In light of Active Learning as a philosophy in order to enhance participation and engagement, we have asked Panikos Georgallis how he uses debates in his Business Strategy and Sustainability course in the MSc BA.

What form of Active Learning do you use in your education to keep your students engaged?

In my course, we use a combination of the case method and the debate method. Debates are regularly used as an educational technique in the Amsterdam Business School as they support the development of students’ critical thinking skills and improve reflexivity by compelling students to seriously and actively engage with opposing viewpoints on a given issue.

“Debates support the development of students’ critical thinking skills.”

Could you elaborate on how a debate in your class takes form?

The debates in my course are based on a case, which students are asked to delve into before class. They should get into the case in detail, but also understand the different points of view that the case holds and its trade-off, e.g., social vs. economic objectives. Two teams are assigned to a position and prepare a slide, arguments and responses to possible counter-arguments. In class, they are asked to stand facing each other and engage in the debate. The rest of the class is also divided into teams, representing the jury, and asked to vote for the winning team at the end. This is a good way to have them involved as well. I evaluate and grade myself, but the jury is also expected to give feedback on the spot, and write it down after class, so it can be shared with the debating teams afterwards as well, together with my own feedback. A form of peer feedback so to say.

How do students pick up debating?

The students in my course have fun with debating because of the competition although it is not easy. It is usually harder than a presentation because of the amount of preparation involved. But I noticed not all students taking a given class are knowledgeable about the characteristics of an effective debate. In light of this, we started a project to develop a debating manual, together with a student, that will ‘level the playing field’ by giving students a better understanding of how to engage in a class debate. It is meant to be used in the Business Strategy and Sustainability course of the MSc BA, but it can be developed as a general guide that can be offered for other courses as well.

Want to get in touch to discuss and share? Reach out to Panikos via e-mail or contact TLC at TLC-EB@uva.nl.