Abstract
Non-cognitive skills (NCS) contribute to variation in how students respond to challenges inside the classroom and beyond. Competitive policy debate is a co-curricular activity that both encourages cooperative learning and is hypothesized to promote NCS. The goal of this pilot was to examine the relationship between debate participation and change in four NCS among high school students over the course of an academic year. Two surveys (Fall and Spring) were administered during the 2017/18 academic year to students who participated in the Chicago Debate League (n=102). Surveys assessed demographic factors, characteristics of debate participation, and four indicators of NCS each measured using established scales: growth mindset, grit, mood, and civic engagement. Paired t-tests were used to quantify change in NCS over time. Linear regression was used to assess the relationship between characteristics of debate participation and change in NCS. In the Fall, median length of debate participation was 6.2 months. Average age was 16, most (82%) participants were non-White and 52% were female. Over the academic year, growth mindset increased (Δ=0.29 (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.10, 0.48) while grit declined (Δ= -0.17, 95% CI: -0.34, -0.01). Civic engagement and mood were unchanged. Duration of participation was associated with increased change in grit (β=0.04, p≤0.01), but was unrelated to the other NCS. Motivation for joining debate did not explain variation in any NCS. Debate participation is associated with improvement in some NCS. Findings have implications for scalable interventions to promote NCS in the context of cooperative learning. Key words: Cooperative learning, grit, growth mindset, motivation, urban debate.
Highlights
Empirical research increasingly demonstrates that variation in educational achievement, in the context of social disadvantage, is not fully, or even primarily, explained by intrinsic cognitive ability
Building on research suggesting that noncognitive skills‖ (NCS) are important determinants of academic achievement, and the notion that cooperative learning modalities provide an effective way of engaging with these types of skills, this study explores whether an existing co-curricular activity, competitive policy debate, offers a scalable means to promote NCS in an urban school setting
We investigated how competitive debate relates to NCS in a sample of students who participated in the Chicago Debate League (CDL)
Summary
Empirical research increasingly demonstrates that variation in educational achievement, in the context of social disadvantage, is not fully, or even primarily, explained by intrinsic cognitive ability. Supported by evidence from neuroscience that the human brain remains malleable well into adulthood (Fuchs and Gould, 2000), NCS encompass beliefs that human capacities for learning are fluid and extend across lifespan. These constructs have caught the attention of education researchers, policymakers and practitioners alike as potential modifiable determinants of student achievement. In the context of educational achievement, learners with a growth mindset believe that their cognitive capacities change in response to adequate effort and training, which helps cultivate motivation for learning, approach-oriented coping with setbacks, and a willingness to follow through on longterm goals. People with a growth mindset tend to seek out challenges and develop a sense of self-efficacy and robust ability for emotional regulation in response to hardships (Dweck et al, 2014; Jamieson et al, 2018; Yeager et al, 2016)
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