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Simulation Exercise, Exercise, Manual, Group Division
Debate Lessons Toolkit: A Comprehensive Guide to Teaching Debate Skills
A structured manual with 21 ready-to-use debate lessons covering format basics, argumentation, rebuttal, public speaking, and critical thinking. Includes exercises, worksheets, and assessment tools for youth workers and educators.
Aims of the tool
-Provide youth workers and educators with ready-to-use lesson plans for teaching debate methodology
-Develop young people's public speaking, critical thinking, argumentation, and analytical skills
-Build competence in structured discussion, evidence-based reasoning, and respectful disagreement
-Prepare young people for formal debate competitions in World Schools format
-Foster key competences for lifelong learning through debate as a pedagogical method
-Create inclusive, engaging learning environments that promote active citizenship and democratic values
Description of the tool
This comprehensive toolkit equips youth workers, educators, and debate coaches with 21 complete lesson plans based on the World Schools debate format. Each lesson follows a clear pedagogical structure using the ERR system (evocation, understanding, reflection) and includes detailed instructions, appendices with exercises, and assessment guidance.
The toolkit begins with a methodological framework covering the ERR learning system, comprehensive guidance on evaluation and assessment techniques, equity and inclusion guidelines for diverse learners, and a framework for developing the 8 Key Competences for Lifelong Learning through debate practice. This foundation ensures facilitators understand not just what to teach, but how to create effective, inclusive learning environments.
The 21 lessons are carefully sequenced to build skills progressively, starting with debate games and icebreakers that help participants overcome initial hesitation and build confidence. Foundational lessons introduce the World Schools format, speaker roles, and improvisation skills, ensuring learners understand the basic structure before moving deeper. Core skill development covers definitions, motion analysis, debate strategy, and argument construction, providing the essential building blocks of effective debating.
Advanced modules focus on rebuttal theory and practice, watching and analyzing debates, and understanding the chain of argumentation. Strategic elements lessons teach practical skills like using Points of Information effectively, preparing for impromptu debates, analyzing stakeholders and values, and crafting compelling examples. Presentation skills receive dedicated attention through lessons on illustration techniques, managing stage fright using breathing exercises and cognitive strategies, and analyzing news and current events critically.
Each lesson is clearly structured with learning objectives, teaching methods, materials needed, workshop duration, difficulty level marking, key competences addressed, revision notes, detailed workshop activities with time allocations, and post-exercise reflection questions. The toolkit includes over 100 motion examples across all difficulty levels, ready-to-use worksheets including pub quizzes, evaluation forms, and self-assessment tools, step-by-step activity instructions, templates for case building and stakeholder mapping, assessment rubrics for content, style, and strategy, and comprehensive appendices with answer keys for facilitators.
The pedagogical approach emphasizes autonomy-supportive teaching styles that increase participant motivation and engagement, formative assessment focused on learning and development rather than grading, constructive feedback strategies with specific guidance on timing, specificity, and actionability, active listening protocols and inclusive group dynamics, and differentiation strategies allowing adaptation for mixed-ability groups. Special attention is given to equity and inclusion throughout, with explicit guidelines on creating safe spaces, managing diverse perspectives respectfully, avoiding stereotypes in content and examples, ensuring equal participation opportunities, and addressing power dynamics in group settings.
Practical tools include breathing exercises and multiple strategies for managing stage fright and performance anxiety, techniques for impromptu speaking and thinking on your feet, methods for analyzing news, current events, and complex social issues, frameworks for comparing values, stakeholders, and arguments, and strategies for effective teamwork during debate preparation and delivery. The toolkit provides extensive support for assessment and feedback, including templates for formal evaluation surveys, informal feedback collection methods, rubrics for assessing debate performance across content, style, and strategy categories, guidance on providing feedback that is timely, specific, actionable, and balanced, and approaches for using assessment to plan future lessons and adapt to learner needs.
External resources are integrated throughout, with curated links to debate videos, podcasts for news analysis, recommended reading on debate methodology, and references to established debate education organizations like the International Debate Education Association. Each lesson can be used as a standalone workshop or as part of a sequential curriculum delivered over several months. Materials are adaptable for both online and offline delivery, with modifications suggested where needed. The toolkit recognizes that learning debate is also about developing democratic citizenship, respectful disagreement, evidence-based thinking, and the confidence to engage in public discourse on important issues.
Available downloads:
Disclaimer
SALTO cannot be held responsible for the inappropriate use of these training tools. Always adapt training tools to your aims, context, target group and to your own skills! These tools have been used in a variety of formats and situations. Please notify SALTO should you know about the origin of or copyright on this tool.
Tool overview
http://toolbox.salto-youth.net/5365
This tool is for
-Primary: Youth workers, educators, debate coaches, and NGO facilitators working with young people aged 15-25 -Secondary: Teachers in formal education settings (secondary schools, universities) -Tertiary: Young people themselves who want to self-study debate skills
and addresses
Social Inclusion, Youth Initiatives, European Citizenship, Youth Participation
It is recommended for use in:
Strategic Partnerships
Behind the tool
The tool was created by
Ungdomsfronten, in collaboration with the project partnership consortium (Croatian Debate Society, CET Platform Italy, Agora Aveiro
in the context of
The tool was developed within the Erasmus+ KA2 project “Debate on, change community”, focusing on strengthening youth work and volunteering through debate as a non-formal learning method, in a European cooperation context.
The tool has been experimented in
The toolkit was tested and informed by international youth work activities, debate clubs, trainings, and volunteering practices implemented by the partner organisations across different European countries.
The tool was published to the Toolbox by
Alaa Muneer (on 24 December 2025)
and last modified
19 December 2025
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