Scope and new tools for the
development of debating skills
SCALE Research and Development Program
A general overview of the SCALE project
The name of the research programme
The research programme is called SCALE, with the symbolic meaning
that opinions of both opposite sides are measured.
SCALE is an acronym word, from the English name (Internet-based
Intelligent Tool to Support Collaborative Argumentation-based LEarning in
secondary schools).
The objective of the research is to develop an internet-based tool to
promote the development of the debating skills of 16-18 years old
secondary school students, as well as the process of argumentation-based
learning.
A general overview of the SCALE project
What is the SCALE?
SCALE is a research project covering six countries, supported by the European
Union.
Participants: United Kingdom, France, The Netherlands, Finland, Portugal and
Hungary.
The objective of the research: to develop an internet-based tool to promote the
development of the debating skills of 16-18 years old secondary school students, as
well as the process of argumentation-based learning
The coordinator of the programme: London based Royal Holloway University
Hungarian participant: Számalk Education Ltd. and its. Specialized secondary
school
The software developed in the framework of the programme will be available free of
charge for all secondary schools with access to the Internet.
Why is it a good idea to participate in this project?
The school becomes involved in wide-ranging international research
expected to affect secondary school education all over Europe.
An opportunity opens for establishing contacts between participating
schools.
The schools will be the first to use, free of charge, software to develop
debating skills which applies new technologies, offers a new learning
method, which is independent from specific subjects.
It supports the development and application of skills emphasised in
NAT (National Curriculum) and in the frame curricula:
Critical approach
Well-founded expression of opinions
Acquisition and application of the different argumentation
techniques.
General informations
Web addresses
The pedagogical Web site of the project: http://www.euroscale.net/
The home page of the project – used by the team - , that is the Scale
Workgroup Centre: http://www.scale.szamalk.hu
Access to Hungarian-language information and documents relating to
the project:
http://www.scale.szamalk.hu/SCALE/Public/UK/results/Annexes.asp
The experts of the project I.
Team leaders
Saeedi Masoud – project coordinator: Management School, Royal
Holloway, University of London
Michael Baker – Lyon University Team
Jerry Andriessen – Utrecht University Team
Miika Marttunen – Jyvaskyla University Team
Antonio Moreira – Universidade de Aveiro
Annie Corbel-Bourgeat – Ecole Nationale Superieure
des Mines de St. Etienne
Nyisztor József – SZÁMALK Oktatási Rt., Továbbképzés Igazgatóság
The experts of the project II.
The participants of the Hungarian project
Dr. László Komáromi: the head of the Marketing and Quality Assurance Office
of the SZÁMALK Rt.’s Education and Consulting Centre: the coordination and
monitoring of the educational development projects realised in consortia of
international and local participants
József Nyisztor: the SCALE Project Manager, the head of the Vocational
Training Directorate in SZÁMALK’s Educational and Consulting Centre and the
manager of the IT subproject.
Dr. László Várallyai: external consultant in web development
Informatics
implementers.
workgroup:
developers,
system-administrators,
supporters,
The experts of the project III.
The participants of the Hungarian project (continuous)
The members of the researchers / teachers workgroup: the testers of
the project, the responsible persons and groups for the pedagogical and
methodology research:
Dr. Sediviné Balassa Ildikó: director of the SZÁMALK Vocational Training
Directorate and of the Specialized Secondary School, team leader of the methodology
group.
Hunya Márta: secondary school teacher, pedagogical consultant, international debate
trainer, methodology adviser
Tokaji Ildikó: the Training Director of the SZÁMALK School of Economic Studies,
educational researcher,education management, methodology of research
Albert Gábor: methodology specialist,experimental teaching, analytical work
Fazekas Katalin: chief Language Teacher of SZÁMALK Specialized Secondary
School, methodology worker
Pölöskeiné Hegedűs Helén: coordinator of the information systems segment at the
SZÁMALK Specialized Secondary School: testing and researching worker.
The tasks of SZÁMALK in the SCALE project
SZÁMALK has IT (WEB development) and educational methodology
tasks in this project.
Develops and maintains EUROSCALE, the official website of
SCALE. (http:/www.euroscale.net.)
Provides and maintains the server of DREW software, which
provides assistance in argumentation, and cooperate with the
international partners in dissemination.
Testing, documenting and launches the prepared software items
on the pedagogical website.
Documents and evaluates the pedagogical-methodological
researches connected to the project, and the testing of the website.
Documents and evaluates the other required activities of the
project.
The EUROSCALE website
The Euroscale is the public website of the project
It has to publish the together developed internet-based
debating skills developing tool
Provides assistance for all interested students and
teachers to join the program
Provides information about the phases of the project for
the experts of the EU
Provides possibility to download the neccessary
software
Provides interactive surface for the communication
between the partners and participants.
DREW
The DREW is a software to develop the argumentation techniques and
debating skills of the students.
It is available through the web
Provides chat rooms word processing surfaces, and the grapher
Stimulate learning based on collaboration and argumentation
The software provides a follow-up to the teachers and to the students on the
quality and the weight of the arguments used
It allows the dialogues to be shown by grapher tool
Provides assistance for the learning of the argumentation method, in the
formulation of relevant information, its use its transformation and evaluation
Develops a critical approach and teaches how to view things from different
viewpoints.
A DREW funkciói
Methodological tasks of the SCALE project
I.
The school and the students
Making experiments in the SZÁMALK Specialized Secondary School
(600 students and the same number of people studying in evening courses
and remote learning)
Teams of 13 and 12 members
22 people of control group (the students of the experimental and the
control groups are 18-19 years old girls and boys)
Experiments in the Puskás Tivadar Telecommunications Technicum too.
(53 students, 17-19 years old boys)
Methodological tasks of the SCALE project
II.
Analysis of Hungarian educational documents
The National Curriculum and the argumentation method
The frame curricula and the argumentation method
The planning of the experiment, development of the curriculum
Motivation  Individual data collection Argumentation in pairs 
Analysis in pairs  Indidvidual confirmation  Summary (frontal)
Technical preparation
Preparing the researches of the project; computer technique background;
rhythming resources; working out the methodologies
What next?
Cooperating with the national and international partners and organizations:
The SCALE Project: Development, testing and propagation of software to improve and
evaluate argumentation skills and the process of argumentation. (Project documents)
To expand and propagate the experiment, finding new partner schools, teachers and
students.
Elaborate an in-service training program for the teachers to acquaint them with the
traditional and the software-based methods. This training program will be accredited.
Based on the experience gathered during the further experiments at the Specialised
Secondary School of SZÁMALK, as well as on the experience of other schools participating
in the programme, we will contribute to the development of the DREW software.
Completing, developing the EUROSCALE website and the IT infrastructure, continuously
testing and uploading.