Grit, growth mindset and participation in competitive policy debate: Evidence from the Chicago Debate League

Abstract

Non-cognitive skills (NCS) contribute to variation in how students respond to challenges inside the classroom and beyond. Competitive policy debate is a co-curricular activity that both encourages cooperative learning and is hypothesized to promote NCS. The goal of this pilot was to examine the relationship between debate participation and change in four NCS among high school students over the course of an academic year. Two surveys (Fall and Spring) were administered during the 2017/18 academic year to students who participated in the Chicago Debate League (n=102). Surveys assessed demographic factors, characteristics of debate participation, and four indicators of NCS each measured using established scales: Growth mindset, grit, mood, and civic engagement. Paired t-tests were used to quantify change in NCS over time. Linear regression was used to assess the relationship between characteristics of debate participation and change in NCS. In the Fall, median length of debate participation was 6.2 months. Average age was 16, most (82%) participants were non-White and 52% were female. Over the academic year, growth mindset increased (Δ=0.29 (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.10, 0.48) while grit declined (Δ= -0.17, 95% CI: -0.34, -0.01). Civic engagement and mood were unchanged. Duration of participation was associated with increased change in grit (β=0.04, p≤0.01), but was unrelated to the other NCS. Motivation for joining debate did not explain variation in any NCS. Debate participation is associated with improvement in some NCS. Findings have implications for scalable interventions to promote NCS in the context of cooperative learning.

Debate participation and academic achievement among high school students in the Houston Independent School District: 2012 - 2015

“…Competitive academic debate programs exist in thousands of communities around the globe, including recent growth in urban school districts in the United States (International Debate Education Association, 2017). Prior research has described the benefits of debate participation for outcomes such as critical thinking skills (Green and Klug, 1990;Kennedy, 2007), as well as self-efficacy and various indicators of social/emotional development (Anderson and Mezuk, 2015;Fine, 2004;Kalesnikava et al, 2019), that are in turn correlated with school engagement (Bellon, 2000). The present study, which is one of the largest quantitative evaluations of debate participation and achievement among high school students conducted to date, extends this work by providing robust evidence of the benefits of debate on academic performance and college readiness.…”

“…In addition, other quantitative reports have examined the relationship between debate participation and indicators of psychosocial development (e.g., self-efficacy, civic engagement, etc.) and have reported positive correlations (Anderson and Mezuk, 2015;Kalesnikava et al, 2019). In sum, quantitative studies of debate participation in urban school districts show that while there is differential self-selection into debate, consistent with all extra-curricular activities (Hunt, 2005), debate participation is still associated with better academic performance after accounting for this self-selection.…”