Beyond Algorithmic Leadership:

The Significance of Speech & Debate for

Learning Assessment
and Skill Cultivation in the AI World

Stefan Bauschard
Dr. Alan Coverstone
Dr. Anand Rao
Sebastian Rao
Dr. Anand Rao Sebastian Rao
Sebastian Rao is a senior in
Dr. Anand Rao is a Professor of Communication and
the Commonwealth Governor’s School, a STEM magnet
Department Chair at the University of Mary
program in Virginia. Sebastian has studied the use of AI by
Washington. He started integrating AI applications into
students and high school debaters, presenting at
his courses in the spring and is currently teaching a
the AIxEducation Conference in August, working as an
digital studies course on Generative AI. He is a co-
AI instructor for the Richmond Debate Institute in the
editor and contributor to the March 2023 book
summer of 2023 and DebateUS in the spring,
“Chat(GPT): Navigating the Impact of Generative AI
and contributing to the March 2023 book
Technologies on Educational Theory and Practice,”
“Chat(GPT): Navigating the Impact of Generative
and is a frequent invited speaker on the impact of
AI Technologies on Educational Theory and Practice.”
generative AI on education
He is co-founder of his
school’s chapter of the
With Stefan Bauschard, he has
International Youth
co-developed an online AI
Neuroscience
literacy course for students in
Association, serves as
grades 6-12. the President of various
student activity
chapters, and is a
nationally ranked high
school debater.
 Dr. Alan Coverstone
Stefan Bauschard Alan Coverstone is an educator, leader, and consultant who has
Stefan Bauschard is the co-editor of ChatGPT: Navigating the
worked for over 30 years to advance educational equity and
Impact of Generative AI Technologies on Educational Theory and catalyze change in K12 and higher education through
Practice. He has been actively involved in issues related to professional roles in educator preparation, charter school
generative artificial intelligence and hosted one of the first innovation, grantmaking, and school improvement. Alan
webinars on AI and education. He has spoken about AI at partners with educational communities to drive practical and
conferences in the US (AIxEducation; NDCA) and in the U.K meaningful outcomes with students of color and those
(Cottesmore) about understanding AI, trends in AI experiencing poverty. Alan seeds intentional, transformational
development and change efforts by building trusting relationships and placing
impending educational disruptions. wrote with AI those most connected to the outcomes at the center of decision-
making.
in 6 minutes. He has co-taught an online course
for educational leaders Prior to launching Covariant Education
and is working on training programs where he is now Principal Consultant,
for the Orange Alan served as a Senior Program Officer
County Department of Education and at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in
the Santa Anna Unified multiple faculty and program leadership
School District.
roles in the College of Education at
Stefanbauschard.substack.com Belmont University, as an innovation
leader for Metropolitan Nashville Public
Schools, and as a school board member.
 Beyond Algorithmic Leadership:
The Significance of Speech & Debate for
Learning Assessment
and Skill Cultivation in the AI World

How it Can
Challenges Competitive How it Can Be Model for the
Overcome
Facing Academic Used in the Future of
Education's
Education Debate Classroom Instruction
Challenges
Challenges Facing
Education
1. Radical Technological Change

Challenges
in Education
1T-5T Parameters
Emergent
Properties
▪ OpenAI is not going out of business

▪ Trend is toward overall progress

▪ LLMs will improve and there will be new models

▪ AI will make its way into applications

▪ Trained on particular data

2. Technological Change Demands A Skills Focus
Durable/Soft Skills
 Content Can Be Good

History and literature bind us

Challenges in Expository writing helps us communicate with bots
Education
Biology and Chemistry critical to understanding
the synthetic world

Math is the foundation of computational reality and

computer science

Knowledge is fundamental to critical thinking and

communication
3. Licensing Boards Demand Content, benefits to content

Challenges in Education
 4. Student use of generative AI is widespread

Dilemmas of
Detecting Owen Kichizo Terry

Output

Bauschard, Coverstone, Rao, Rao Kevin Roose

 ▪ Chat GPT 3.5 and 4 (not internet "connected")
▪ Bing (Microsoft Suite)
▪ Bing Browser (Internet connected)
▪ Bard (Google Docs)
▪ Claude
▪ Pi
▪ Canva
▪ Snap Chat
AI Is ▪ You.com (ChatGPT 4 + Stability.ai)
Everywhere ▪ Perplexity.ai (4 + Claude); internet connected
▪ WhatsAPP
▪ Llama (API mostly)
▪ Debateai.org
▪ Hyperwrite, getconch.ai
▪ Jasper.ai

▪ 100K-300K places
 The School Paper is in Trouble

AI Writing Detectors are Done (TKO) – false positives;

false negatives; easily perturbed output; can be trained to
write in your voice; perplexity and burstiness can be
included; kids can include spelling & grammar errors;
percentage score

Challenges in
Educaton
 OpenAI.com (Founder, ChatGPT)

Challenges in
Educaton
 The School Paper is in Trouble

Much of what English teachers have been expected to do for

decades—make students write essays—is no longer useful.
Goodbye and good riddance. -- Daniel Herman is a high-school
teacher at Maybeck High School in Berkeley, California, and a faculty
associate at Bard College's Institute for Writing and Thinking.
Challenges in
Educaton
 In-Class Writing is Not the Answer

Challenges
in Education
 Challenges
in Education
 Challenges in Education

▪ 4. Students need to learn how to use AI tools properly...AI

hallucinates....
5. Teachers are not ready to teach
with AI

Challenges in Educaton
5. Teachers are Unprepared
▪ 6. There is a teacher shortage

Challenges in Education
Challenges in Educaton
7. Students are disengaged
▪ 8. Scores are declining

Challenges in Education
 Challenges in Education

▪ 9. Solutions Must Be Tech+, Not Tech Replacement

We Need Practical
Solutions
 What are practical solutions?

Implemented immediately
Affordable
Easy to understand
Challenges in Relatable to teachers
Scale-up
Educaton Look toward the Future
Integrate Technology Over Time
Academic Debate
 What is Debate?

Starts with argument

- Claim
- Evidence
- Reason to connect to the claim
Competitive
Interactive/Dialogic
Academic Debate
 What is Competitive Academic Debate?

Competition
Students debate a topic
Preparation is iterative
Students debate at tournaments, Competition is
Competitive iterative
Students compete on 2+ person teams that are part
Academic Debate of larger squads
 What is the Basic Structure of a Debate?

(1) Initial constructive speeches (pre-prepared;

largely pre-prepared)

(2) Rebuttals (advanced preparation, "thinking on

one's feet," applied preparation)
Competitive
(3) Summary/Secondary rebuttals (depending on
Academic Debate event) (More spontaneous, making argument
choices, focusing on essential themes and issues

(4) Final Focus/Final Rebuttals (mostly spontaneous,

involves lots of argument comparison, final choices
are made

(5) Questioning periods throughout the debate –

thinking ahead, relevant questions, follow-up
questions
Academic Debate
Overcomes Challenges
Academic Debate
Promotes Skills
Critical Thinking
Critical stance and rigorous testing essential to
maintain human control of machines
Critical thinking can be taught (skills and practice)
Challenges:
• Simplified heuristics (ideology)
• Communication enclaves
• Problem of transfer
Debate addresses all three
Engaging to students as well
 Delivery

Listening
Communication
Confidence
 Shared ideas
Peer and coach research
Peer and coach feedback
Peer and coach instruction
Practice
Iterative development
Working Together

Collaboration
 Expression of ideas

Novel arguments
Creativity
Combining ideas
 Resilience
Empathy
Additional Skills Managing emotions
Open mind
Shared moral understandings
Leadership
Human interaction
Academic Debate
Content Learning
Academic Debate
Solves "Cheating"
 Engagement

Learn by teaching material

How Does Debate
Promote Content Transfer is best facilitated by understanding
Learning? Concrete, relatable examples

Individualized feedback promotes

Practice promotes

Class....Did anyone do the readings?

Did anyone read page 2?

 No limit to use of AI tools; responsible for the content

Demonstrate content knowledge in debates

How does it resolve AIs facilitate improvements in writing and

expression
cheating?
Academic Debate
Technology Engagement
 Encourage use to maximize preparation
How does it
promote (AI)
technology Promotes individual skill development
engagement?
Moving to the
Classroom
Academic Debate
An Easy Transition
 Fund it out of PD budget and by turning things off

Teachers know the basics

* Argumentation part of the curriculum
* PBL and Flipped Classroom

Why is this easy? AI is an Assistant

 Puts TAs in every classroom

Individualizes instruction
How does it help
manage teacher
shortages?
The Flipped Classroom
 How does Debate
Flip the Classroom?
Debate in the
Classroom
 Essential elements of debate:

Leveraging Debate's Structured Question

Essential Elements
A Structured Format

Time to Prepare/advanced shared preparation

Structured rules and expectations

Feedback

Switch sides and repeat

 Integrated application across K-12

Backward design

Elementary/MS Scaffold skills in context

Craft questions that can be debated when standards

are mastered

Examples
PBL but 2-way and incisive feedback
Turn and talk/pair-share
Scaffold skills across topics; backward design
High School
 Debate on the Enlightenment and the US Constitution

Create a basic format

Divide the Class in half

Put students on teams of 2-3

High School
Use ChatGPT to Help

High School

https://chat.openai.com/share/9442a06
8-68ef-4b35-af3a-652784651f56
University
Model for the Future
Classroom
Sebastian Rao
Competition vs. Collaboration

Competitive Views of Education

Collaboration in Competitive
Circles

The Haverford School - “Igniting the spark with Socratic seminars”

 Flipped Classroom Continuity

Class work with student-student-bot collaboration

▪ 'GAI as Tutor' Role
▪ Continuity between in and out of class

Khan Academy
 Incentivizing
Collaboration
Competitive ends to
education vs. The student
stake

In-class debates and

questioning.

Richmond Debate Institute - Summer 2023

 Bringing it Together and Implementation

▪ Integrating instruction
Bot-as-coach model of instruction, with debate
instruction
Encouraging Collaboration in the learning process
Teaching instruction

DebateUS Spring AI Webinar

Conclusion
 Education facing many challenges

AI magnifies those challenges

We need practical, understandable, and stable

solutions

We need solutions that integrate new

technologies and scale over time

Integration of debate grows over time

Final Thoughts
We need to focus on classroom ideas that
scale toward the future