| Thinking and Expression - Diagnosing problems for improving debate classes |
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Hye-young Hwang, Hye-Ryeong Hahn |
| 사고와 표현 토론 수업에 대한 학습자의 인식과 문제 진단 |
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황혜영, 한혜령 |
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| Abstract |
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“Thinking and Expression” is an interdisciplinary course that aims to help university students to develop comprehensive thinking ability, problem solving ability, and communication ability required in a rapidly changing modern society. The course is generally composed of two major components—speaking and writing—the first of which, speaking, is the focus the present paper. To be specific, we explore the difficulties experienced by students in debate-based speaking classes. While there has been a growing body of research on problems related to running debate classes, there has hardly been systematic research based on concrete quantitative and qualitative data on how debate classes are actually perceived by students. The purpose of this study is to examine the students’ perceptions of the “Thinking and Expression” and to explore the problems with debatecentered classes, which is the core component of the course, from a student perspective. In order to investigate how students think about the debate class, the present study conducted a questionnaire survey. A total of 141 students in the “Thinking and Expression” classes participated in the survey, and responded to eleven 4-point Likert-scale questions and four open-ended questions. The Likert-scale questions asked the students to rate their degree of interest in the “Thinking and Expression” course and their preference for and (dis)comfort with debate classes and lecture classes, their preference for group learning and individual learning, their perceived value of the “thinking and expression” course and lecture-based learning, and their willingness to learn to improve their thinking and expressive ability. The open-ended questions asked the participants to provide narrative answers about good aspects and unsatisfactory aspects of the class as well as suggestions or the course. The statistic analyses of the students’ responses to the questionniaire showed that the students’ interest in university courses in general was moderately high but that their interest in “Thinking and Expression” was lower than that in university courses in general. The students were found to feel more interested and comfortable in lecture-centered classes and individual activities than debate classes and group activities. They answered that they feel more comfortable with individual activities than with group activities. However, the students were found to perceive a debate class as more helpful than a lecture class in developing thinking and expressive ability. Importantly, they were also found to be rather willing to take courses that help them develop thinking and expressive ability even if they might pose difficulties. The qualitative analyses of the students’ narrative answers revealed negative cognitive and affective factors underlying debate classes, including the burden of being unable to answer in public speech and debate; discomfort with confronting others as well as being confronted by others; difficulties with working in groups; and dealing with unfamiliar or difficult topics. The findings suggest that it is necessary for instructors to develop various techniques to reduce negative affective and cognitive effects involved in debate classes and facilitate open and lively debate, in order to fully achieve the purpose of the course. |
| Key Words:
Thinking and Expression, debate, individual activities, group activities, learner difficulties |
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