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JANET RANKIN: The
technique of debate

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is a really interesting
and useful technique.

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I make sure to arbitrarily
assign students

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the side that they'll
be taking in the debate

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because it's pretty
easy to debate something

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you feel passionate about.

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It's not so easy
to debate something

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that you don't feel
passionate about,

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or where you feel the
other side is correct.

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In terms of learning, I
think it's a great exercise

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because it forces people
to, at least superficially,

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understand the stated arguments
for the side they're taking

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and then find a
way to at least be

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semi convincing about
those arguments.

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And then I give them
a period of time

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to prepare, to sort of
prepare their arguments

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about how they're going
to defend their positions.

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And then I have them
voice their arguments

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for the particular side
that they've been assigned.

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So in crafting the arguments,
pro if you're a con,

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you really have to
start to understand

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what goes behind those
arguments a little bit

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better, and so that's where the
learning takes place I think.

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The other thing is
that the students get

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a little bit
competitive, so they want

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to construct a good argument.

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They want to sound convincing.

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And so that extra little
bit means that they really

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do put in the effort to
construct a good argument

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and to make it believable.

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If I were making recommendations
to someone who had never

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used a debate before I would say
that you should, first of all,

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don't pick anything that's
really emotional to start out

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with.

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So people can have a pretty
strong opinion about it,

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but it's not something
that's really deep.

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So I would stay away from
something too touchy.

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The other thing
is that it should

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be something where it's
really not a slam dunk one

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way or the other.

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So you want to make sure
that the topic that you

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choose really does have
two reasonable positions.

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You don't want to give one
team just a terrible thing

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to have to argue.

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The other thing you
want to make sure

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is that you give students enough
time to craft their arguments

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and to debate the points.

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So that if you cut the debate
short after three minutes,

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it's just not going to help.

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So you have to set aside a
pretty good chunk of time.