Winter 11 Featuring: The Buckingham Palace Awards Ceremony ...

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DEBATING THE EVIDENCE– 90 YEARs OF BEING RIGHT! For more than 90 years, the ESU has been at the forefront of creating and running debating competitions, delivering world class training and producing materials. Now, we have independent research which gives us empirical evidence to support the numerous anecdotes that debating helps people in their studies and in life. On 10 October, the ESU launched ‘Debating the Evidence’. This is a piece of independent research which was jointly funded and commissioned by the ESU and CfBT (Campaign for British Teachers) Education Trust. The company which successfully won the bid to undertake the research was EdComs, a leading education research charity. The original brief was to assess all existing evidence from around the world which looked into the effects that learning speech and debate skills have on young people. Collating and assessing the evidence was a major undertaking, with a number of very useful reports from large studies coming from the USA and supporting evidence from countries including Canada, France, Israel, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. An expert panel was established comprising the leading debate and speech practitioners from around the world. The 37-page final report says everything we hoped it would say. This report illustrates that the many positive aspects of debating that we promote have been proven to develop the confidence and analytical ability of school children. Some of the most interesting outcomes are that many children reported ‘becoming more objective and enjoying being able to challenge our teachers’ and a heightened interest in current affairs and their wider social impact. Debate was also found to ‘engender a sophisticated discussion among a class of 10 to 11 year-old pupils when used as an exercise in perspective-taking.’ In addition, debating encourages the skills to ‘develop and present their ideas with greater imagination and fluency’ as well as sensitivity to precise language. These are invaluable life skills for any child hoping to pursue a successful career. Academically, the report shows a 25% increase in GPA (Grade Point Average – from a US study) for debaters above that of the control group. Most particularly, we were pleased with the qualities the young people identified in themselves after experiencing competitive debating; many reported feeling a stronger desire to engage and question than before and, perhaps the most successful quality of all, it has helped to build confidence amongst otherwise more retiring pupils. The report is also valuable in highlighting where we might go next with further research. Although all of the existing evidence points in the right direction, there are limits to the size of some of the studies and a lot of very positive material had to be omitted as the evidence base was not sufficiently robust. Despite these notes of necessary caution, the overall picture is very encouraging and we are in no doubt that further studies will reinforce the findings of this initial report. In a time of tightening budgets and increasing time pressure, this report is a valuable tool to support teachers who are working so hard to establish and maintain debating clubs and activities. The report is available to download from esu.org and a limited supply of hard copies is available from ESU Dartmouth House. DIALOGUE 12
PROGRAMMES – Inside We bring you news and events from the programmes that the ESU runs from Dartmouth House and details of events coming up in 2012. London Debate Challenge_14 International Public Speaking Competition 2012_14 Discover Your Voice_15 John Smith Memorial Mace_15 Mooting Competition_16 Debate Academy_17 International Council Meeting_17 Shakespeare Debate_18 Schools Mace and Public Speaking Competition for Schools_19 Summer Seminars_20 House of Lords Tea Party_21 Music Scholarships_21 Reform Club Debate_22 Iceland Launch_23 Middle East Arab Partnership Project_24 International Delegations_24 Diplomat Reception_25 Speech & Debate Intern_25 Japan Tour_26 DIALOGUE 13
Page 1 and 2: A quarterly publication from The En
Page 3 and 4: CREDITS Managing Editors Annette Fi
Page 5 and 6: At HRH Prince Philip’s final even
Page 7 and 8: FEATURES - Inside A selection of ev
Page 9 and 10: 1. 1. Özge Karaoglu Ergen, winner
Page 11: SSE UPDATE AND THANKSGIVING DINNER
Page 15 and 16: DISCOVER YOUR VOICE The first ‘Di
Page 17 and 18: DEBATE ACADEMY The ESU’s 11th ann
Page 19 and 20: SCHOOLS MACE AND PUBLIC SPEAKING CO
Page 21 and 22: TEA ON THE TERRACE Lord Hunt with g
Page 23 and 24: LAUNCH OF ESU ICELAND AND AN ICELAN
Page 25 and 26: DIPLOMAT RECEPTION The ESU enjoys a
Page 27 and 28: ESUJ Tournament The next morning sa
Page 29 and 30: ALUMNI - Inside A selection of pers
Page 31 and 32: IPSC 30th ANNIVERSARY DINNER The En
Page 33 and 34: LINDEMANN REUNION In October, we st
Page 35 and 36: IF IT WASN’T FOR THE ESU . . . !
Page 37 and 38: ‘I would not have rubbed shoulder
Page 39 and 40: ‘I would never have graduated fro
Page 41 and 42: ‘I wouldn’t have met Barack Oba
Page 43 and 44: BRANCHES - Inside The UK branches o
Page 45 and 46: BRANCHES Colchester and Northeast E
Page 47 and 48: The children rose to the challenge
Page 49 and 50: NORTH WEST REGION Liverpool and Mer
Page 51 and 52: West Sussex In June, a dozen member
Page 53 and 54: he covered both history and culture
Page 55 and 56: REGIONAL DIARY EAST REGION MIDLANDS
Page 57 and 58: January - May 2012 JANUARY Welcome
Page 59 and 60: FEBRUARY MARCH Wednesday 22 Februar
Page 61 and 62: MAY Saturday 12 May Public Speaking
Page 63 and 64:
ANNUAL FUNDRAISING APPEAL - PUBLIC
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