The impact of competitive debate on managing the conflict communication strategies of Italian students.

• Author: De Conti, Manuele

Competitive debate is an engaging activity for students. Theoretically, "debate" means a confrontation in which the parties attempt to convince the audience or the judges by advancing, contesting, and defending evidence and arguments relevant to the motion debated (Branham, 1991). Competitive debate differs from the general definition of the word "debate" because it is characterized by strict procedural rules and is conducted by educational institutions with the aim of providing learning and educational opportunities for students.

Debating has long played a key role in Western culture. Aristotle and John Stuart Mill considered the comparison of different positions as being associated with a clearer discernment of truth. Indeed, according to Aristotle, "[...] if we have the ability to go through the difficulties on either side we shall more readily discern the true as well as the false in any subject" (Topics, 101a 34-36). Mill maintained that "[...] the source of everything respectable in man, either as an intellectual or as a moral being [is] that his errors are corrigible. He is capable of rectifying his mistakes by discussion and experience. Not by experience alone" (Mill, 1859/2003, p. 90). Furthermore "[...] the only way in which a human being can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject, is by hearing what can be said about it by persons of every variety of opinion" (Mill, 1859/2003, p. 90). When discussing the Greek innovation of philosophical criticism, Karl Popper argued that critical confrontation allows a thorough evaluation of different points of view and is a remedy for dogmatism:

It was a momentous innovation. It meant a break with the dogmatic tradition which permits only one school doctrine, and the introduction in its place of a tradition that admits a plurality of doctrines which all try to approach the truth by means of critical discussion (Popper, 2002, p. 151).

Today, educators recognize that competitive debate, in particular, promotes important competences. It urges students to acquire knowledge (Scott, 2008; Vo & Morris, 1996), to reason logically and critically (Allen, Berkowitz, Hunt & Louden, 1999; Colbert, 1995; Korcok, 1997), and to improve both verbal and non-verbal communication (Inoue & Nakano, 2011). In addition, it positively influences educational outcomes (Mezuk, 2009; Mezuk et al., 2011).

Despite the valuable goals and skills involved in debating, some studies (Budesheim and Lundquist, 1999; De Conti, 2013a) show that competitive debate causes polarization among students; that is to say, it strengthens their attitudes and can cause them to become entrenched in their positions (Lord, Ross & Lepper, 1979). When students already believe in certain opinions, debating can confirm or even strengthen their confidence in the opinions they are supporting (De Conti, 2013a). For proponents of competitive debate as an educational method, this result seems to contradict some of the abovementioned educational benefits of debating. Furthermore, one could also argue that such results can compromise the acquisition of communication and social competences often promoted by the practice of debating. Indeed, not only is polarization a characteristic of closed-mindedness, it often leads people to communicate in an aggressive manner and can also cause conflict escalation rather than encouraging conflict management (Glasl, 1997). As the disagreement between the debaters deepens, the tendency to misinterpret what the opponent says and to believe that the opponent is biased likewise grows. This behavior, in turn, leads the other party to consider the interlocutor as partisan, creating a vicious circle that increases the level of aggression in the discussion (Kennedy & Pronin, 2008, 2012).

Therefore, because competitive debate is an educational methodology that can produce both welcome, and unwelcome, results in relation to conflict situations, it is essential to ask whether competitive debate training in schools is an effective method for producing communication and conflict management competences. For the sake of clarity, "competence" in this paper is conceptualized as a combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes (Spitzberg & Cupach, 1984).

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESES

Cultural Background

The context in which this research is conducted is Italy. In this country, competitive debate, as it is actually practiced in the U.S., is still quite a novel activity. Even if some sporadic and similar antecedents can be traced back to 1995 (Porcarelli, 1996), this activity seems to have gained momentum at the beginning of this century. Around 2000, the students of the University of Bozen established an association named Kikero that, in the following years, also promoted a competitive debate club. As a debate club, Kikero allowed university students to debate in three different languages: Italian, English, and German. However, as long as this club was active, rather than spreading the practice of debate in Italy, its intention seemed to be involving students in facing teams from neighboring countries as Austria, Germany, and Switzerland (Uninews, 2009, May 5).

The University of Padua has provided a significant impetus for competitive debate in Italy, both practically and theoretically. Its competitive debate programs were started in high schools in 2006 by Adelino Cattani, professor of Theory of Argumentation, and today include a regional and national tournament for high school students, a debate program for middle schools, and a university debate club (http://www.educazione.unipd.it/bottaerisposta/). Since 2006 the constellation of debate projects in Italy have grown rapidly, sometimes helped by the University of Padua itself, and sometimes relying on international debate organizations such as the World Debate Institute, the International Debate Education Association, or the English Speaking Union. Nowadays, Lazio, Lombardy, Trentino Alto Adige and Veneto, just to cite the broadest program, have their own debate networks.

The interest demonstrated in debating by the Italian educational system reflects a sensitivity promoted by at least three factors. The first relates to the European Union's recommendations. The concerns and recommendations that have emerged since the Lisbon European Council in...