CAN DEBATE, QUIZZES AND ESSAYS BE INNOVATIVE FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION?

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A teacher is a person who has an extraordinary desire to learn new things, knowing that he or she does not know everything. And it is precisely by being curious himself that the desire to explore the unknown spreads to his pupils.

Every year I try to come up with new ways of teaching to bring sparks of curiosity to my pupils, to explore together and plumb the depths of the undiscovered. So, over the years, I have increasingly noticed in my English classes that students know a lot, but often cannot articulate their knowledge, justify their thinking or argue for its validity. I have been thinking about how to equip them to be able to stand up for their principles in group communication, to justify them and to give evidence for what they say, while remaining respectful to the other person and respecting all the other rules of successful communication. The fact is that a lot of communication among young people takes place electronically; it is difficult to learn everything we need to know in group spoken communication in this form. All these facts have led me to introduce debates into the English classroom as a way of looking at a topic from different perspectives.

Initially, we started the debate with familiar topics that were close to the students' everyday lives and that they could talk about easily. We tried a spontaneous debate on a specific topic, and then we also tackled more difficult topics, for which they could prepare. After a whole year of practice and learning debating strategies, I offered the students a debate for the final assessment, which they enthusiastically accepted, as they were able to choose their own topic and opponent in the debate.

The highlight of our work throughout the year was when 8 pupils took the plunge and entered the English competition, which consists of several challenges - essay writing, a challenging quiz and a debate. Although the preparation for the competition was extremely demanding, the pupils qualified for the world level and achieved outstanding success there too.
One of the most important aspects of their preparation was the fact that they were extremely motivated to explore challenging topics, seeing them as a challenge and a new way of learning and acquiring knowledge, which they then had to demonstrate in the global competition through debates, quizzes and essay writing.