developing these skills. But, to maximize its benefits, it should be started from primary school in a structured and continuous way in the curriculumand guide students throughout their education. Remaining as indelible attitude in lifelong learning, it increase the capacity of young citizens to deal with the complex issues of European society. The use of debate in the classroom requires active engagement by students, investing them with the responsibility to investigate, articulate and defend a particular issue, encouraging class participation also among students that typically do not talk in class. Students must analyze, synthesize and evaluate the knowledge they have acquired in order to propose/oppose/make competing choices. This process improves communication skills honing students’ listening skills to make effective rebuttals. Nevertheless all the existing materials consist of separated guides and websites focused on one particular aspect of debate. This is an objective lack undermining the full implementation and diffusion of the methodology. This project will bring together all aspects of debate methodology and will offer teachers a first comprehensive guide for long term sustainable debate training. The produced materials will be the first in available literature to develop and describe methodology for integrating debate in different types of schools on different level of educational process and in different disciplinary areas. The partnership is composed of 9 institutions representing several stakeholders: - Five schools cooperate to develop the methodology and to prepare materials for integrating debate in primary and secondary schools, they carry out the project preparation phase and management; - Three debate associations of proven reliability contribute to enrich the school education process by leading the schools in implementing new teaching materials. - Four associated partners in the debate educational and social fields support the project - One We design compay expert in the educational/social sector The priority objectives: - The project intends to foster the provision of key-competences, both basic and transversal skills - It promotes take-up of innovative practices in education, by supporting cooperative learning and critical thinking, strategic use of digital devices, open and flexible learning, peer to peer education. - The project up-grades current interactive debate approaches with methodology for learning in the era of the risk of disinformation. The newly developed methodology will consist of debate activities which will address this and will proceed from the examination of some of the most pressing issues of contemporary European society such as migration, environment, political participation. - It enhances the professional development of those working in the education fields by innovating and increasing the quality and range of initial and continuing training - Structured inter-regional and cross-border cooperation are promoted and the commitment of public authorities in the qualitative development of the education is enhanced. The expected results: - two Teachers’ Guides to Introducing Debate in the Curriculum, one for primary/middle school and one for secondary school - A Students' Toolkit for Civic Learning through Debate - Toolkit translation into the languages of the partnership ( Finnish, Italian, Lithuanian, Slovenian, Spanish) We plan to set up - TM: kick-off meeting, 2 intermediate meetings and a close-up meeting - Multiplier events: two transnational conferences to disseminate the project’s results and foster the use of Debate as a teaching tool - Students' learning mobility: 4 mobility with the aim of practicing debate, testing and evaluating the materials -- Teachers’ mobility: one training course for the school teachers to get familiar with the debate techniques and assure the reproduction and sustainability of the results.
To address the described complex situation the project proposes to introduce debate in school as it is an innovative and effective learning method. This is why the project developed three focused open educational resources: - Two Online Teacher’s Guides to introduce debate accross the curriculum in primary and secondary school - One Online Interactive Students’ Tool Kit. The target groups are primary/middle and secondary school students and teachers. Debate is a value for middle school students to boost self-confidence, accelerate learning across the curriculum and improve critical thinking and oral skills. In implementing the project we want to: . develop life skills • offer students the opportunity to gain broad knowledge outside the academic subjects • increase learners’ confidence and self-esteem • improve critical thinking • enhance the ability to structure and organize thoughts, research and select information • improve learners’ ability to form balanced, informed arguments using reasoning and evidence . foster the students ‘ability to articulate their thoughts becoming independent critical thinkers who can collaborate and co-create across contexts • encourage team work • develoep negotiation and persuading skills.
The project arises from the awareness that our societies and economies rely heavily on highly educated and competent people. Skills such as creativity, critical thinking and problem solving play an important role in coping with complexity and change in today's society. New ways of learning as well as more flexible training and education models are needed for a society which is becoming increasingly mobile and digital. Transversal knowledge, collaborating on tasks and sharing information are the building blocks for the development of the competencies required to succeed on the labour market. On the teaching front there is a lack of integration of transversal competencies in school curricula and few guidelines to assist teachers to develop them. The need of pedagogical practices for student-centred tasks is documented, as the lack of teacher training to support these practices. On the students front there is the need to: - fostering the students ‘ability to articulate their thoughts - being independent critical thinkers who can collaborate and co-create across contexts - promoting civic engagement and democratic participation among a generation of young people detached from our formal institutions through debating in school.