Beyond Debate: A Revolution in Education

(bright music) (people chatting) - You really have to meet students where they are.

- Same question.

Are we ready to go?

Yes, yes, yes.

- In Debate-Inspired Classrooms, students are able to say why they think a thing, and then explain how they got there.

- Is Elie the same person?

- [Student 1] No.

- On same, okay, so prove it to me.

- I've seen higher engagement, I've seen really amazing critical discussion.

- To sit in a class with a teacher at the front is very tedious.

- How do you know this?

You don't have statistics on that.

- Yes, I actually do have statistics on that.

- Okay, let's see.

- [All] Oh!

- A major challenge for teachers using debate techniques is the fear of losing control over the classroom.

- At first you're kinda like, I don't think I can really do this that well.

- We also have to think about context here.

The people that are- - Admittedly, this is not easy.

- But the first goal is to get them to talk.

- Do you think Elena was trying to replace Izzy with Pearl?

- I get to actually speak, and actually participate.

That everybody loves!

- You always have to get evidence for both sides before we actually debate.

- The back of your mind, though- - No, no, no.

No, no, no, no.

- Schools are not the only influence on our democracy, but they're an important one.

- Keep making you feel- We as teachers are creating the next voters, the next citizens.

It's a lot of pressure, honestly.

- Debate equals a better democracy.

- If you're not ready to see other people's perspective, then it's gonna be harder for you to live in America.

- Debate equals civility.

- Yes!

Yes.

- Debate equals a better society.

(people chatting) (soft music) - All right, Jake.

You gonna collect the stuff for me?

All right, thank you so much.

All right, all right.

(claps hands) Yes.

This is my stuff, this is my stuff, this is my stuff.

I like to argue.

I like to argue.

I like to argue, I love arguing.

Tell me some negative stereotypes associated with arguing.

Toxic.

Toxic, toxic.

- Problematic.

- Problematic, problematic.

- You got in a lot of fights.

- Lot of fights, lot of fights.

And what's some good things associated with arguing?

What'd you say?

Better communication.

- Getting to see the other person's point of view.

- Getting to see the other person's point of view.

Give me three main points of an argument.

Let's go, Morgan.

- [Morgan] Claim.

- [Illie] The claim.

What's the claim, Morgan?

- It's like your point in the argument.

- Absolutely right.

- Your evidence.

- The evidence.

That'd be the second part.

- Reasoning.

- The reasoning, right?

What is the reasoning?

- Basically to sum up, like, the claim, the evidence, how it goes hand in hand.

- You hit it right, right, right on the noggin.

A claim, the statement that brings awareness to a problem, right?

Evidence, the scientific data and detail that supports your claim.

And reasoning, the justification that links the claim and supportive evidence.

(casual upbeat music) - What is it about this that resonates with you?

- There's not a wrong answer- - Yeah, yeah.

- Unless you can't back it up.

- Focus on the angle and that adjacent side, and what happens?

- The angle on the adjacent side.

- Oh, with the smaller angle, we have a higher answer.

- All right.

- In Debate-Inspired Classrooms, students are able to say why they think a thing, and then explain how they got there.

- What kind of resistance would you call that?

- Conformist.

- Yeah.

Tell me about conformist.

- 'Cause it says- - They're researching topics, they're learning to question materials, question one another.

- If that's the case, why let him out, if he knows he did something wrong?

- People that have power tend to, like, use their power excessively, or like- - It's really about an approach to learning and to instruction that centers student voice, and student collaboration, where students are leading and learning from each other, and having agency in their learning process.

- So what if a hacker did break in?

- Whenever you engender the opportunity for students to think critically, and to go back and forth and wrestle with the material, you're really taking them to, in my opinion, the highest levels of learning.

(students chatting) (soft music) - There's a lot of data that suggests when students are actually engaged and talking about the issues, and deliberating, and debating those issues, they retain the information better than if they had just been lectured to.

- I served as a classroom teacher, and we spent a lot of time putting those lessons together, and the last thing you want is to walk into a classroom and have students not be actively engaged in the learning, in the stories, or the lesson that you're presenting.

But okay, that was a great discussion.

- When I first visited schools in doing the research for my book, I looked at classrooms where debate-centered instruction was being used.

There was a buzz.

Everybody was talking, they were chattering, the place was alive.

Everybody was excited.

To me, that just says it all.

I don't need a sophisticated statistical test to tell me whether or not this works.

You can see it with your own eyes.

- People always get what they deserve for their actions, whether bad or good.

Please fill out- Student-led conversations.

It is highly engaging.

- Everybody that does something bad, they don't necessarily always get what they deserve.

Great example.

Emmett Till.

- The white woman who accused 14-year-old Emmett Till of whistling at her and making sexual advances has died.

- She lived 80 plus years, and she just literally got away, and he lost his life.

- We live in America.

Let's talk about things.

I've seen higher engagement, I've seen really amazing critical discussion.

And that's all I could hope for, really.

- Time, like, she didn't live no happy life.

She was in hiding, couldn't really go nowhere.

- Our kids need to be engaged.

We know they learn more from each other than they do from the teacher in the room.

- The karma that she got wasn't really karma.

It was just, it was like a natural occurrence that happened- - The pursuit in engagement happens when we give them the room and the space to be active participants.

- When you mentioned the STR analysis, right?

- But also to be the folks leading the decisions around how we express our ideas, what type of curriculum we select and teach, and what is really important for them instead of what is important for us.

- If you ask teachers, what do they want?

They wanna know that their kids are excited about learning.

This will make their kids excited about going to school.

And what teacher doesn't want that?

- You really have to meet students where they are.

(laughing) Are you all ready?

(all cheering) - Clap it out, let's go!

(all clapping) - There's a direct correlation between hip-hop and poetry.

Students had to analyze poems, and look for literary devices in hip-hop.

Zyer Bane is going to debate "I Can" by Nas.

Students are primarily arguing that the hip-hop song that they selected is the greatest of all time.

Students are participating, they're eager to participate, and most importantly, they're having fun while they're learning.

- How do you know this?

You don't have statistics on that- - Yes, I actually do have statistics on that.

- Okay, let's see.

- [All] Oh!

- All of a sudden, they have a light bulb moment or an epiphany, and then you start to see them transform in the classroom.

- The theme is empowerment, and racism falls under that category of how- - Students are on an equal playing field engaging with other points of view.

And through that process, students learn more deeply about their own views.

(all clapping) - I think if it were not a Debate-Inspired Classroom, you'd see a lot more of me up at the front doing sort of direct lecturing, and I don't know that you'd see as much student engagement.

- To sit in a class with a teacher at the front, it's very tedious, and you don't really feel as connected to the topic as when you're debating with others.

Yeah, biases of a certain person, 'cause you know- - It flips the structure of the classroom, so that they are doing most of the talking and not me.

I think when they're talking is when they're actually learning.

It's not when I'm talking.

- If you think about the word slandering, it's technically the same thing as devaluation, because if you're slandering somebody, you're pretty much saying they're less than whatever it is that they are, you know?

And that- - This model really amplifies student voice, and has students really leading the conversations in the classroom.

- One of the major differences from the purpose of education in the past and now is in the past was actually for accessing information through the teacher.

- The interest equals the principle times the rate times the time.

The interest equals the principle- - The traditional method of teaching is what we call Sage on the Stage.

Teacher knows everything, delivers it to all of the students, and they're supposed to absorb it all, and then regurgitate it on a test.

- On page 15 of your books, the first three problems are exactly like number one on the test.

- There's still far too much Sage on the Stage, or stand and deliver type instruction.

And I get it.

I was a teacher.

Sometimes you just have to give students information and test their knowledge around it.

But I would challenge teachers to really think about how do you create more opportunities for authentic engagement in the classroom?

- Now what did you wanna ask the inner circle?

- That is what debate-centered instruction does.

- It's not far from where schools currently are.

There's just a crucial kind of shift.

(bright downtempo music) - Chicago Public Schools is the fourth largest school district in the country.

660 schools, over 300,000 students, and students who come from a variety of diverse backgrounds.

King College Prep is kind of a beacon of hope on the south side of Chicago.

It serves as a destination for many students, largely African-American, who tested and have demonstrated that they have a certain skill set, and also want access to a rigorous college preparatory education.

- Do you think the city handles it well?

If they do not, what do you think the proper response could be?

- They're serving students on the south side who face many challenges.

You know, there are some students who are homeless.

Many of the students come from low-income backgrounds, and they are persevering.

- Just an abundance of statistics about the disparities in educational achievement that were very much related to income.

You can use these principles to help eliminate these gaps, or at least close these gaps in learning, in achievement.

- It's driving, it's consuming gasoline.

Yeah, go for it.

I need a lifeline, all right?

I need a lifeline.

This was awesome.

Good job.

- Thank you.

- Congrats.

People have to have passion.

All that you're consuming, all that you're buying, all that you're using.

It's important to live your life with passion.

All the products, driving is consuming- In high school, I ran for sophomore student class president, and I gave a speech that was rousing and had all of my peers chanting my name, and clapping, and real riled up.

My peers responded to me because of the feeling that I was expressing, and it was genuine, and it resonated with them.

Teachers and educators should work with passion.

They should go to school everyday feeling inspired themselves.

- Are we ready to go?

Yes, yes, yes.

I was really ready to retire.

Teaching was really kind of miserable.

This is so much better for the students 'cause they collaborate more, share more, and they're really looking at the evidence.

- Quickly?

- Yes.

- We also have to think about context here.

The people that are banning these books are mainly conservatives.

- A major challenge for teachers using debate techniques is the teachers' fear of losing authority or control over the classroom.

- So why are they taking away the books that are actually appealing to students?

They're taking away what they want to learn.

- Classrooms have been about control.

When you ask people to debate and bring up different topics, teachers lose the one thing that they have control over.

It's a way to capture student voice, and then create a space for the teacher to learn from the student.

It would show vulnerability, which is what we're asking our students to do every day when they show up in the classrooms.

Now the teacher is a student in their own classroom.

You have 29 other experts bringing they experiences into that setting, sharing with each other, pushing towards a new level of innovation instead of it being rote memory, you're actually developing ideas in real time.

- You all demonstrated that you are highly skilled in leading instruction in this classroom- - The teacher is assisting the kids in the process of learning, so it's a different skill set.

Now admittedly, this is not easy.

(soft music) (students chatting) - The work of the teachers is really complex, and we believe that we need to support them and give them opportunities to learn the strategies, to apply them.

- Developing their ability to use scientific reasoning to- - So what Les is doing is taking the principles of competitive debate, and try to implant them in the classroom environment.

- I think this is another opportunity for the students to consider the counterargument.

- Les Lynn is so supportive.

Like at first you're kind of like, I don't think I can really do this that well, but he's in there.

He's in there helping you.

He's in there helping the students, and he's just so available.

- Teachers will be honest with me.

If it's hot garbage, they are gonna say, "You know what?

"Nope, I can't do this.

"This is too much work."

Did you guys actually meet and discuss it, or- Les remembers what it's like to be a teacher, and remembers that we don't wanna be bothered with more work.

- Arguments that are instruction requires a little more planning for teachers, and also preparation on the students' end.

But I think once that is done, and those pieces fall into place, as teachers we get to step back and watch the magic happen.

- You lay awake all night, and you're dreaming about those dangers.

- Yes, yes.

- Some teachers are overburdened.

They're underpaid.

They don't feel the need to go the extra mile to improve their own situations, so that's the challenge.

- We're gonna get to every teacher and every classroom we can, and if that's not 100%, we're not going to despair.

We're not gonna give up.

- The gratefulness that I have, that I get to have these teaching and learning experiences.

Like I said, I was ready to go, and then I'm here every day, enthusiastic about what I get to do with students in the classroom.

- Using argument-centered education in order to facilitate students speaking to each other has been transformative.

I can't say enough of how he's a legitimate partner, and he's supportive.

Oh my god, I'm getting emotional.

He's just great.

He's been really great.

(bells chiming) - When people think of debate, they think of the competitive environment.

Debate clubs attract students that wanna compete.

It's become hyper-competitive.

Some of the champion debaters talk at 350 to 400 words a minute.

- Public education will be undermined- - No extension from climate change- - As in the voice of the oppressed people- - Which maps our reality to functionally plan the plants that's always been lunged around- - It's all about winning, it's not about learning.

And the point is for them to get as many arguments out there as possible to prevent the other side from being able to refute all those arguments that are tossed out there on the table.

I believe it has become too competitive.

- You can use the techniques that are used in the competitive environment as a way to teach kids in a non-competitive way.

There's not a winner or loser.

It's where everybody's winning, it's a positive sum.

And that's what debate-centered instruction does.

- Traditionally, competitive debate has attracted a very small percentage of students, and they tend to be students of privilege.

- I ran competitive debate leagues and programs, and what I found was that those programs only affect about one to two percent of a school's student population.

With argument-centered instruction, you can affect, and do affect, every student in the school.

- So I don't want to begin until we all have both poems.

The current unit, Unheard Voices Through Poetry.

We made sure to pull poems from different topics, genres.

They have read poetry from those who were incarcerated.

And they had to create the argument that that poem more convincingly shows how the poet found hope or salvage or refuge in prison to keep themselves going.

- If you have nothing, you have to make something.

That's the whole point of this.

Making something out of what you have there, and finding hope.

- Scholars, are we ready to go?

(banging gavel) - Today we're doing a mock trial on whether Steve Harmon is guilty based off what's happening in the book "Monster".

The conclusion to be drawn from this passage is quite clear.

For these reasons, we ask that you find Steve Harmon guilty of being an accomplice in a murder of Alguinaldo Nesbitt.

- I'm asking the students to take a book that we've read, and instead of just reenacting the story itself, I'm asking them to take on a new trial, and they are the ones that had to come up with the claims as to why Steve Harmon is innocent, or why Steve Harmon is guilty.

- I've started looking at it differently now, and thinking that maybe he is guilty.

I just love this class, and I've always loved English, but she makes me love it more.

- When they are talking to each other about evidence, about ideas, and they're questioning each other as to how valid those ideas are, where and how can we use this evidence, that's the joy of teaching.

(casual downtempo music) - This is the age old debate about which strategy was more effective for the rights of black people, civil disobedience, or a more militant approach.

Each group had to argue both sides.

- The militant approach can lead to unexpected backlash.

The threat of violence can lead to a response of violence.

- There has to be some type of violence or rebellion to be put in place in order for our nations or just our people as a whole to be able to have the rights and freedom that we deserve.

- It's a way to sort of get them to be critical on each side of the issue, and to articulate and frame their thoughts in that manner.

- We always have to get evidence for both sides before we actually debate, because you have to make sure that you're not biased on one point.

- Most of the teachers have used claim, evidence, and reasoning, but we didn't have that added debate format.

And now, to where, you know, bolstering that with the engagement of the debate.

Kudos, clap it up.

(all clapping) Good work, good work.

(casual downtempo music) (casual downtempo music continues) - Boston Debate League, we're almost 20 years old.

We are an educational nonprofit that uses debate as a tool, so our vision is that all young people in Boston are engaged in critical discourse informed by evidence.

- They both have a segmented body.

- Exactly.

That's what we want our evidence to sound like.

- What we're trying to do is to support students in developing their critical thinking.

So with a lot of our activities, with ask students to look at what's presented to them, and then make sense of it, to then develop an argument.

- The best thing is when a teacher comes into this like, uh, and then they see something happen.

- I think it does.

- Oh, she found it.

There it is.

- [Sarah] It's like, now I see how much students can do if you are patient and believe in their ability to engage at a really high level.

- Good, good, good.

- One of the exciting moments for me is when I get a teacher saying, "How do I incorporate "a full debate into this topic that I'm teaching", versus the other way around, where I, as the coach, who's technically almost like selling it to them, trying to get them to see the value in these activities, when they see it, versus another initiative that comes into a school, and you just have to sort of trudge along and get it done.

- At the beginning of the year is a little bit difficult.

It wasn't quite as easy to get them to just start talking, or to really care about the texts, but now that we've done it many times, they've practiced.

- She just wants what's best for her, but she's not really doing a good job at it.

- [Jonathan] They really feed off of each other's energy, and feed off of each other's questions.

- Do you think Elena was trying to replace Izzy with Pearl?

- I don't feel that Elena would do that kind of thing, to try and abandon her own daughter, but rather she's just very invested in the life of Mia and Pearl.

(soft music) (students chatting) - We do a cycle of coaching that involves planning with the teacher, getting into the classroom to support and observe, and then debriefing.

What did we learn, what did the students learn, what can we think about then for the next time, for the next planning?

- It's always great to have Marisa be here during the lesson.

She can come up with ideas in the moment.

She can also check in with the groups, because obviously during a mini debate, there's a lot of conversations happening, and you can't observe all of them.

- You were telling me about the exoskeleton.

- I was saying that the crayfish and the perch, they both got hard shells.

- They're planning a lesson.

We'll say, "What are you trying to teach?

"What are you trying to accomplish?"

Okay, let's think about what we can do.

Do students, are they struggling with evidence right now?

So we might do an evidence sort.

Are they struggling with building a complete argument?

If they are, we might do a class challenge where in groups they're building the strongest argument.

And then we'll observe that teacher teaching the lesson, and then we'll follow with some feedback.

We'll debrief that lesson.

So it really is a full coaching cycle in which teachers get to plan, be observed, and then get some feedback, and that's powerful for teachers.

I was a classroom teacher.

I didn't get that.

- What we're gonna do today is we're gonna keep practicing the four models of resistance that we were talking about this week.

- I work with Melanie Shea.

Melanie, from the beginning, understood the idea of what we were trying to do, and why.

- I saw you reading it, and then you hit a part, and you go, oh.

Transformational.

Right?

So I want you to underline that piece that kinda like set that light bulb off in your head, right?

- [Janice] One of the things that we like to do as we coach teachers is point out the things that a teacher might not have seen in the moment.

- I was thinking about today's class, and that little paragraph I wrote about giving students their voice.

What did you think about that?

- Teachers are interrogating their practice through this program, and really looking at hmm, is there another way that I can increase student voice in this classroom?

- My goal this year was like, get more kids talking.

And that's happened, but they, a lot of times it can be a struggle to get them to talk with each other, and not through me.

- She even has something that she says in her class, which is like bring the heat with love.

So students understand that getting really into it with each other, and saying what they really think and feel, but with love to each other is key.

And that's the heart of what we do.

(soft piano music) (soft piano music continues) - [Debater 1] Please just be quiet and listen, because let me tell you something, you don't know what the hell you talking about.

- [Debater 2] Will you just shut up for a minute and let me finish?

(voices overlapping) - Radical left- - Will you shut up, man?

- Here's the truth.

- You're just scum.

- The easy answer- - Many studies have been done that our democracy is not healthy.

(people shouting) - Wanna do it now?

- I'd love to do it right now.

- Oh no, sit down.

You're a United States senator.

Sit down.

- There used to be a program called Crossfire on CNN.

They called it a debate show.

- [Host] We've got two prime specimens from the animal house of American journalism.

- But what you really got are partisans, usually from the extremes of the positions- - You can't mention God in school!

Why, that's gonna harm the country- - Really trying to score points, they were trying to win.

(all shouting) - The only way we're gonna solve these problems is by having civilized discussions, reasoned discussions grounded in evidence.

- What would they say, and how will you defend yourself?

- [Robert] This is something that is important to living a civil life.

- It is even more critical given where we are as a country that students wrestle with big ideas, and look at opposing viewpoints.

- One way to bust out of these silos of information that are trapping people into narrow points of view is to teach them to be more critical in their thinking about their information and media sources.

(students chatting) (soft music) - Schools are not the only influence on our democracy, but they're an important one.

- Keep making me feel really, really- We as teachers are creating the next voters, the next citizens.

It's a lot of pressure, honestly.

- We're gonna be making the future decisions for America.

Not just one race is living in America.

Everyone has different perspective, everyone comes from different cultural backgrounds, and if you're not ready to see other people's perspectives, then it's gonna be harder for you to live in America.

- About 8% of all high school students in America reports being lesbian, gay, or bisexual.

So- - Kids have access to social media.

Everybody has an opinion.

Everyone has a platform and a vehicle to share those thoughts, and so why not create that space in the classroom, but create it with some structure?

You offer your opinion, but you also have to equally back it up with evidence and reasoning.

- When you build a safe space in a classroom where opinions are valued, even if they're not the same as yours, you can see this magic.

- It's inherently selfish, because you're trying to take away all these things that are relevant for the people who are gonna read these books, which are children.

- We're gonna have disagreements.

We have to have a way to do that without threats, without hyperbole, without extremism.

- So please look at the yellow sheet in the middle of the desk.

- I'm not gonna lie, before I was one of those people that silenced others 'cause I felt like my opinion was right, but now I like to listen to other people opinions.

- One of the things that debate teaches is that the world is not black or white.

It's shades of gray.

- [Kadra] It's not always about being correct.

- It could be reactionary, and it's self-defeating.

- You're gonna have to work with people, and it's also setting you up to expand your thinking.

So say you agree with something, and somebody gives a point of, oh no, I disagree, and this is why, and now you're thinking okay, I can see their point, and you can have a back to back conversation.

- We're trying to think about what led to a boycott.

- Debate equals civility.

Debate equals reason.

Debate equals a better democracy.

Debate equals a better educated workforce.

Debate equals a better society.

(casual downtempo music) Turns out debate principles can be used in STEM subjects.

- Science is at its foundation, and this is true of math as well, it's positing arguments.

You might start with evidence, and then you use that to arrive at a claim, or you might start with a hypothesis, and then test it out.

This is all argumentation.

- Morning, come in.

Right now we're working on an expedition called Solving Crimes with DNA.

They've learned a lot about DNA evidence, and its strengths and its limitations.

And now we're gonna debate whether it actually will increase the fairness in, like, a criminal investigation.

So one partner will say yes, and the other one will say no.

And they will have to obviously have evidence to support their claim.

Either labs we've done in class, or texts we've looked at it class that I hope is gonna make their mini debates today a little bit more rich.

- Technology has progressed to the point where they can use much smaller and more sensitive samples and still have an accurate DNA test.

- They enjoy the argumentation piece, but to make sure that they stay grounded in the science, that's the piece that we're trying to develop this year.

- You said that there was mistakes in the lab, but the mistakes in the lab aren't happening so frequently that all of it is incorrect.

- Yeah.

- [Matty] When is it more likely that the chances of mixing it up, when do those chances get a little bit greater?

- Maybe when the crime happened in public, and there's more and more people.

- [Matty] All right, good, good.

- You can go into a meteorology class and have a deliberation on climate change.

- The corporations will be producing climate friendly things if the government allows it and regulate it.

- Science professors love to do this because one of the problems they have is they train students sometimes that can only talk to other scientists, and they know they need scientists who can speak to the public.

- Corporations already found sustainable solutions to climate change, but since it is a little more costly, they choose to continue to- - I have seen our math teachers and our science teachers really understand and take to the strategy because it fits in with students having to explain and think critically about math and science.

(bright electronic music) - I came up in my years where you used to teach in a chalkboard.

So I love the chalkboard.

That was one of my things.

But then I obviously moved away from it, and instead of teacher-centered, be more student-centered.

- [Dania] Students are using a debate-inspired activity called thematic evidence sort.

What he's saying to them is look at these different triangles, sort them with commonality.

- These are missing hypotenuses, which is like the long side of the triangle.

- So this is something where students are using their background knowledge, and what they've already been learning in this geometry class, but also thinking critically and expansively, and creatively.

- [Juan] Look at the triangles G, H, J, and K. You're not going to solve them.

- He asked them not to go straight to the procedure, but to think about what they know about triangles to make predictions.

You could say, well where's the debate in that?

But there's such deep argumentation.

They're looking at evidence, they're bringing in the reasoning of their content knowledge.

- The challenge is always finding the sweet spot.

When have we done enough background knowledge that they can bring to it, and then we can sort of let them understand that on their own, and when do they need more?

- I learn better communicating with others, other than just him giving me a problem to let me to solve it.

- We don't want students to just regurgitate what we give them.

We want them to be able to analyze a concept, and then apply their understanding to it.

- And then the adjacent is 15.

- 15.

That's perfect.

I really do think that students at the end of two or three or four years, they are better mathematicians.

They are better rational thinkers, and problem solvers.

- We used that answer to solve for angle X.

(soft music) - There's a dearth of STEM programming in underserved communities, and also high quality out of school time programming that's rigorous.

We want to make sure that the African-American Latinx students have access to high quality out of school time programming.

(students chatting) - MAPSCorps is an after school program that teaches high school students how to think about their community's health.

- They research its history, its current impact, and they advocate for a policy response.

- Redlining had such a major impact on Chicago- - We all come in together working on new solutions to better the community, and the flaws within it.

- We have them out in the community collecting survey data.

They interview local residents.

They also interview business owners.

- Do you feel safe working in this community?

- [Maxine] To find out data related to their research questions, and then analyze it back in the classroom.

(students chatting) - MAPSCorps has a really strong program design.

Argumentation fits into it to enhance critical thinking, and the analysis of data.

- MAPSCorps kids come from all over the city of Chicago.

Often they come from minoritized communities that have been under resourced.

- We have more liquor stores than we have schools.

- They've researched high unemployment.

Some MAPSCorps students have researched issues related to high breast cancer mortality rates in their community.

- We did the research on breast cancer.

I was able to talk to people, and to my surprise, a lot of people didn't even know where to get the help that they needed.

I remember this one lady, I gave her the survey, and she told me, "I really appreciate that someone is actually "going out of their way to do this, "'cause this is what the community needs."

It brought joy to me 'cause she said that.

- It really helps our youth build their critical thinking skills, their scientific literacy skills.

They learn about the power of their voice using argumentation, and how it can be used to effect change in the community.

(soft downtempo music) - Jabari.

Can you come up here?

- Kids, especially boys, really love to debate.

They debate about the best athlete.

- He's just one of the players that revolutionized the game, and made- - The best shoe, the cutest girl.

And so what I wanted to do is let's bring that energy and that excitement to argue into after school programming, and say, well here's how you argue using the languages of power, which are data and research and policy.

(students chatting) - Welcome to the MAPSCorps Symposium.

- [Maxine] Once our youth complete their research, we have a scientific symposium, where they get to present their findings.

(audience cheering) - The study of 264 US cities observed the increase in community centers operational over years help reduce violent crime rates in the city.

- Oftentimes when speaking to people in power in position who are hearing it, and the expectation is that they're gonna take that information back and do something with it.

- This gives me more evidence and more information that you all have surfaced to help us change how we make decisions in the district, so thank you.

(audience applauding) - Being able to go out and get support from the people that are in the community, things that we've heard for years now, we have the opportunity to solve, and we have the opportunity to implement the ideas that we've been planning.

- I really hope that they follow through on their passions to pursue STEM careers.

When we do our post program surveys, we had over 75% of them say they were interested in doing that, and so if they follow through on that, and we're able to see that they go to college in major in STEM majors, I would be completely excited about that work.

- I think we are a game changer.

- So how many more do we need- - I can only say I'm so grateful to have this opportunity.

Our policy includes building a clinic which in turn helps our community.

Opportunities like this help shape me, and shape all of my friends as people.

- [Les] So just because a majority believe in one view doesn't make it true.

- There are some students who are terrified to speak up.

- Go for it.

- Right now?

- Yup.

- School itself can be an intimidating environment.

Kids can be afraid of embarrassing themselves in front of their peers.

- Can I ask you before I embarrass myself?

- You're never gonna embarrass yourself.

- You start out in nonthreatening conversations with students talking to each other.

- [Pamela] You are going to begin this argument in three, two, one, go!

- Hershey's is better.

Better looks, better packaging, better taste.

Who eats Caramilk?

- But Hershey's is so plain.

- Exactly, exactly!

It's a simple chocolate bar- - [Pamela] This whole idea of student voice, understand the elements of a good argument is fundamental to middle school.

- Talking about trying to survive- - It is an age where students are trying to find their way in the world, and where they fit in the world, in order to engage in those conversations, you need to understand claim, evidence, and reasoning.

The first goal is to get them to talk.

- He was getting whipped, but he wasn't really screaming or crying.

He was just like taking all the pain in.

- Maybe he's just gotten used to the pain already because he probably gets beat a lot.

- So he's like adapting to the new environment.

(soft music) - We've been moving through "Night" very, very quickly.

The kids absolutely love the book.

Is Elie the same person?

- No.

- On same, okay, prove it to me.

- He didn't go to the synagogue, like he wasn't praying.

He never sang anymore.

Like he went from very religious to not practicing religion at all.

- He was more so upset with his god about not giving them the peace they deserved.

- I've also seen students who are very quiet and shy, but they just rise to the occasion when there is an opportunity to present on a topic, or engage in a debate in the classroom.

- It gives me more experience.

I get to actually speak, and actually participate.

- Oh yeah, see?

The treatment- - The principles of students collaborating with each other, making arguments, using evidence and reasoning, that's very exciting.

- If he's dynamic, that means that he did what during the course of the story?

- He changed.

- He changed.

Sometimes they go down rabbit holes, and you have to bring them back to the topic at hand.

But with prompts, you can get them there.

You just have to provide some different scaffolds, but I think it can absolutely work in any grade level.

You're not going in depth enough.

There's no kind of evidence, there's no kind of anything.

And look at me.

I know how deep you can get.

(soft music) I was pleasantly surprised to the degree the students collaborated with one another.

Collaboration around academic enrichment.

That's what we as teachers live for.

- I think that she's being complacent in where he is rather than a new mindset.

- There is an element to Debate-Inspired Classrooms that is just good teaching.

So I would suspect that any place where there is good teaching that there are elements of this happening in those classrooms.

In middle school, there is never a boring moment, and I am oftentimes very, very surprised in the classroom, and that's part of the journey.

- I think debate really belongs in every single classroom in our country.

Of course there's a natural fit in our liberal arts classrooms, but I would argue that you could include debate into almost any classroom.

(soft downtempo music) - All of my students are doing different people that have inspired them in their life.

We've also had class discussions on the why are we choosing that individual.

- I'm just creating a sports themed sculpture.

It's based off my uncle, and I'ma paint memories that we had together as well.

- This is where art, I think, is so important in the education system is you're learning how to express yourself in a creative manner, and also how to justify your actions, your designs, your own beliefs.

- Face off here.

(whistle blows) The whole title of the class is physical education, so it's not just physical, we need the education in there.

It's not just roll the ball out and away we go.

(kids shouting) I have the students do peer analysis in a variety of different skills.

One student will perform, another student watches that performance, analyzes, provides feedback, tells the performer one thing to improve on.

- I do like being reviewed, because I know what I'm doing wrong or what I'm doing right.

- The person analyzing has to provide evidence that their partner has improved in that key action.

- [Student 2] We record our video on them and paste it on there so we can see.

Everything should match up with the videos that we provide.

- One teacher with maybe 30, 35 students, I can't give that much individual feedback.

In this, every student's getting direct one to one feedback.

Handshakes!

Neat piles.

(soft music) - Our students come to us with different backgrounds.

They speak, you know, over 40 or 50 different languages, and it's our job to make sure we account for that in the education that we provide.

- 1400 per month?

- Yeah.

- Oh, that's good.

- I have six people in my family.

My parents and my older siblings are from Jamaica, and my younger brother and I are born in America.

- America is the land of opportunity.

This is the place your dreams can become a reality.

- Both of my parents come from Mexico.

My brother and I were born here in the United States, and my sister was born in Mexico.

- My family's originally from Somalia, which is in East Africa.

We moved here when I was about six years old.

Everybody knows that, you know, African Somali parents are very strict.

Education always comes first, good grades, make sure you get into a good school, all that.

- So we're gonna focus on education today, and school as an institute.

What is the purpose of education?

What's the point?

- What made me initially shy was the fact that I didn't see a lot of people who were like me, and when I say like me, I mean like who are wearing hijab.

I didn't really fit in as much because I didn't see myself in any of the people that were there, and being the only Muslim girl in the class was kind of difficult at first.

- Militancy is more active compared to claims made on paper in a system that does not favor black people.

I'm happy I was introduced to debate-based education.

I was not really comfortable speaking at first.

We counter that by saying our rights are still being taken away, and- Everyone has different views and different ideologies, so to understand that, especially in a civil manner to talk about it, I think that's important.

- The debate-based education is a good approach because it helped our young people to be more vocal and to be able to express themself.

Because she used to be very reserved, and I was like, who is this person, you know?

- They're developing confidence, the confidence to say what they believe is correct, but also the confidence to question something.

All of that makes for a student who can build those muscles, and then transfer them to other places.

- I believe that argument-based instruction is really helpful for me.

There is more time for the information to be said, there's more time for the information to be processed.

I feel like I'm heard more.

I chose the quote, "I can live with myself, "and I'm amazed at myself."

- Minorities like me and other people in this class do not have our voices heard as much as other people might, so I feel like learning how to speak now instead of just holding our peace is better than just being silent.

- Students who never would have thought, oh, I can't stand up and do that, and yet when they do, oh the transformation.

Now I am someone who can do that, because I have.

- [Melanie] Does everyone have equal access to a good education?

- No.

- No.

- It depends on where you live, or where you grew up.

Now it's like I'm more open to sharing my opinion, whether what other people think or not.

- Kadra can do absolutely anything.

She's really grown into herself, I think, over the last year.

- I learned about the morning announcements, and I was like, I'll try it out.

And so for the past two years, I've been on the morning announcements here at Madison Park.

Good morning, Madison Park.

Today's Thursday May 18th, and these are your morning announcements.

- I graduated as salutatorian, second place in my class.

I'll be going to Illinois Wesleyan, and I will be double degree in biochemistry and studio art.

- I am very proud of Joanna.

Proud is an understatement.

- She made a decision that you know what, this opportunity is given to me, I'm a citizen, I have full access to the American dream, I'm gonna make the best of it.

(bright music) - So this is yours.

This is yours.

Every summer, we start off with a week long graduate course, and it's an opportunity for teachers to get fully immersed in this instructional approach.

They get to talk about what the challenges are.

They get to talk about what works really well with students for each activity.

How would learning be different for you if those activities were not incorporated in the lesson?

We have students from Debate-Inspired Classrooms come and talk to teachers about these are the things that you can do to make my classroom more engaging.

These are the things that will make me want to take a risk in the classroom.

- School can be really stressful sometimes, and debate style activities in the classroom can really help ease that stress.

- I feel like if you make something thoughtful, like fun, then people are going to want to talk about that, and think deeply about that, and once they hear their peers talk about something, they're gonna maybe have an idea and want to share it.

- It's powerful to hear from these young people.

Teachers are taking copious notes and thinking about oh, I need to do more of this, or maybe I need to do less of that.

- I don't tend to do really well when teachers that just give you a lot of busy work- - [Janice] I'm always hopeful about what they share, and what they're doing with the skills they've learned.

I think being able to take the skills that they've learned in a Debate-Inspired Classroom and apply them in their lives, that's powerful.

(bright music) - Debate offers lifelong skills that go way beyond the classroom.

This ability to think critically and to look for multiple viewpoints around any issue.

- You have teams of people that work together to solve a particular problem, reach a particular objective, achieve a certain level of profit, and people have conversations, or quote, debates, about how to do that.

But they're working to solve a problem.

- They learn to hone the skills that they need to have these conversations that are necessary to a vast society.

- I think that's really helpful for life in college, but it'll also help with just the world in general, 'cause everybody's different.

- I think students that have participated in well-run programs that focus on debate are just better prepared to deal with the craziness that happens in this world.

I think they're better leaders as a result.

- One of the things employers cited as a defect of American education is they couldn't even get a 30 or 60 second elevator pitch on any topic, even from some of the most educated kids that were coming out of school, they couldn't verbalize what they learned.

So that's a perfect example of how it helps on the job.

(elevator dings) (bright music) - Yes, yes.

How to properly form an argument.

Sometimes when I felt like I wasn't being heard, I felt like nobody was understanding what I was saying, I would get really, really frustrated, and that's when I'd start yelling and screaming.

- She was a challenger.

If you said something, if she didn't agree with it, she would just say, "That's not right, "and this is why it's not right," and that would be it.

Even with teachers, even with us.

(laughing) - Understatement.

(laughing) - For her, MAPSCorps was the answer to making her a complete awesomer person, and an advocate.

- Speak up, speak with confidence.

- If you look at your own argument, see what's weak in your argument.

- I was first introduced to debate-based learning in high school.

When I was introduced to it, it was definitely shocking.

I couldn't believe that it was actually a real thing, arguing and education.

I never could imagine those two being put together actually in educational settings, because arguing has such a negative connotation, especially in such a formal setting, like school.

When I got up here and I said I like to argue.

What's the first thing you thought about?

- Sometimes, children are not allowed to be that expressive and compassionate, and speak up for they self.

- A survey is quantitative data because- - Debate-based education basically is my key that I wasn't doing anything disrespectful or out of the ordinary those years.

- [Carla] It just gave her a voice that was able to be heard and appreciated as well.

- It was life-changing.

- It's the same Illie with the same passion, but toned down.

(laughing) - I got to college by being a student athlete.

I chose to study both education and social science.

And now I am a teacher at a high school in Chicago.

My mother and grandmother were both teachers, and that definitely had a major influence on the way that I perceived education.

So if my subject is plural, what do I want my verb to be?

- We are proud of her, but it's not surprising, because Illie has always been such an amazing kid, and a lot of times, she would ask, "Oh, I'm always getting in trouble," and my mother used to always say, "It's because you're destined for greatness."

- Like that shirt, too.

You all good today?

- Yeah.

- All right.

Arguing has always been in our society.

It happens in courtrooms, it happens in political parties, it happens almost everywhere, so why not bring it to education field and teach our youth how to advocate properly?

- Very often we see our students who come from these communities return as activists, as teachers, and it's really, really important to empower students so they can be the leaders in their communities, so we can see the change that is needed in these communities.

(bright music) (students chatting) - All of us evolve in our thinking and understanding, and it really starts in the classroom.

And debate-centered education really offers an outlet for that type of thinking and discourse.

- Debate-centered instruction is in its relative infancy.

It's been around for probably a decade or so, but it hasn't yet spread widely enough to the point where it can be systematically studied, but we need it.

- We're seeing some really positive signs, and I'm super excited to see where this will take us few years from now.

- I learn really well in an activity, or like a project.

I can understand the work that we're doing so well.

- The more people that tried out, the more evidence builds up, and the greater ability we have to study whether it so-called works.

And by the way, I know it works.

The question is how can it work better?

- Every teacher I've ever talked to that has employed these kinds of pedagogies is enthusiastic about it, says the students become more engaged, more involved.

- They become accustomed to the whole idea that they have a voice, that their voice matters.

Everybody in the classroom has a voice.

Beyond Debate: A Revolution in Education is available with PBS Passport and on Amazon Prime Video.