Stakeholders 3 — Mock debate

In this lesson plan, students assume the roles of various stakeholders and provide input on contentious events or polarising news stories.

The exercise enables them to become more comfortable identifying the arguments underpinning specific stances towards contested social issues and public speaking without having to master the key elements of formal debating.

Lesson goals

Critical thinking
Presentation skills
Public speaking

Activities

Exercise (30 minutes) - Groups

Groups have a discussion (a mock debate) on a contested topic, assuming the role of a specific stakeholder.

Aim: the students practice argumentation and presentation skills while learning how to discern the point of view of different stakeholders.

Discussion (15 minutes) - Class

The teacher and the students briefly discuss the game.

Aim: the students reflect on the activity.

Keywords

Bias Critical thinking Debate Game Journalism Stakeholders

Pedagogical tips and recommendations

The topic(s) you choose will determine this exercise's complexity level.
You can assign the same topic to all groups, or prepare a different topic for each group. In all cases, it is important for the topic to be debatable - that is, open to discussion, with relevant points of view on different sides of the discussion.
The students should have general knowledge about the topic to engage in this exercise.

Theme: Journalism
Lesson duration: 45 minutes
Level: Introductory
Main method of instruction: Theory & Exercise
Materials: Pen and paper, Computer/phone access, Newspapers
Prep time for teacher

Exercise (30 minutes)

The topics

Divide the class into groups (up to 8 participants per group). Assign the same topic to each team or prepare different topics for each of the teams. It is important that these topics are debatable - that is, open to discussion, with relevant points of view on different sides of the discussion. The topic can be related to something you are learning in class, and/or a polarising news story, for example, about a public policy different groups of people have different views on. The students should have some general knowledge about the topic to engage in this exercise.

Essentially, our topics in this exercise mirror debate motions - statements or propositions that serve as the topics for debates. Each student will get a specific role signifying a different view on our topic (or debate motion). If you need help finding a debatable topic, you can use Motionbase, a free digital tool for browsing debate motions.

The roles

That the topic is debatable means there are multiple positions to take. In a formal debate, teams have to either support or oppose a debate motion. In this exercise (and in real life), there are varying degrees of support and opposition to a specific issue, and different stakeholders take a stance related to their relationship to the issue.

After you announce the topic(s), have your students draw from a bowl with slips of paper listing different roles. While discussion the topic in their group, the students should advocate for the position they believe is in line with the role they were assigned.

You can situate the discussion in your local community, or imagine its held on a national or international level. The roles should relect this context. You can find some examples of topics or debate motions below, complete with a breakdown of the roles that could be assigned to students:

Topic: The government should strongly support vegan/animal-free agriculture and stop supporting livestock farming.

Roles: representative of the Cattle Farmer Association, representative for the Ministry of Agriculture, lobbyist for the largest national cheese producer, citizen 1, citizen 2, vegan activist, head of the Organic Food United NGO, moderator

Topic: Our city should ban peer-to-peer rental services such as Airbnb.

Roles: mayor, city Tourist Board representative, hotel owner, representative of the Tourist Accommodation Association, person renting 3 Airbnb apartments, citizen 1, 2, moderator

Topic: European Union member states should strive to increase nuclear energy production.

Roles: solar power plant lobbyist, the energy minister of France (has 56 operating nuclear reactors), the energy minister of Germany (shut down nuclear power production in April 2023), the energy minister of [your country], the president of the European Commission, the leading nuclear physicist in the EU, the representative for the EU-wide network of citizen activists against nuclear waste, moderator

The exercise

Explain the exercise, divide the class into groups, assign the topic or topics, and have students draw paper slips with their roles. They are not supposed to choose their role - rather, the roles should be assigned randomly. Once the students are divided into groups and each student was assigned their role, rearrange the classroom if possible so that every group has their own “round table” area or chair circle. This should not take more than 10 minutes.

Instruct the moderators to start the discussion by inviting one of the group members to speak to the rest of the group. The moderators should make sure that everyone gets to participate and interrupt if one person is dominating the discussion and taking too long of a time to express their views. The discussion time is 15 minutes - periodically remind the class how much time they have left. Then, give them an extra 5 minutes to try to reach a decision on the discussion topic.

Discussion (15 minutes)