VIRTUAL DEBATE 

Learners will be able…
… to take on board and sympathise with people who have the opposite point of view from their own.
… to reflect on their own position and how their own belief may not fully stand up.

You need:

• 40 minutes
• Tutor with at least 6 learners
• Pens and paper

Instructions (Step-by-Step)

• The tutor will briefly introduce the situation and explain that there will be a debate.
  • The situation: Virtual learning and working became the norm during the height of the COVID’19 pandemic but is it more or less productive than learning and working in a building/office?
• Tutors will present the following 2 positions and ask learners whether they agree with A or B (hopefully there will be a mixture of both).
  • Position A: Virtual learning/working is far more productive than being in a physical environment. You can manage your time more effectively and better balance/separate your home/social life with a flexible learning/working environment.
  • Position B: Virtual learning/working is far less productive than being in a physical environment. The separate location for work/learning is important to keep learning/working separate from home/social life
• Where possible, tutors will allocate the opposite scenario to the one that learners agree with personally, so that they are forced to argue a position they do not actually agree with.
• Learners will then have 15 minutes to research and construct the argument for the scenario they have been given. They can work in teams of 3-4 who have the same scenario.
• Learners will then come back together as a whole group and have 15 minutes to debate the topic based on the argument they have prepared.
• Finally, tutors will get learners to reflect on and discuss how they found it and felt about representing the position they disagreed with and what they learnt in the process.