Debate mentor training report from Kranjska Gora, Slovenia

The training program was designed for classroom teachers, debate coaches, youth workers, and volunteers stepping into leadership roles for the first time. The primary objective was to strengthen the participant's coaching, adjudication, and classroom debate skills in order to foster critical thinking and active citizenship within their local communities.

We designed the curriculum so that it balanced foundational theory with modern educational challenges and intense practical application. The first two days focused on debate fundamentals, such as constructing claims, evidence, and reasoning. Mid-week sessions transitioned into program management, exploring formative and summative assessment techniques alongside strategies for navigating controversial topics, media literacy, and the implications of AI in the classroom. The final phase shifted toward advanced adjudication, where educators analysed subtle argument clashes and engaged in peer coaching to build constructive evaluation guidelines. To ensure immediate skill integration, the schedule featured five dedicated judging practice sessions, culminating in the educators actively judging the live student-track with support and guidance of experienced debate trainers, providing a direct job-shadowing opportunity.