Academic staff of the Department of Public Administration and Law organized online debates on “Separating the Powers of the State Government Bodies and the Local Government Bodies: Legal Aspects”. This is important in the terms of the administrative and territorial reform of Ukraine.
“The graduate students of group 1mDS tried themselves in the role of speakers on the training class in Law in Public Administration. Oxford-style debates are a great training for public speech. The participants learn the basics of speech composition, technique and appropriate use of non-verbal communication. Good preparation for the debate is very important, so this method can be used by participants to receive knowledge on certain topics,” the moderator of the class, PhD in Public Administration, Associate Professor of the Department of Public Administration and Law Inna Kulchii commented.
The principles of the debates are based on the traditions of the British House of Commons. The most important point of the debates is to divide the participants into two teams. They are called according to the side the participants take in the debate, which is either “for” the suggestion or “against” it. The methods includes dividing participants into “the main speakers” and “the audience”. The role of “the audience”, which can be very active, is rather limited.
The online training consisted of four following stages:
- the 1st stage covered the principles of holding the debates, and an entrance training;
- the 2nd stage covered determining the main speakers of the debates, and the preparation for the speech;
- the 3rd stage covered the debates themselves;
- the 4th stage was dedicated to drawing the conclusion.
The advantages of such a method of teaching include that the debate gives the possibility to show the pros and cons of a certain suggestion in an interesting way, motivating the participants to study the topic deeper while preparing for the debate.
“The participants of the event defended their positions confidently, provided examples, reflecting on the further process in this field. We are thankful to our students for constant motivation, aspiration to knowledge for realizing important reforms for our country and our community!” Inna Kulchii said.
Media Center of
National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”
