BSPU Debates: Spring Season Continues!

Somewhere in March (and when else) we announced the spring season of thematic games, and now, in mid-May, we have something to talk about!

Such seasons of ours are a great opportunity to expand the debates to other (all) departments and faculties of the university. After all, everyone should hear about the debates!

So, our topics this spring, which we would like to talk about:

• “Is the modern education system ready to work with children with ASD?”
• “A master teacher is better than a blogger teacher” (as part of the 2026 Science Festival at BSPU).

And they responded, comprehensively supported this idea, contributed to these wonderful events, made it possible:

• Department of Applied Psychology and Speech Therapy of the Faculty of Preschool, Special and Social Education;
• Department of Vocational Education and Technologies of the Faculty of Physics, Mathematics, Computer and Technological Education.

We are infinitely grateful to our esteemed speakers for their desire, opportunity, and courage not only to try, but also to implement something new for themselves – debates!

And how it was: of course, we started with informational meetings for each group that planned to join the game. We tried to “cram in and out” – to tell as much as possible about such a cool thing as debates in one meeting. Although, for this, perhaps, something more than 2 hours is needed.

However, these were very active lectures: interactives, questions, “rehearsed” debate situations. Feedback here is extremely valuable for both the organizers and future speakers.

Clarification, coordination, team preparation – and finally, we gathered in Zoom, we have, as always, a super interesting topic, our Popper and new formats, a wide audience of viewers, for which we are incredibly grateful to our speakers and their curators!

By the way, thanks to our game with the graduates of the Department of Applied Psychology and Speech Therapy, we now have our own recording-example of a game in the Oxford debate format!

This game was dedicated to the World Autism Awareness Day. We talked about how ready modern education is to work with children with special needs. A topical topic, strong arguments, professional judging, and lively discussion made this event unforgettable!

And now, more precisely on Friday, May 15, we had another unforgettable event: a game of the graduates of the Department of Vocational Education and Technologies of the Faculty of Physics, Mathematics, Computer and Technological Education. As part of the Days of Science, they decided who Ukrainian education is for today: for a master teacher or for a teacher-blogger.

Here is our beloved Popper, and good friends, and strong cases, and a discussion of the game, which lasted twice as long as the debates themselves … Our discussions after the game are real meta-debates! We always try to choose topics that would bring together both the audience and the speakers.

So these events, which are now being discussed, were played by those who are not indifferent to them – those who are pursuing a specialty in the topic, practitioners, and educators. And, although debaters should be almost indifferent to what topic to play, it is this indifference that makes the games and discussions after them such that they detain the audience on Friday evening and keep their attention.

And then – even more interesting events! We have announced a debate training for all who are interested: on Thursday, May 21, our guest will be Lyubov Taukenova – the head of the debate club of the after-school institution “Palace of Children and Youth” of the Berdyansk City Council. We will hear more about Karl Popper’s format, about the new German format for us, and see the demonstration game of the PDM club members in it. To participate in this event, please register https://forms.gle/j5YnKhb3McK4bzD79 . Of course, we will provide the link as usual, but we would like to see the number of willing and interested people.

And next Friday, new topics, lively discussions, and new arguments await us! We are infinitely grateful to everyone who makes the debates possible: speakers, spectators, timekeepers, judges, curators and to the leader, the punctual timekeeper, the judge of our club, Yulia Melnikova!

We do not say “come back”, we say “stay”!

P.S. Very soon, participants in our events will receive certificates signed by the dean of the Faculty of Social and Humanities, which will be useful for the social rating, for the resume, for admission, and for everything beautiful!

See you!

Daria Kizilova