A.D.A.P.T.: A debate and philosophy typology

The project aims to strengthen young people’s critical skills, argumentation abilities, and democratic values through education in debate and philosophy. In the project Philosophy: In the Days of the Athenian Polis (5th century BCE), public speaking, debate, and philosophy formed the foundations of democratic life. Philosophy was conducted as a dialogue between people with different perspectives, and philosophers taught citizens the art of persuasion at the Ekklesia, the main assembly of democracy in ancient Athens.

In modern secondary schools, however, debate clubs and philosophy classes are often separate worlds that rarely intersect. As a result, knowledge and skills are lost, limiting the potential impact of debate and philosophical thinking on strengthening democracy and combating populism.

Project ADAPT Objectives:
Adapt key ideas, principles, and thought experiments from philosophy to the needs of debate coaches.
Adapt competitive debate methods to the needs of philosophy teachers.
Develop a joint methodology for debate coaches and philosophy teachers that enables innovative teaching materials and methods.
Implement the Debate & Philosophy methodology in philosophy classrooms and evaluate its effectiveness.

As part of the project, we developed:
Teacher Handbook: Debate & Philosophy – A Joint Methodology for Debate Coaches and Philosophy Teachers
A collection of worksheets (PDF, A3 format) illustrating the Debate & Philosophy methodology
A set of 3D icons representing argumentative elements of debate; the models can be downloaded and printed for visual and tactile learning experiences
A website http://debateandphilosophy.com providing access to the worksheets and 3D models
A YouTube channel Debate & Philosophy with interviews of top philosophy teachers and debate coaches: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPhRr-CHyCh7K73BnoQIGqg/featured

More about the handbook: https://debaticons.com/Consortium and Partners:
Coordinator: Tilburg University (Netherlands)
Consortium includes four schools: Wolfert Bilingual School, Rotterdam (Netherlands); Gimnazija Ledina, Ljubljana (Slovenia); Privatna Klasična Gimnazija, Zagreb (Croatia); ITE Enrico Tosi, Busto Arsizio (Italy)
Two universities: Tilburg University (Netherlands); Erasmus School of Philosophy (Netherlands)
Three organizations: Za in Proti – Institute for the Culture of Dialogue (Slovenia); Hrvatsko Debatno Drustvo (Croatia); The Noisy Classroom Ltd (UK)Key Information:
Project co-funded by the European Union (European Commission)
Programme: Erasmus+
Key Action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices
Action Type: Strategic Partnership in school education
More information: EU project ADAPT