The Philosophers' Cocoon

2 responses to “Organizing a philosophical debate in a large class?”

1. Anonymous

   March 20, 2026

   I have 35 person sections, and I do something nearby in-class debates. Basically, I divide students into about 7-8 teams. I give them a case study on some issue relevant to our class, and have them argue for a position on the case for about 10 minutes. After that, I open the floor for a 15 minute Q&A with their classmates, where I encourage them to raise objections to the opening team’s presentation. I spread these presentations throughout the semester, so that we have roughly 1 a week after the first month of class has gone by.

   Next year, I plan to assign the same case to two teams and assign them opposing positions on the case question. That way, I can raise the chances of a bit more of a contentious Q&A, since there’ll more often be questioners familiar with the case and advocating for an opposing view.

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2. Anonymous

   March 20, 2026

   I do debates in a class of ~30 over the course of 75-minute classes that might scale up. Basically I have two teams of 5 present pro/con arguments for the debate over the course of three rounds, and the rest of the students serve as judges. The key is that the judges play a very active role. The topics are given to the students beforehand, but whether they are pro or con is decided with a coinflip. Before the first round, the teams leave the room to prep for 10 minutes, and I have a discussion with the judges to get a sense of their baseline views, which they record on a numerical scale. In between rounds, the two teams leave the room again and prepare for the next round, while I stay in the classroom with the judges and have a discussion with them about which arguments worked and which ones didn’t. At the end of the third round, the judges record their current views after the debate, and these are tallied up to produce a final score, which determines the winner. Then there’s a group discussion about how the debate went (with a focus strengths of the other team and positive suggestions for what could have worked better).
   I normally do three of these per term, so everyone ends up debating once and judging twice. I think you could probably run two of these debates in a three-hour session.
   In case this appeals, here’s the handout/judging sheet I use: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/f3tn1to8ypa4ykk213b89/Debate-Handout.pdf?rlkey=ibva2ybfwrobm703jvoyu6q9e&dl=0

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