The purpose of this study is to examine the performances of university students' using dynamic mathematics software GeoGebra in argumentations and proving processes. A task related to the limit involving "sinx/x" was designed and 18 university students worked on the task during the collaborative learning, scientific debate, and…

Purpose: Debates are well known to encompass a variety of skills we would like higher education candidates to embody when they graduate. Design/methodology/approach: Debates in a classroom with computer science as the main subject has been popular in high schools particularly with emerging issues around the area, however it does not have as an…

In a polarized society, it is a university's responsibility to offer courses that explore highly controversial issues. Traditional forms of debate may create barriers to knowledge and entrenchment of perspectives, with students self-limiting their ability to develop informed opinions. We describe an active learning, double-blinded approach to…

Structured in-class debates are a valuable addition to courses that seek to foster students' development as citizens. In this study, we examine how different debate formats can impact their effectiveness as a pedagogical tool for advancing students' civic learning outcomes. We consider "moderated dualistic" debates that ask students to…

One reason that honors faculty often engage students in seminar discussions is to keep debate's features of competition, argument, and discord at bay. Intentionally structured academic debate represents a transdisciplinary pedagogy capable of cultivating ethical and empathetic citizenship through critical and creative thinking. The author uses…

The authors of this article describe three student-driven learning modules developed from their respective College Fed Challenge courses. These activities are ready-to-apply in a wide range of courses to facilitate adoption without a large time commitment. In the "Pick a Policy Maker" module, students gain an understanding of the…

Introduction: A number of recent surveys have shown that college campuses are becoming intolerant of different viewpoints. Part of the mission of any college should be to create a space where different viewpoints can be debated in a healthy, intellectual way. To gauge the campus climate at their own University, the authors deployed a survey to…

Although dialectical thinking plays an important role in daily life, this ability among adults, including university students, is not always well developed. The present study used three experimental designs to explore efficient ways to promote university students' dialectical thinking ability. The results showed that university students'…

The belief that we are living in a post-truth age raises a number of complex, paradoxical questions. Does it suggest, for example, that truth no longer matters? Or, that the idea of truth no longer exists? The university, of course, has long been associated with the interests of truth -- not only in searching for truth, but in telling the truth.…

Readers confronted with unfamiliar and controversial scientific debates tend to rely on simple heuristics such as the perceived plausibility to focus their cognitive resources on specific information during comprehension. In the present experiment, we tested the assumption that plausibility judgments as an integral part of comprehension are used…

Debates can help students to acquire cross-curricular competencies and improve their learning. However, their use in higher education is scarce and students' acceptance is low. Considering the effectiveness of discussants in scientific conferences, this research introduces the discussant role as a teaching tool to revitalise debate in the…

When professors teach complex topics like trademarks in a business law or legal environment class, the delivery is often too abstract. Textbooks tend to focus on black-letter basics of trademark law, ignoring strategic considerations. Experienced managers know that the strongest trademarks (legally speaking) do not necessarily sell products. These…

In presidential election years such as 2016, colleges and universities across the country devote substantial time and resources to student debate watch events in hopes of engaging students in the election and of generally enhancing political engagement. Few studies examine the effectiveness or potential role of such events for college students'…

The authors, Bertha Alvarez Manninen, a pro-choice associate professor of philosophy at Arizona State University, and Jack Mulder Jr., a pro-life professor of philosophy at Hope College in Michigan have argued with each other since graduate school about abortion and other issues, while respecting each other's stances and friendship. In the current…

This case study investigated the effects of different speaking activities (oral presentations, discussions, debates) on the speaking performance of 11 young adult EFL learners at a university in central Mexico. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and an online survey and analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed…