What is Debate?

  • This House regrets the widespread belief that motherhood is a rewarding experience

  • This House believes that technology companies with significant market shares should not be eligible for patent protection

  • This House believes that versions of history taught by states through the education system should not be designed to promote national pride

  • This House would require individuals to pass a political general knowledge test in order to vote

These are all motions that have been debated at past final rounds of the World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC).
A debate in the WSDC format consists of two teams consisting of 3 speakers each, and an adjudicator.

The teams are informed of their stance (either proposition or oppositon) and are given one hour to prepare their case.

Debating forces students to consider, engage and even defend viewpoint they personally disagree with, identifying flaws in their own and their advisaries arguments and reasoning.

These are all motions that have been debated at past final rounds of the World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC).
A debate in the WSDC format consists of two teams consisting of 3 speakers each, and an adjudicator. The teams are informed of their stance (either proposition or oppositon) and are given one hour to prepare their case.

Debating forces students to consider, engage and even defend viewpoint they personally disagree with, identifying flaws in their own and their advisaries arguments and reasoning.

Skills

Debating can facilitate transformative learning experiences for students, by providing them with the opportunity to practice constructive dialogue in a structured environment. Specifically, some of the competences that students develop through debating include:

  • Mastery of the English language
  • Constructing arguments using knowledge and analytical reasoning
  • Critical thinking and analysis under competitive pressure
  • Presentation skills and thinking on their feet.



Knowledge
Debating can help students expand their knowledge about the world, by discussing current and historic social, political and economic issues. In terms of social issues, topics can range from ethics and morality, which are fundamental to most debates, to more practical impacts regarding specific social groups.

Skills

Debating can facilitate transformative learning experiences for students, by providing them with the opportunity to practice constructive dialogue in a structured environment. Specifically, some of the competences that students develop through debating include:

  • Mastery of the English language
  • Constructing arguments using knowledge and analytical reasoning
  • Critical thinking and analysis under competitive pressure
  • Presentation skills and thinking on their feet.
Knowledge

Debating can help students expand their knowledge about the world, by discussing current and historic social, political and economic issues. In terms of social issues, topics can range from ethics and morality, which are fundamental to most debates, to more practical impacts regarding specific social groups.

How can you use Debate?

Creating a Debating Club
Creating a Debate society at your school is a great way to get students engaged in critical thinking in a fun, competitive way, creating a culture of rational reasoning.
DDA remains committed to supporting Debate societies across Denmark by providing materials such as those found on this page, along with opportunities for testing your clubs ability against other teams at our tournaments.

What does Debating in schools look like?
Debating is a prized part of education in many countries.
Whether this is in the form of dedicated school societies that promote critical thinking and actively partake in national and international competitions, or as a format for diversifying and adding nuance to educational topics and discussions.

DDA Debating Mini-Handbook

Take a look at our official Danish Debate Association Debating Mini-Handbook with all the knowledge you need to get started with debating your club or classroom!

DDA Exercise Handbook

This guide is meant as a source of inspiration if you’re starting or running a debate club, either as a group or an individual.
It contains tips on how to run a debate club, exercises you can use to improve and motions you can debate. Use it together with the DDA Debate Handbook.

Debating in Danish Schools
While the latter is prevalent in Danish schools, we believe that it would benefit both students and teachers to use the WSDC format when discussing nuanced ideas in the classroom, and that it could be a valuable tool for achieving in-depth perspectives on the subject matter as it necessitates an active engagement and analysis of both one’s own side of the argument, as well as your opponent’s side.

Need more resources?

Please check out our comprehensive guide on how to run a debating society.  This guide is focused on university debating, but many chapters are transferable to other educational levels.

Questions about resources? Feel free to reach out to us via our contact page!

Empowering University Debate Clubs

We wrote this manual as part of an Erasmus+ project in collaboration with Estonian and Latvian debating societies. Thank you to the EU and to our collaborators for making this possible! This is the Danish version - you can find the English version here: https://bit.ly/3tw6ZZe