Background: Alternative teacher certification has become an increasingly popular strategy for addressing both teacher quality and teacher shortages. However, there is little agreement about what constitutes alternative certification, and there is little known about the types of programs that prepare highly qualified teachers. The debate over…

Virtually everyone involved with forensics has, at one time or another, seen or heard references to debate teams or squads as "groups." Many questions concerning the label "group," however, exist. A brief examination of definitions of the term group by scholars in the field of small group communication confirms that T. M.…

A study examined what critiques, if any, encourage debaters to think about their debating in the most productive ways. It evaluated oral critiques and revealed decisions as components in influencing the debaters'"self-talk" or internal dialogues as the more important messages. The study used R. Petty and J. Cacioppo's (1986) elaboration…

A study examined the opinions of a substantial segment of the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) community about gender exclusive language. Questionnaires were distributed at two large but diverse CEDA debate tournaments. A total of 180 usable surveys were returned to the 390 distributed. Survey respondents (112 men, 66 women) included…

The number of women participating in intercollegiate debate is proportionately lower than their representation on campuses. Furthermore, women's rate of success at the highest level of the Cross Examination Debate Association national competition is far lower than their representation in the organization. However, as women enter fields such as…

A study assessed the selection techniques used to secure focus group respondents at one site as part of a larger study to determine what viewers learned from the 1992 Presidential Debates. A two-stage random sampling technique was developed to select focus group respondents from the 224,041 registered voters in Syracuse, New York. The random…

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) provided funding for local public television stations to broadcast political debates prior to the 1998 election; CPB commissioned research to determine how the programs aided viewers in the election process. Viewers of the public television station local debate night program found the program to be of…

Guidelines for citing sources in forensic competition are needed for use by students, as well as by coaches and judges. The first step toward developing standardized guidelines could be an adaptation of the Modern Language Association's American Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, which provides clear-cut definitions of plagiarism,…

Debate educators have been concerned about the disadvantages of tournament debating. While student debaters have learned critical thinking, research, writing, public speaking, and other skills, some former participants feel the experience left them too argumentative generally. Some scholars favor moving away from formal debating contests. A…

Forensics educators should explore the implications of feminism for debate pedagogy and practice. First, the inclusion of feminist perspectives is directly related to the pedagogical goals of solving the problem of women's participation in debate and of accomplishing the task of enabling debate coaches and student debaters to become competent,…

Debate as an elitist activity can be defined in two ways: it may mean that entry to a tournament is restricted to only a few participants from any one school, or it may mean that although a wide range of students may participate in debate, only the best debaters are allowed to compete in prestigious national tournaments. The restriction on the…

The purpose of the three papers that make up this document is to explore and redefine the role of debate judges. The first paper, by Leslie Phillips, begins with the assertion that the debate judge is first and foremost an educator, notes that judging is one of the forces that shape and direct competitive forensics, and goes on to consider…

The style of high school debate should emphasize information processing above all other skills. Debate, as an intellectual educational activity with a basis in scholarship, is not an end in itself but a means to the acquisition and refinement of useful skills that deal with reflective thinking and critical decision making, on both personal and…

Debate is structured argumentation consisting of four elements: a resolution or proposition; an affirmative position, speaker, or team supporting the proposition; a negative position, speaker, or team responsible for attacking the proposition; and a judge or group of judges who determines which position has better achieved its purpose. Debate as a…

Noting that the ethics of forensics is a complicated and controversial subject, this paper outlines some of the issues that should be addressed in preparing codes of ethics. The following issues are discussed: (1) the nature of professional ethics; (2) the functions of an ethics code; (3) approaches to ethical systems in forensics; (4) standards…