Al veertien jaar hebben wij de overtuiging dat het debat als methode van grote meerwaarde is in het onderwijs. Gelukkig kunnen wij dit standpunt nu met gedegen onderzoek bekrachtigen: een team Engelse onderzoekers heeft kritisch gekeken naar 59 studies die de afgelopen jaren zijn gedaan naar de waarde van het debat in het onderwijs. Hun conclusie: “The evidence makes the case for the increased use of debate activities as a teaching tool to support the learning of children and young people.”
Er is reeds veel (wetenschappelijk) onderzoek gedaan naar de waarde en impact van debatactiviteiten in het onderwijs, maar wat nog altijd ontbrak was een samenvattende analyse. Vandaar dat de ‘CfBT Education Trust’ en de ‘English Speaking Union (ESU)’ de koppen bij elkaar hebben gestoken en een samenvattend rapport hebben gemaakt van de 59 belangrijkste onderzoeken naar de waarde en impact van debatactiviteiten in het onderwijs.
De kwantitatieve studies tonen een positieve correlatie tussen debatactiviteiten op school en een betere leesvaardigheid, schrijfvaardigheid en kritisch denkniveau. De kwalitatieve studies tonen een bredere meerwaarde van het debat in de klas, zoals het verbreden van culturele referentiekaders, verhogen van ambities en leergierigheid.
Een samenvatting van de samenvatting:
- improvements in academic attainment
“A range of studies suggest that debate has a practical and meaningful influence on the attainment of young people from diverse backgrounds, and in particular on the development of literacy skills. The most recent and largest-scale work finds that debaters were 25% more likely to graduate from high school than a group of comparable peers, and that they scored significantly better in reading and English tests, gaining on average an extra 1.02 and 1.04 points respectively (Mezuk et al. 2010). This evidence is supported by another study of high school debaters that found an improvement of 25% in the reading scores of 209 debaters versus 212 randomly selected non-debaters from the same schools (Collier 2004).”
- increasing student engagement
“A majority (79%) of English undergraduates in one study reported that classroom debates had encouraged them to engage with and learn the course content (Goodwin 2003). A college group of business students also reported that classroom debates contributed to their understanding of the topic (88%) and enriched the course (88%) (Rao 2010).”
- developing critical thinking
“A meta-analysis by Allen et al. (1999) concludes that training in communication skills, including debate, measurably improves participants’ critical thinking by as much as 44%.”
- better communication skills
“A study among American and Japanese high school debating students themselves showed that improved communication and speaking skills were considered their top benefits learned from debating (Williams et al 2001; Littlefield 2001; Inoue and Nakano 2004).”
- raising aspirations for education
“American high school debating students showed an increased commitment to attend college in comparison to their non-debating peers (Collier 2004; Shuster 2008).”
- boosting confidence
“Young people and their teachers taking part in the London Debate Challenge reported increased confidence most frequently among the benefits they perceived, while students also thought taking part in this competition helped to prepare them for future career roles (Jerome and Algarra 2005.)”
- increasing cultural awareness
“Williams et al. (2001) and Littlefield (2001) also found out that the broadening of horizons, improved cultural awareness through meeting new people and spending time with those from different backgrounds are important elements around the value of debate activities in schools.”
Lees hier een uitgebreide samenvatting van het onderzoek.
