I tried Academic Controversy with my three grade 10 classes over the past couple of days, with mixed results. I first showed them the process using a couple of hot-button topics like school uniforms and banning cell phones if you are under 20 years of age. The students did well with these topics and things went relatively smoothly, though it always surprises me how little some people can come up with when given the opportunity to discuss things that actually have meaning to them. I guess I can't assume everyone actually likes to talk about things; many are very happy copying things and taking everything at face value.
Next I had them debate Mackenzie King's decision to turn away the SS St. Louis that was carrying 900 Jewish refugees in 1939. Our community is NOT a multi-cultural one, and I couldn't get over the complete lack of emotion that went along with the "debate"...I put it in quotations because there really wasn't one.
One thing that students seemed to dislike about Academic Controversy was the amount of restrictions that were placed on them. It seemed like there was no momentum with the arguments and students just read them like an accepted list of facts. When they actually had time to participate in open discussion, few had anything to say. I guess that I had set my expectations too high when I thought that students would bring some emotion to the debate. There was such apathy!
Please let me know if you have used Academic Controversy in your classes, and if so, how it went. Can it be modified and/or improved? I don't want to give up on this supposedly "powerful" strategy just yet.
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Hi Aaron,
I remember trying Academic Controversy with my Grade 11 college level class around euthanasia and the value of life. I felt like the structure worked to help them develop ideas, but I think I decided not to do the second half of the structured part (where they switch positions and do exactly the same thing) before the whole-class discussion, because I felt like it would be redundant. For the whole-group discussion, when it started to die a little I inserted my comment like, "What if it was your grandmother on life support" to lead to more discussion. I had a silly little point system to try to get more kids to participate in the whole-class part, not just the loud ones.
I think the kids wonder about switching sides too. Instead of trying to generate new points after the switching of sides, I had them identify the opposing team's best one or two arguments. That enabled me to keep that phase fairly brief. Thanks for your feedback!
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