Debate

The Debate...

• exploits the idea of ​​using the conflict in learning, focuses on competition, placing in front of each other two teams that present opposite/contradictory sides of the same idea/motion, a team is the affirmative, presenting arguments in favour of the motion and the other, called negative, presents opposite ideas.
• requires a certain level of knowledge and skills common to all the participants, capitalized by the leadership of a moderator;
• the methods' structure involves these stages:
• introduction by formulating questions or problem-questions
• researching the informal resources and formulating arguments for and against
• participants intervention
• summarizing arguments
• the delimitation of assessments 
• conclusions drawing

Alternatives:

• Six Thinking Hats by de Bono:
  The premise of the method is that the human brain thinks in a number of distinct ways which can be identified, deliberately accessed and hence planned for use in a structured way allowing one to develop strategies for thinking about particular issues. Dr de Bono identifies six distinct states in which the brain can be "sensitised". In each of these states the brain will identify and bring into conscious thought certain aspects of issues being considered (e.g. gut instinct, pessimistic judgment, neutral facts).
  Six distinct states are identified and assigned a color:
  • Information: (White) - considering purely what information is available, what are the facts?
  • Emotions (Red) - instinctive gut reaction or statements of emotional feeling (but not any justification)
  • Bad points judgment (Black) - logic applied to identifying flaws or barriers, seeking mismatch
  • Good points judgment (Yellow) - logic applied to identifying benefits, seeking harmony
  • Creativity (Green) - statements of provocation and investigation, seeing where a thought goes
  • Thinking (Blue) - thinking about thinking
  Coloured hats are used as metaphors for each state. Switching to a state is symbolized by the act of putting on a coloured hat, either literally or metaphorically. These metaphors allow for more complete and elaborate segregation of the states than the preconceptions inherent in people's current language. All of these thinking hats help for thinking more deeply. The six thinking hats indicate problems and solutions about an idea or a product you might come up with. Furthermore, Dr de Bono asserts that these states are associated with distinct chemical states of the brain — however, no details or evidence of this are presented.
  Resource: Wikipedia read more under: Wikipedia: Six Thinking Hats 
  

• Disney method:
  This method bases on a role-play, in which one or more people discuss a problem from different perspectives:

1. The Dreamer is subjectiv and ethusiastic, but doesn't care on practical issues of his idea or analysis.
2. The Realist takes a pragmatical-practical point of view, he develops action-plans, takes a look into the necessary actions to be taken and the preconditions to be met.
3. The Critic provokes and tests the input of the others. Aim is a constructive and positive feedback, which helps to identify sources of mistakes.

Sometimes a forth person the Neutral is added, who observes, moderates and consults.

If more persons are involved each person gets one role. Roles can be changed after a while. If only one person is using this method, this person switches roles from neutral to one after another, this can be done for several round but should end with Neutral.
Resource: Wikipedia; read more under: German Wikipedia: Walt-Disney-Methode