EU Council Debate Training for Teachers Program

Program Overview:

Newly begun in April 2023, this program will run once each academic year for secondary school teachers in Virginia and is intended to compliment the EU Council Debate for Secondary School students by training additional teachers across the state of Virginia on how to run and be involved in the EU Debate Program. It involves a hybrid one-day training event held both at CEUTTSS at Virginia Tech, and synchronously on Zoom with teachers online. The morning of the training consists of an introduction to the EU Council’s role and importance, followed by an overview of the Secondary School Debate program at CEUTTSS. An introduction to the sample debate topic will be given before participants select an EU Member-State to represent and time is given over lunch to prepare an initial position. The afternoon then consists of a structured modelling of how an EU Council debate would look like for their students, with teachers representing their respective positions, followed by a sample vote.

Program Outcomes:

The goal of the program is provide teachers with the knowledge and tools to run a small EU Council debate in their schools with their students, but also to prepare them with the knowledge necessary to join one of our regional Secondary School EU Debate events and fully participate in a CEUTTSS run debate. Therefore the goals of this program are initially for teachers for develop an awareness of the EU Council and current issues in the EU, but ultimately for them to pass that knowledge on to their students.