In May, I visited a third-grade classroom in Hyde Park. There was a hum of activity and conversation all around the room.  Students, seated in groups, were making claims about which detail in a chapter of the novel they were reading was the best one to summarize the chapter. In one group, students were arguing with each other about their answer to the question: “I picked #1,” “No, #3 is better.  It says right here in the chapter…” “Yeah, but that’s not about the whole chapter…”

For more than a decade, students all over Boston and beyond have been developing evidence-based arguments, evaluating and improving arguments, and testing their arguments against others.  Every August – including at this summer’s Debate-Inspired Educator Institute –  and throughout the school year, teachers learn how to use debate-inspired activities, developed here at the Boston Debate League, to help their students think, speak, read, and write about the content they are studying. As a Debate-Inspired Classrooms instructional coach, I’ve listened to powerful arguments about brain development, linear equations, proxy wars in Latin America, and what “person of color” really means – just to name a few!  

In 2019, the BDL’s Debate-Inspired Classrooms™ was chosen as one of only nine from a field of hundreds of education programs across the country to receive a major grant from the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative. The grant allowed us to partner with researchers from Boston University/Wheelock School of Education’s CERES Institute for Children and Youth to discover what an effective DI Classroom looks like.   

In the first phase of the project researchers worked with me and a group of experienced Debate-Inspired teachers to explore the questions, “Why do you use DI Classrooms activities in your classroom? What do you notice about students’ learning and engagement when you use them?” They gathered data by interviewing teachers and students, observing coaching sessions, and observing debate-inspired classrooms in action.  

The project revealed that Debate-Inspired classrooms build transformative skills: evidence-based argumentation, self-efficacy, and critical discourse in community.  They were centered on what students themselves had to say – both to their teachers and to each other.  In these debate-inspired classrooms, students speak, listen, reason, and problem solve together. In a focus group, one seventh grade math student explained that what was different about her teacher’s classroom was that when she spoke, she knew that her peers would not make fun of her or interrupt her: it was a place where she felt safe enough to speak her mind. 

Soe Young Lee, a doctoral student and member of the CERES team, presented the findings of the initial research at the prestigious American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) annual conference. 

The BDL has continued our partnership with BU/CERES, widening the scope of research to include both DI Classrooms™ and our Resolved program. This phase of the research has focused on observations of both programs in action, and will help us deepen our understanding of how our work builds transformative skills that are vital for young people’s success.