DEMO: Teaching the 21st Century Student

itive or negative effects, agreements and disagreements, strengths and weaknesses, opportunities or threats, they need to pay attention to their opponent’s perspectives. The reverse view helps to foresee the other side’s argumentation, refute related drawbacks in reason- ing, and advocate for the opponent’s acceptance. Argumentation needs to be trained in cooperation. To increase individual involvement, students should work in pairs (Ch. 1.1). To refine assertive- ness and role-sharing, students can be organized in teams (Ch. 1.3). Suitable classroom activities aimed at practicing argumentation are describedinthethirdsectionof thischapter.Theseinclude grilling (Ch.4.3.1) to practice for situations when one person argues against all. Academic debate in four (Ch. 4.3.2) prepares for argumentation in small teams. The discussion web (Ch. 4.3.3), the four corners (Ch. 4.3.5), and the thinking hats (Ch. 4.3.6) techniques help students develop their argumentation as they allow for changing or correcting their views in the process. The devil’s advocate (Ch. 4.3.4) enhances the ability to understand and prepare for opposite perspectives.

When you are teaching argumentation and debate, make sure you give your students enough time to collect and prepare a bank of arguments and relevant proof. Have them use a T-graph to review the existing points and make sure they understand the importance of learning how to anticipate and acknowledge the opponent’s arguments. Explain to your students the importance of civilized argumentation in their communication with other people. Teach them practical phrases they can use in a professional debate. Make sure they are assertive but courteous, respectful, tolerant, actively listening, and avoiding emotional reactions.

TEACHER TIP

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