A Debate And Philosophy Typology Erasmus Project

Project Title

A Debate And Philosophy Typology

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Ethics, religion and philosophy (incl. Inter-religious dialogue); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

There is a growing concern among policy makers that the transformation of the media landscape by social media has contributed to increased political polarization, undermined the legitimacy of traditional media and amplified existing prejudice among parts of Western societies. In his 2017 policy paper ‘Social networks and populism in the EU: comparative study’, Paul-Jasper Dittrich acknowledges this point and goes on to conclude that, ‘there remains the danger that institutionalized forms of democratic debate, decision-making processes and supervision of governments may be seriously undermined should the success of populists in using social networks as political communication platforms stabilize’ (p. 18).

Almost a century ago, the philosopher and educational reformer John Dewey already described how the isolation of viewpoints within a society could jeopardise democracy. He stated that: ’everything which bars freedom and fullness of communication sets up barriers that divide human beings into sets and cliques, into antagonistic sects and factions, and thereby undermines the democratic way of life’ (John Dewey, The Later Works 1925-1953, vol. 14, 1998, p. 227).

This project, with the title ‘A Debate And Philosophy Typology’ (ADAPT) aims at strengthening a new generation’s critical skills, mental openness, argumentative capacity and democratic values with debate and philosophy education. In ‘Philosophy: A School of Freedom’ (2007), UNESCO endorses teaching philosophy to promote the development of critical reasoning and the exercise of freedom, placing emphasis on ‘putting concepts and ideas into perspective’ through reflection and developing ‘each person’s skills to question, compare [and] conceptualise’, which are requisite for ‘an open, inclusive and pluralistic, knowledge-oriented society’ (p. ix). As such, philosophy and debate form a remedy against polarization.

In the days of the Athenian polis (5th century BC), public speaking, debate and philosophy were the cornerstones of democratic life. Philosophy had the form of a dialogue between people with contrasting points of view, while philosophers taught the art of persuasion to citizens attending the ‘Ekklèsia’, the principal assembly of the democracy of ancient Athens. In contemporary secondary schools however, debate clubs and philosophy classes have become separate worlds that, regrettably, seldom interfere. This results in knowledge and skill waste and lowers the potential impact debating skills and philosophical thinking could have on strengthening democracy and fighting populism.

Therefore, the objectives of the ADAPT project are fourfold:
1) To adapt the key ideas, principles and thought experiments of philosophy to the needs of debate coaches
2) To adapt the training methods in competitive debate to the needs of philosophy teachers
3) To develop a joint methodology for debate coaches and philosophy teachers that results in innovative educational materials and teaching methods
4) To implement the Debate & Philosophy methodology in philosophy classrooms and research its effectivity

With four schools (Wolfert Bilingual School, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Gimnazija Ledina, ljubljana, Slovenia; Privatna klasicna gimnazija, Zagreb, Croatia; ITE Enrico Tosi, Busto Arsizio, Italy), two universities (Tilburg University, The Netherlands; Erasmus School of Philosophy, The Netherlands), and three associations (Za in Proti, Slovenia; Hrvatsko Debatno Drustvo, Croatia; The Noisy Classroom Ltd, UK), we are planning to develop the following Intellectual Outputs:

1) A teacher’s manual with the title: ‘Debate & Philosophy – A joint methodology for debate coaches and philosophy teachers’
2) A collection of classroom worksheets (available for download in PDF format, A3 size), that showcase the Debate & Philosophy methodology at a glance
3) A set of 3D-printed icons that depict the various argumentative elements that occur in debates. The 3D models can be downloaded and 3D-printed in order to experience the Debate & Philosophy methodology in a visual and tactile way
4) A dedicated website at the URL http://debateandphilosophy.com, which offers an overview of the ADAPT project and the option to download both the classroom worksheets and the 3D-models
5) Two peer-reviewed papers that research the effectivity of the Debate & Philosophy methodology
6) A Debate & Philosophy YouTube channel, containing a collection of interviews with top-ranked philosophy teachers and debate coaches

By linking the development of the Debate & Philosophy teacher’s manual with digital innovation and didactic research, we are aiming for an end product that is both appealing to teachers and scientifically sound. The wide range of expertise within the ADAPT consortium guarantees that the Debate & Philosophy teacher’s manual, along with its digital supplements, will be both practical and of high quality, and will benefit a new generation of European citizens.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 249729 Eur

Project Coordinator

STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT BRABANT & Country: NL

Project Partners

• ERASMUS UNIVERSITEIT ROTTERDAM
• Hrvatsko debatno društvo
• Za in proti, zavod za kulturo dialoga
• The Noisy Classroom Ltd
• Stichting BOOR
• ISTITUTO TECNICO ECONOMICO “ENRICO TOSI”
• Privatna klasicna gimnazija s pravom javnosti