A Study on Assessment Design for In-class Debates - With a Focus on Case Analyses of Judging at World Debating Championships

While debate has received broad acceptance as an important and effective tool for education, far less research attention has been paid to developing assessment designs for in-class debates. Existing studies on debate assessment has centered on examinations assessment elements and paradigms applied at domestic and US tournaments. This study goes beyond domestic or national settings to examine assessment at the highest levels of international competition, namely the World Schools Debating Championships and World Universities Debating Championship, to gain insights from the accumulated best practices from all over the world. It examines assessment standards and paradigms at WSDC/WUDC and analyzes interview data of top WSDC/WUDC judges from all over the world to access the most advanced developments in assessment methodologies and gain insights from the perspectives and experiences of expert educators. This study applies these insights to offer recommendations on assessment designs and evaluative elements for in-class debates. While this study is limited as a qualitative analysis of debate assessment practices, it adds unique value to literature by providing an initial step to linking international, Worlds-level debating to domestic in-class debate assessment.