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The use of in-class debates and collaborative learning 

Bonwell  and  Eison  (1991,  in  Kennedy,  2007)  considered  the  use  of  debates  in 

providing  students  with  an  opportunity  to  be  actively  involved  in  their  classroom 

learning.    In  studies  focused  on  the  use  of  debates  in  Higher  Education  there  is  a 

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Educationalfutures                                                                                                                                           Brown 

Vol.7(1) January 2015                                                                                                  Collaborative Learning Skills

 

 

 

e-journal of the British Education Studies Association     

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© BESA 2015                                                                                                                                                            

ISSN: 1758-2199 

 

 

strong  emphasis  on  debates  as  a  participatory  strategy  (Frijters  et  al.,  2006;  Oros, 

2007).    For  ten  of  the  students,  their  positive  reflections  detailed  the  benefits  they 

found  in  this  form  of  participation  and  focused  primarily  on  how  it  enabled  them  to 

express their perspectives with peers.  Their points are detailed in Table 2 below.