Oxford-Style Debates in a Microbiology Course for Majors: A Method for Delivering Content and Engaging Critical Thinking Skills

Abstract

Developing scientific expertise in the classroom involves promoting higher-order cognitive skills as well as content mastery. Effective use of constructivism can facilitate these outcomes. However this is often difficult to accomplish when delivery of content is paramount. Utilizing many of the tenets of constructivist pedagogy, we have designed an Oxford-style debate assignment to be used in an introductory microbiology course. Two teams of students were assigned a debatable topic within microbiology. Over a five-week period students completed an informative web page consisting of three parts: background on the topic, data-based positions for each side of the argument, and a data-based persuasive argument to support their assigned position. This was followed by an in-class presentation and debate. Analysis of student performance on knowledge-based questions shows that students retain debate-derived content acquired primarily outside of lectures significantly better than content delivered during a normal lecture. Importantly, students who performed poorly on the lecture-derived questions did as well on debate-derived questions as other students. Students also performed well on questions requiring higher-order cognitive skills and in synthesizing data-driven arguments in support of a position during the debate. Student perceptions of their knowledge-base in areas covered by the debate and their skills in using scientific databases and analyzing primary literature showed a significant increase in pre- and postassignment comparisons. Our data demonstrate that an Oxford-style debate can be used effectively to deliver relevant content, increase higher-order cognitive skills, and increase self-efficacy in science-specific skills, all contributing to developing expertise in the field.

Students’ perceptions of debating as a learning strategy: A qualitative study

“…Debates have been shown to develop critical thinking, communication, teamwork, oral presentation skills and reasoning abilities ( Candela et al, 2006;Hanna et al, 2014;Arrue et al, 2017). When teaching controversial topics such as organ donation, debates may have some benefits over a traditional lecture, leading to improved information acquirement and retention (Koklanaris et al, 2008;Boucaud et al, 2013). However, these benefits may be related primarily to the preparation required for the debate rather than the debate itself.…”

Strategies for improvement of WeChat-PBL teaching: experience from China

“…What’s more, debate, a time-honoured method of cultivating the active engagement of students, is also applied to our teaching 11 . It not only encourages the critical analysis 12 but also develops interpersonal skills. In this way, they will learn how to respect each other and debate in a proper way while delivering their contradictory perspectives.…”

Learning through debate during problem-based learning: an active learning strategy

“…Previous researchers have revealed the merits of debate sessions in a variety of courses, including social sciences (42), tourism (2), allied health professionals (36), pharmacy (20,21,25), dentistry (32), and microbiology (5,35). In the medical profession, debates have been used as effective learning tools in postgraduate residency and training programs (22, 30, 33).…”