Youth debates
Jugend debattiert is a nationwide student competition for debating in Germany .
Founder and organizer
The competition is carried out by the non-profit Hertie Foundation , the Robert Bosch Foundation , the Mercator Foundation and the Heinz Nixdorf Foundation on the initiative and under the patronage of the Federal President . Cooperation partners are the Conference of Ministers of Education and the Ministries of Education of the federal states. With a budget of around 15 million euros since the nationwide start in 2002, Jugend debattiert is the largest privately-publicly financed project for linguistic and political education in Germany.
History and numbers
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With a series of lessons and a nationwide competition, young people bring debated rhetoric to school. Over 135,000 pupils and 5500 teachers at around 800 secondary schools across Germany took part in the project in the 2011/12 school year. In 2011 Jugend debattiert celebrated its 10th anniversary. In 2001, Jugend debattiert was tested at around 30 schools in Frankfurt am Main under the current project manager, Ansgar Kemmann . In the same year, the Federal President initiated the expansion of the competition nationwide and under his patronage. Today Youth Debates is the largest privately-publicly financed project for language and political education.
For several years now, the first non-profit associations based on the Jugend debattiert competition have existed to maintain the culture of debate in German schools. The VLFJD Bayern association (Association of State Winners and Friends of Youth Debated) is the first association of this type within Germany. It was founded in 2009 by some former Bavarian state winners and other former competition participants.
Participation in and development of the competition
Pupils of level I (8th – 9th grade) and level II (11th – 12th grade) at schools that belong to a youth debated regional association can take part. A regional network should, if possible, consist of different types of schools. Interested secondary schools, secondary schools, grammar schools, comprehensive schools and vocational schools can apply for participation from the coming school year via the education ministries of the federal states.
Youth debates begins at school with a series of lessons to prepare for the competition. The competition has several stages: First, the two best of each of the two secondary schools are determined in an internal school competition , these four take part in the regional association competition, where they compete against the best of other schools. The best four of the regional association competitions - two per secondary level - enter the state competition , for which they are prepared in a rhetoric seminar lasting several days. The four best per secondary level contest the state finals . For the two best ever secondary school follows the national competition . At the federal level there are still 64 students in the competition. The best four of each secondary level qualify for the national finals . The prize is a six-day rhetoric winning seminar and admission to the competition's alumni program .
Course of a debate
In a debate, four debates on a topic for which a clear pro or contra position must be adopted (two pro and two contra debaters). The debate in terms of the competition is strictly regulated:
It starts with an opening round. Each of the four debaters has two minutes to present their position and argue for their side without being interrupted. The pro and counter speakers take turns. (The first person to speak in the opening round is the person who wants to change something in the current situation, i.e. the first pro-debater.) The second part is the free debate. This lasts twelve minutes and takes the form of an unmoderated debate. The last part is the final round. Here, all debaters are given another minute to speak again to make their point of view clear again. In contrast to other debate formats, your own position can be changed here, but in any case the position must be justified by the previous debate. Consequently, no new arguments may be given.
Evaluation of the debates
A jury consisting of three people - three or five people in the final debates - evaluates the debaters according to four criteria: expertise , expressiveness , ability to talk and persuasiveness . Each member of the jury gives each debater points for these four criteria, with a maximum of five points per criterion. Each debater can thus achieve a maximum of 60 points in a debate; in final debates the members of the jury then agree on a ranking.
- The expertise is intended to reflect how well a debater has prepared for the respective debate topic.
- Expressiveness relates to the fluency and rhetoric of a debater.
- The ability to talk assesses whether the debater responds to and refers to the fellow debaters. The ability to take on moderation functions in the debate , for example to direct the debate to important points of view, to summarize it or something similar, is also incorporated here.
- Persuasiveness assesses whether arguments are well founded and whether the point of view was conveyed convincingly.
