Global Politics on Trial: Using Educational Debate for Teaching Controversies of World Affairs

World politics is rife with complex controversial issues. A time-honored method of teaching controversies and skills of critical analysis is educational debate. This study seeks to acquaint educators of world politics with methodology of educational debate and provide practical recommendations on how to make this method of instruction a success. It focuses on challenges to functional debateFdifficulties with motivating students to think critically and assessing them reliably, engaging all students in debates and maintaining rapport in the classroom, selecting appropriate topics for debates and economizing instructor’s preparation timeFand suggests approaches for tackling the barriers to this instructional technique. The practical recommendations proposed in the study have been validated in the research literature and evidence collected in the introductory international relations classes by means of action research.