Arguing and debating
As a communication competence
Recognising valid arguments and forming solid arguments themselves in a competence, that is an important part of scientific education at universities. Defending them and scrutinizing those of others, e.g. in a debate is another competence that ETH fosters. In this Refresh Teaching event several ETH faculty members present their approaches to fostering those communication competences in their classes.
Prof. Emma Slack
Prof. Emma Slack (D-HEST): Emma Slack (Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health) will introduce an ETH Food Sciences MSc course where student-led debating is used as the main teaching method. There will be ample opportunity to discuss the challenges and benefits of this approach.
Prof. Dr. Rainer Wallny
Prof. Dr. Rainer Wallny (D-PHYS) : Prompted by the Critical Thinking Initiative, Michael Hampe (Center for the History of Knowledge and Chair of Philosophy, D-GESS) and Rainer Wallny (Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, D-PHYS) together with Norman Sieroka *(now University of Bremen) joined forces to develop a new “flipped class room” course on the topic of Philosophical Reflections of Physics. Addressing some selected fundamental questions of epistemology and the theory of science, in this course the students are challenged to develop a stance on a given topic close to their field of study, to argue their points of view with the lecturers as well as with each other and to self-reflect and to re-assess these points of view during the course.
Dr. Erik Jentges
Dr. Erik Jentges (D-MTEC) from the Teaching Innovations Lab at D-MTEC reports on how they train critical thinking skills using the six-scentence argument (6SA) in their D-MTEC “Corporate Sustainability” course. Students learn to write and give their peers constructive feedback on their concise recommendations to address sustainability challenges in the business world. More Info about the method here.
