The Debate Manual

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One of Spaces outcomes was the Debate Manual of Basement, which includes the most important indicators for the activity. The manual is an outcome of two year of work with NED with spaces project and also with 8 years with unfinanced debates that happens at Basement from time to time.

Debate Manaual Link (Arabic Edition)

The manual includes detailed instructions of how Basement’s debates are managed. The details are the following:

General Introduction;

Definition of debates;

Types of debates;

Goals of Debates; and

Modules of Debates.

Debate Basics;

Thesis;

Contents;

Methods of Posit; and

Strategy.

Basement and Mechanisms of Debating;

Criteria of Selection;

Public Open Calls;

Selecting Participants;

Debate Skills Trainings;

Implement Workshops on Researching Methods;

Sketches and Articles; and

The Public Event.

The booklet was supervised by Mr. Abdul-Salam Al-Shuraihi a well-known broadcaster and a debate facilitator which helped the extract the full Basement experiences on debates to make it a standardized and written to help interested people of using such methods to organize their debates in Yemen or elsewhere.

Evaluation of Progress-Spaces Project

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The progress is measured by the people’s feedback (attendees and participants). The methodology is helping to involve people much more in order to enhance democratic values and also to develop the quality of the project. Selected debaters (16 trainee and eight debaters) are selected to give Spaces their feedback to understand what to develop for training and topics. Along with this evaluation, some of audience (20 out 120) gave their  

Importance of Topic: with people’s vote basement notes that many are with selected theses but some are considering it not of importance:

1

 

Key findings:

  • Importance of topic can be identified by several factors, how much is the topic controversial, and how much people are interested in it; and
  • Involving people on topic will help to aim democracy, the main aspect of the donors.

 Debate preparations: 

2

Key finding:

  • Positive audience feedback helps to standardize the preparations.

Debaters Performances:

3

Key findings:

  • Feedbacks indicates of how effective training and rehearsals on performance by a third party “Audience.”

Facilitator Performance:

4

Key finding:

  • According to the audience feedback the facilitator is rated as “very good”, some of audiences consider her as average based on her “rough style” and some for not holding one place when she speeches. Otherwise, rating is convenient compared to the first experience in facilitating; and this gives good lessons in order to achieve perfect training of facilitators.

Evaluation of Materials

Debating Skills (general)

Pre-training:& Post-training (samples):

5

6

Key finding:

  • Feedbacks of participants are noting enormous improvement in debating skills even among those who has mentioned they previously had a similar training. 62.5% of participants had no previous experiences while 37.5% others had the experience. The final questionnaires are recording 87.5% progress. This optimistic record is giving high expectations of the final evaluation.

7

8

Key findings:

  • 62.5% of the participants are evaluating trainer as perfect while 31% evaluate trainer as good and 6.5% are rating her as average.
  • Major change in speech skills has been tracked; improvement is tracked by trainees 14 of 16 confirm the improvement while 2 persons see no differences.

  • Researching Methods:

    Pre-training & post-training results:

  • 9
  • 10

Key findings:

  • Improvement and previous experiences have same value; it indicates the significance that materials gave to the training; improving trainees’ knowledge in research methods.

  • Entrusted websites (Pre & Post-training):

  • 11

  • 12

  • Key findings:

    • Eminent change could be tracked in entrusted website (applied in the last debate). This emphasizes the importance of subject.

    How applicable these skills are in daily life:

  • 13

  • Key findings:

    • According to participants’ feedback after the debate, many indicate that research methods were used to collect data for the debate.

  • Over all Evaluations (research methods):

14

 

Key finding:

– Materials are helping participants in the daily life, as they confirm 13 from 16 of last session’s trainee are confirming these findings, other three see this as nihilo in daily life aspects.

– Evaluation of the Material and trainer are considered high compared being first used by the foundation. Still the percentage is lower than the debate skills trainings.

 

The Participants’ Evaluation

The event preparations, rehearsals and debate mechanism (8 out of 8):

16

 

17

18

 

Key findings:

  • Some debate mechanisms need minor changes based on some of the inconveniences by some participants;
  • More focus should be on some details of the preparation; and
  • Rehearsals are helping both team to comprehend how to face the audience and how to commit to rules.

Material used by other Basement projects:

Many Materials of Spaces were used to enrich discussion of participants in the “Alternative Visions” project, supported by the Prince Claus Fond, Generation Gap, University Degree and Arts: Priority or Luxury were all selected by the Alternative Vision project participants hence materials were used to reach a new point instead of repeating same discussions.

Participants Feedback:

“A new experience, I have discovered my talents in debating and I have met people made of gold, and I have no problem with participating for another new experiences.“ – One of the participants answers on the questionnaire question of Debate’s impact.

 

Unpredicted Outcomes:

  • 10% of the participants have been engaged in other debate events all of these six participants were without any previous expertise on debates.
  • 5% are from the teenager age category while the other 5% are considered as college graduates.
  • Many of the participants in other activity, e.g. Prince Claus Fond project with Basement “Alternative Visions.”

Challenges:

  • Crowded hall when debate is held;
  • Enthusiasm of participants makes them less committed with debates rules; and
  • Some debate mechanisms need minor revising.

Recommendations:

  • To add more applicable exercises in next any training;
  • More involvement of audience in order to choose future topics;
  • Enhancing funds of debates project to create sustainable basis for it; Debates will help in reforming laws and legislation in post-war period; and
  • Ideas of how to make debate interacts with arts are much recommended; for these ideas make debates much comprehended.

Training on Facilitate Debates

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Due the shortage of people who are specialized in organizing a public debate, Basement have conducted a suggestion of doing a training of facilitators for public debates which give respect for the followed instruction in order to represent the debate well.

Basemant Cultural Foundation organized a training course in the field of facilitation of debates held on Monday and Tuesday 16-17 July 2018, provided by trainer Jihad Babrik. And was attended by ten trainees (Gender-Balanced) selected through forms of participation announced by Basement earlier through its website and social networking pages. On the first day of the course, trainees were introduced to the meaning and benefits of debates, their types and models, the theoretical bases for facilitating and managing debates, the environments in which they are held, the basis of the debate, its mechanism, its components, its laws and how to calculate the outcome of debates.Basement has presented five previous debates on various topics in the fields of culture, art and social issues. The course provided the trainees with the basics they should know about conducting debates, and dealt with the skills and conditions that should be available in the facilitator, and the powers s/he has. On the second day of the training, a video of the participants was presented with the skills of the interview, and the trainees were given practical training to facilitate the debates, where the participants conducted a virtual debate in which they applied what they had learned.

Two of them were selected to facilitate two Spaces debates, which are the third and the last topics.

 

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Training in Debate Skills for Youth

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On Monday and Tuesday, February 19-20, 2018, Basement organized a training workshop within the Spaces project, in which debates will discuss various issues of interest to the community.The training workshop targeted school students, and participants were selected through participation forms based on their interest in the field of debate, and their participation In debates in schools.

The workshop was attended by 18 participants (8 girls, 10 boys) between the ages of 15 and 20, and exceeded the number that Basemant had previously announced (6 trainees), to train 18 participants to benefit the largest number of target group wishing to acquire this Six of them will be selected to participate in the Basement Cultural Foundation debate in March. Basement has strived to balance the number of male and female participants and has trained them: Jihad Babrik and Shaima Gamal. The training dealt with several axes, the most prominent of which was to provide a general background on the debate (definition, types, benefits, models), and the trainers then touched on the method of debate, and the art of speech, which included the presentation of models of influential speeches throughout history, and discussed the participants on the difficulties that may confuse them During their speeches as stage fright, the uproar that the audience might make, the lack of information. The trainers provided them with assistive techniques to overcome these difficulties. They were applied in the practical exercises that took the most part in the workshop, and the participants were practically trained in preparing the content of the debates (thesis, argument, refutation).

On the second day of the course, the trainers Jihad Babrik and Shaima Gamal completed the course in the field of debate, where the practical application of what the participants learned, and the embodiment of a virtual debate. Shaimaa Gamal presented the participants with the different types of debates and the difference between them, the mechanism of conducting the debate, the distribution of roles between the team, the role of each speaker, the importance of the public and its role in measuring the reaction and the ability of the participants to convince. Shaima pointed out that the method of debate currently followed by the Foundation is the British method, which opens the door for interventions and the right of objection during the talk, and does not adhere to a specific time.

Shaima stressed during the training that the importance of the debate is not to win the majority of the public vote, but to gain participants confidence and the ability to present arguments and persuasion, as the debate as it gives the speaker the ability to intellectual criticism, and gain a lot of skills in his public life. The participants then presented practical debate in which they talked about issues of interest to them, which were commented by the trainers Jihad and Shaima, and gave the participants feedback for improvement in performance and presentation of data.

The researcher and trainer, Mr. Tawfiq al-Jund, participated in a quick intervention in which he spoke to the participants, advising them to put themselves in the other party’s place during the debate. He also advised them to always seek the truth in their lives and reflect on the facts of life. In the last part of the course, participants were given time to prepare for a full-fledged debate based on the information and observations provided to them on the training days, and were distributed in teams supporting and opposing the three selected issues: (Should women have a greater role in society versus men ?, Should young people be given the right to vote? Is education in private schools more efficient than public schools?). The participants proved that despite their young age their ability to talk and persuade and refute arguments, and to inform them of a lot of information and facts, and benefit from what they learned in this session.

Basement will organize a debate next month to bring together the selected youth.

 

“?Debate on “Positive discrimination for women, with or against

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On 23 August 2017 Basement selected 8 out of 21 participants where the selected process was very difficult for Basement team. The selection has been made on several axes:

 

1.    Serious participation and enthusiasm during training.

2.    Method of building arguments.

3.    Good speech.

4.    Good attendance.

Participants who were chosen:

Group who support  the dissertation:

1- Aisha Jarallah, 28 years old, graduate of the Faculty of Commerce – Sana’a University.

2 – Yasmine Al-Sayyad,  graduate of the Department of English Languages and holds an international and administrative development masters.

3. Haifa Ahmed, age 26, graduate of the Oral and Dental Surgery Department at Sana’a University. She works as a dentist.

4 – Shaimaa Hassan, 22 years old, medical student, member of the Takaful campaign.

Group who opposes the dissertation:

1. Nusseibeh al-Makhlafi, 21 years old, a nutritionist and dietitian, active in civil society organizations.

2 – Rana Abdullah, 25 years old, graduate of accounting – University of Sana’a, interested in community work.

3- Samira Al-Zahri, has diploma in family and psychological guidance, she has several courses in the field of human rights and women in particular.

4- Iman al-Ghamiri, 27, graduate of oral and dental medicine, currently works in the private sector as a dentist.

On Saturday, 26 August 2017, the Basement organized a public debate on the subject of “Positive discrimination for women, with or against?” The debate gathered 8 participants discussed about the dissertation. Hisham Al-Asbahi was the moderator of the debate. More than 160 people attended the event. 

 

 

 

 

 

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