Igniting Minds and Amplifying Voices - Bringing Debate Centered Instruction to the East Side Union High School District

Debate Centered Instruction engages students and teaches them to craft claims, evaluate evidence, and reflect on reasoning with greater rigor. On June 6-8, Dr. Burns and the Program team led a 3-day professional development (PD) seminar with 26 East Side Union High School District teachers from 14 different schools. The seminar, entitled Igniting Minds, Amplifying Voices: Harnessing the Power of Debate Centered Instruction, focused on integrating debate-inspired activities into every subject area and classroom. 

Each day included: 

A Pedagogy Workshop: Participants reflected during this workshop on the relationship between theory and practice in instructional methods. Taking pragmatist philosopher John Dewey’s reflection, "Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife," as its springboard, teachers discussed topics such as Education and Agency and Education and Argumentation in a Democratic Society.

A Classroom Simulation: Participants engaged as active learners in six Debate Centered Activities they could use in their own classroom and reflected as active learners on takeaways for their educational practice. 

A Key Skill Workshop: Participants learned about the foundational academic skills introduced to students through Debate Centered Instruction, focusing on Public Speaking, Logic, and Argumentation.

Time to Lesson Plan: Teachers had generous time at the end of each day for individual debriefs and lesson planning support with SVUDL staff.  

After three intensive days together, the teachers were excited about the new toolbox they developed, as well as the ways of framing how they taught. One teacher noted that their main takeaway was “the adaptability of Debate-Style Instruction to any high school subject area classroom,” and another noted, “The toolbox and samples…translate directly to my curriculum.”

Teachers' reviews were glowing:

I feel my brain has expanded because of this training. The ideas shared by the group were wonderful and I liked that the presentations made me think deeply. Some of my opinions also switched as topics were discussed so it showed me how effective debate can be to shape and shift people's perspectives. Another participant teacher shared, “This has been the most useful PD I have ever had. I really appreciated the examples, the application, and the collaboration with colleagues.” Teachers left the professional development series feeling appreciated, inspired, and empowered to put the strategies they learned into practice in their respective classrooms. The SVUDL Program team will be working with a new cohort of teachers at the start of the 2023-2024 school year, and both cohorts will then combine for monthly Community of Practice offerings to ensure the work continues to live and thrive in their classrooms.

Dr. Burns and the SVUDL Program team are excited at the success of their first district-wide professional development series and are looking forward to a second opportunity to work with more ESUHS teachers in September!  Special thanks to ESUHSD for their continued partnership, as well as the Boston Urban Debate League for their support in our efforts to bring this work to the West Coast!