This paper focuses on the Pelagian Debate of the late 4th Century CE between Augustine of Hippo and the British cleric Pelagius, and its little known or understood relevance to music education practice and scholarship. A transdisciplinary review of theological, historical, pedagogical, and musicological texts suggests that Augustinian notions of…

In recent decades, deliberation about public issues has become a central theme in citizenship education. In line with an increasing philosophical and political appreciation of the importance of deliberation within democracy, schools, as training grounds for democratic citizenship, should foster high-level deliberative skills. However, when this…

This activity aims to assist students with persuasive tactics for argumentative speeches. The activity involves students creating an argumentative speech to defend a hot-take assertion chosen from a list provided by the instructor. In small groups, students will craft an argument supporting their hot-take assertion and present it to the class.…

Constructive controversies, where team members discuss their different opinions openly and politely, can stimulate interprofessional learning (IPL): the learning that occurs in the interactions between two or more different professions. However, in science-based controversies where members compete to be the expert learning becomes complicated.…

Ethical dilemmas are multifaceted and complex, comprising a diverse set of viewpoints, values, beliefs, and attitudes. They rarely have a purely right or wrong answer. Not everyone will have the same answer to an ethical dilemma. Hence, teaching ethics is about helping students build critical thinking skills so that they can consider contradictory…

In this article, the authors sought to discover if participation in formal debate programs translates into better academic achievement and attainment for students. First, individual debaters' reading and math test scores over time were looked at and students were compared to themselves in years when they did and did not participate in debate. The…

There has been an increase in the number of studies about educational scenarios aimed at promoting argumentation. Special attention is given to scenarios involving case studies. In this article, we report on the application of an interrupted case study to develop argumentation skills supported by information and communication technologies. The…

Scientific objectivity and reliability are matters of fundamental importance both to science and in the public sphere, where they tend to be regarded with scepticism due to reporting of faulty or biased information, particularly in certain domains. In science studies, these qualities have been questioned in the light of two main characteristics of…

Purpose: To analyze the effects of debates on social entrepreneurship (SE) in physical education teacher education students (n = 38) from an urban university. Participants discussed the role that society, social class, gender, race, and violence play in sports. Method: A convergent parallel mixed-methods design with methodological triangulation…

No higher-order skill will be more important for pupils to develop in the twenty-first century than critical thinking. Schools should integrate it into their curricula, thereby allowing students to acquire new skills in preparation for a dynamic and rapidly changing labour market. Educators, psychologists, and philosophers agree on the importance…

In this article, we offer a critical realist conception of curriculum that aims to cultivate critical thinking (CT) and liberate students from egocentric rationality. We first examine egocentric rationality as a problem emerging from the technicist paradigm of cultivating CT in higher education, exemplified by issues arising from the pedagogical…

In-class debates are an effective teaching method to cover contentious subjects. This article presents an experiential exercise in which students participate in debates pertaining to the inherent conflict between businesses' profit motive and the broader interests of society. Included in this article are classroom instructions for the exercise and…

Education should encourage active citizenship through a critical and transformative lens to promote a more just, equal, and inclusive society. This article presents a self-study that examines my teaching practice as a novice teacher educator. It describes my first experience using debates to discuss gender inequalities through critical pedagogy.…

Addressing a need to prepare the next generation of scientists to effectively engage in adversarial science communication, the present study examines a group of undergraduate science students from a Canadian university who, after receiving expert instruction, participated in classroom debates about science controversies recently politicized in the…

Computational models are employed to study and respond to pressing environmental issues such as groundwater contamination. This use of computational models, which often involves algorithms and uncertainty that are hidden to the public, has implications for environmental science literacy. This study applies a design-based research approach to…