July 28, 2021
Cambridge Debate (Educational Format)
Debating in Cambridge-style is an exercise that trains students to craft arguments in a formal and concise manner. Although quite challenging, the Cambridge-debate should be doable already for first-year students of Bachelor’s. The debate is an effective way of developing broad academic skills such as argumentation, communication, critical thinking. Students will work in groups, they get half an hour to prepare and will have to speak up for at least 30 seconds each individually. The function of the Cambridge-debate is twofold. Firstly, it is a good practice in arguing about ethical questions. Secondly, it helps oneself to inhabit somebody else’s position. This comes with the advantage that students do need to have strong opinions themselves, as they are assigned either the pro or con position by the teacher, regardless of their preferences. The exercise is about practicing good argumentation, not about who is right. The Cambridge-style debate is suitable for virtually every possible ethical topic, as long as several strong propositions to discuss have been formulated beforehand by the instructor.