AUTHOR=Wordlaw LaShawn , Harrell Kevin J. , Romocki LaHoma Smith 

TITLE=Recruiting and Preparing Undergraduate Students for a Collegiate Debate: An HBCU Case Study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Education

VOLUME=Volume 6 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2021.562328

DOI=10.3389/feduc.2021.562328

ISSN=2504-284X

ABSTRACT=Although non-competitive and competitive debate are not novel pedagogical tools, they may be underutilized in favor of current trends in technology.   Faculty who are in search of other meaningful ways to connect and engage with students in public health and health education may want to revisit using debate. Teaching students how find and use fact and evidence-based information to develop an affirmative and/or a negative argument on hot topic issues and listen to opposing views, is essential to being a citizen and a health educator.  This article is a call to action to health education faculty to adopt non-competitive and/or competitive debate as one of the tools to foster critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication among undergraduate students.  It introduces six levels of debate options for faculty to assess their effort feasibility, and it provides a best practices case study for recruiting and preparing students to debate. It concludes with resolution statements suitable for a debate relevant for the global pandemic, COVID-19.