This on-line multimedia manual was created within the project „Thinking and speaking a better world“, in short @better which brougth together youth debate organisations from Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, Slovakia and Czech R.

 

Here are the partners, that made this happen:

ADK - Asociace debatních klubů, o.s., Czech R 

ARGO - Asociatia Romana pentru Gandire si Oratorie,  Romania 

CDS - Česká debatní společnost, Czech R 

HDD - Hrvatsko debatno društvo, Croatia 

SDA - Slovenská debatná asociácia, Slovakia 

Udruga Jablani/Poplar Trees, Croatia 

ZIP – Za in proti, zavod za kulturo dialoga

 

There were a lot of activities implemented in all partners  organisations/countries – workshops, seminars, public debates, debate tournaments, on-line debates, together with 4 international events in Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Czech R. Manual   brings material which was used at international and national project events and evaluated by the trainers and participants within @better project. We also included some additional written and video material, mainly as further reading/watching which is available in English and was not develeped within this project, but partners recognised their value and are using them when training and coaching their debaters. 

 

The manual focuses on Worlds Schools Debate Format as  it was recognised by project partners this is the most needed, as there is not a lot of training material there and because at internationally on highschool  level this format is the most popular. Some countries – like Czech R and Slovakia debate Worlds School Debate Format only when debating in English or at international level, in Slovenia, Croatia and Romania Worlds Schools Debate Format is debated at high school level in national languages and English when debating internationally.  To conclude  the need for training material  in English for Worlds Schools Debate Format was recognised as the most essential one by the partner organisations. 

 

Of course, there are some chapters from list of motions to exercises, organising the tournament and more which are relevant to any of debate formats. I am very confident this manual will benefit everybody who is interested in debating regardless of the format.  I am very happy that authors contributing to the manual vary from very experienced trainers to former debaters who finished their high school debate career a few years ago and now serve as trainers and coaches.

 

We tried to make the written contributions short, however, each chapter ends with  information about further readings and links to more videos for everybody who would like to research the topic even more. Especially a combination of written and video material is very valuable as it helps you to see how different trainers are presenting their topics.  Our intentation is to keep adding the material to this manual – new videos, new written chapters about different aspects of debate theory, exercies, motions .. name it! We would  like this training web page/manul is an never ending story – never finished, always changig and growing. Everybody interested to become a contributor are very welcome to send their contribution to zainprotiakademija@gmail.com 

 

At the end I would like to thank to all the contributors and  project partners without whom this manual will not be possible. Special thanks goes to Jakub Kadlec and Martin Režny from Ceski debatni spolecnost who produced majority of the project videos, Alfred Snider who is responsible for a lot of videos from previous training events and we listed as additional sources  and Samo Novak, a co-editor of this manual.