THE IMPACT OF ACADEMIC DEBATE ON IMPROVING STUDENTS' CRITICAL THINKING AND ARGUMENTATION SKILLS.

The purpose of this contribution is to discuss the scope of the impact of academic debate as an innovative teaching method to improve students' critical thinking and argumentation skills. Academic debate was used as a learning method at the part of the course (seminar), which is intended for first-degree (BC) students of Education at the Department of Pedagogy and Andragogy, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava. The course was attended face-to-face by 11 students, while one student is on mobility and completes the course remotely. Data for this research have been collected from two student feedback questionnaires, a teacher's diary, individual written work of students and feedback from a peer observer.