Can 100 Students Debate One Another? Adapting the Nuclear Proliferation Debate for a Large Lecture Class

Abstract

Often professors teaching in large lecture halls are often unwillingly cast into the role of sage on the stage. This article takes an active learning seminar teaching method – the structured classroom debate – and adapts it to a large lecture hall class. Beyond describing how we conducted a simultaneous lecture hallsized debate, we offer evidence that debate participants displayed improved recall of the facts and positions in the scholarly debate about the danger of nuclear proliferation. We also review the debate notes to explore how students held or shifted positions during the large classroom debate. With thoughtful updates and alterations, other active learning techniques can and should be brought out of the seminar room and into the lecture hall.