Let’s Argue: Using Debate to Teach Critical Thinking and Communication Skills to Future Leaders

Abstract

Some employers contend that the college graduates they hire should have stronger communication and critical thinking skills upon arrival from their various college/university programs in which they majored. As higher education continues its efforts to meet the demands for employers, the authors contend that the benefits of participation in debate exercises can be incorporated into various courses as a teaching tool to increase facility with these soft skills. A practical application of debate in a specific organizational leadership course is presented, along with highlights of the student participants' reflections upon the experience, and the initial signs of positive impact on these skills. Suggestions of future application of debate into curricula are also shared.

El debate académico para el desarrollo de competencias transversales

“…En el siglo XXI, se han desarrollado más estudios con contenido científico en diferentes disciplinas como turismo (Alén, Domínguez, & De Carlos, 2015), medicina (Latif, Mumtaz, Mumtaz, & Hussain, 2018) o ciencias políticas (Abernathy & Forestal, 2021). Si bien, la mayoría de estos trabajos se centran en el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico (Holzer et al, 2018;Mayoral Garcia-Berlanga, Simó Noguera, & Suay i Lerma, 2018), en algunos casos también se combinan con el desarrollo de habilidades comunicativas, midiendo la percepción de los estudiantes (Zare & Othman, 2015), o bien, enfocada a futuros líderes (Chikeleze, Johnson, & Gibson, 2018).…”

Recruiting and Preparing Undergraduate Students for a Collegiate Debate: An HBCU Case Study

“…We further define co-curricular debate as occurring within an intramural setting, so for a topic like health care reform, it invites students from other disciplines (e.g., public health education, criminal justice, political science, social work, etc.). This interdisciplinary approach allows students to develop a greater respect for diverse perspectives in our multicultural society (Chikeleze et al, 2018) and to "draw connections" between local community and larger political issues (Leek, 2016).…”

The future of hospitality jobs

“…In the last decade, many researchers have studied and identified what is foreseen to be the desirable skills of the future, skills like entrepreneurship and ICT competencies (Cincera et al, 2018;Crișan, Joița, Zwaga, & Sebea, 2014;Miller, Wesley & Williams, 2012;Zupan & Nabergoj, 2016) leadership (Iordanoglou, 2018;Mumford, Zaccaro, Connelly, & Marks, 2000;Schad & Smith, 2018;Virick & Greer, 2012), communication and critical thinking (Chikeleze, Johnson, & Gibson, 2018;Kek & Huijser, 2011;McCafferty, 2014) and innovation (Gelinas, 2016;Peschl, 2019).…”