Recurring pressures for fiscal restraint threaten the existence of educational programs, such as competitive debate, which are not publicly perceived to produce worthwhile outcomes. Since debate is misunderstood and expensive, its advocates must be prepared to provide solid evidence of its benefits. Unfortunately, methodological weaknesses in…

This article presents 10 practical teaching procedures to encourage students to develop formal reasoning skills. A twelfth-grade English course is used as an example. Procedures include pretesting, sequencing instruction, providing students with concrete experiences, discussing reasoning patterns and forms of argumentation, assigning argumentative…

A unit designed to cover the topic of genetic engineering and its ethical considerations is presented. Students are expected to learn the material while using a debate format. A list of objectives for the unit, the debate format, and the results from an opinion questionnaire are described. (KR)