Consequently, engaging in the process of critical thinking demands a thorough examination of any belief or other form of knowledge in connection with evidence supporting it and the conclusion that one could make. Another feature of critical thinking suggested by Glaser appears as an ability to recognize problems and to find possible ways of meeting and solving these problems. In addition to that, to think critically means to recognize the existence or absence of logical relationships between any propositions given, to maintain accurate and clear use of language, to interpret data, to draw conclusions and generalisations and test them, to reconstruct one's belief pattern on the basis of wider experience (Glaser, 1941).

In his famous report that set the ground for modern understanding of critical thinking in education, Facione (1990) defines it as a “purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based” (Facione, 1990). Halpern (2014) views critical thinking as “the use of those cognitive skills or strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome” and characterizes is as “purposeful, reasoned and goal directed” (Halpern, 2014, p. 8). The similar model of understanding the critical thinking was suggested by Ricketts and Rudd (2005) who described it as a “reasoned, purposive, and introspective approach to solving problems or addressing questions” (Ricketts & Rudd, 2005)

Because of its complexity the concept of critical thinking can't be limited to a narrow universal definition but, however, the general critical thinking construct consists of skills, rationality, reflective thinking, non-egocentric position and openness to alternative viewpoints (Flores, Matkin, Burbach, Quinn, & Harding, 2012, p. 216).

Critical thinking is a term uniting “a wide range of cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions needed to effectively identify, analyse and evaluate arguments and truth claims” (Bassham, Irwin, Nardone, & Wallase, 2011). A critical thinker should admit and overcome any biases and personal preconceptions. In comparison to basic mode of human thinking that may involve logical fallacies, biased statements and false conclusions, critical thinking is a disciplined way of thinking governed by intellectual standards.

Compared to the basic thought process, critical thinking belongs to the framework of high order thinking (Brookhart, 2010) which is in general more demanding and difficult in comparison to ordinary thinking that doesn't involve constant analysis and evaluation. Thus, Nguyen (2018) opposes critical thinking to the passive reception and maintenance of information by defining it as a process of debate counteracting the outcome of another thinking process and redefining the accuracy of information (Nguyen, 2018, p. 812). Consequently, voluntarism, subjectivity and imposition are strictly avoided during the critical thinking process.

The need for critical thinking skills development should be taken into consideration when teaching foreign languages in senior classes of secondary school. Though making students learn grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation remains to be the primary task of the foreign language teacher, modern lesson framework demands that educators help the students to shape their mind shape “to form individuals with a mature and critical view of the world” (Veloso, 2018, p. 3). The role of critical thinking in teaching a foreign language is manifold. According to Shirkhani & Fahim (2011), critical thinking skills development contributes to the student's ability to monitor and self-evaluate their own ways of learning, expands the learning experience of the learners and makes the language more meaningful to them and, finally, it correlates with the learner's achievements (Shirkhani & Fahim, 2011, pp. 111-115). In other words, higher level of critical thinking skills development results into higher level of learning autonomy because the students are getting used to monitor and correct their own mistakes before receiving feedback from their teacher. By developing the critical perception of their own achievements, the students learn from their mistakes and weak points, which results into higher academic performance.

Therefore, the growing need for critical thinking skills development that has recently emerged due to increasing computerization level is a relevant challenge to all educators, including the foreign language teachers in senior classes of secondary school. Belonging to the mode of high order thinking, critical thinking is a set of skills that are targeted at overcoming biases and subjectivism. The activities targeted at critical thinking skills development are currently being adopted in various disciplinary courses, and foreign languages are not an exception. By developing the ability to think critically the students enhance their learning autonomy and tend to achieve more while learning a second language.



3.2 The core critical thinking skills and dispositions

The concept of the critical thinking can be viewed as a set of skills that enable objective view at any problem. According to Facione's comprehensive model of critical thinking (2006), the core critical thinking skills include analysis, inference, interpretation, explanation, self-regulation and evaluation while seven dispositions of critical thinking are described as inquisitive, systematic, judicious, truthseeking, analytical, open-minded and confident in reasoning (Facione, 2006).

The first critical thinking skill presented in the Facione's critical thinking comprehensive model is analysis. Analytical skills enable a critical thinker to perform analysis of any problematic situation. Before a critical thinker can respond to the opponent's argument by challenging it with a counterargument, the parts of the argument and their interrelations should be identified and analysed. The analytical view of the situation is its logical, rational, unbiased perception. Thus, Arnold & Wade (2015) claim that analytical skills “include demonstration of the ability to apply logical thinking to gathering and analysing information, designing and testing solutions to problems, and formulating plans” (Arnold & Wade, 2015, p. 675). Skills of that type provide the student with an ability to visualize, articulate and solve problems on different levels of complexity.

Facione (1990) suggests a three-level model of analytical skills. Analysis is divided into three stages including the examination of ideas, detection of argument and analysing the argument (Facione, 1990). Firstly, the students are supposed to determine the role of various language expressions, define the terms and detect the problematic issues. Secondly, the argument is detected through a set of statements, descriptions or questions. On this stage the key elements and their relation to each other are identified. Finally, the arguments are analysed, the analysis is supposed to show if they support the claim. Once it's clear what the person that has provided the argument is seeking to validate or justify, the analysis is conducted to prove the validity of this exact argument.

The second critical thinking skill highlighted by Facione (1990) is inference. Inference enables the critical thinkers to draw conclusions from reasons, themes and the evidence used in argumentation. The skills of inference are the student's ability to see the logical connection between different pieces of information, the common background beneath diverse facts or statements. Kispal (2008) defines inference as “the ability to use two or more pieces of information from a text in order to arrive at a third piece of information that is implicit” (Kispal, 2008, p. 2). To provide an example, the reader's ability to perceive the cohesion of text depends on the inference skills. On the most basic level inference manifests itself as the ability to connect the personal pronouns used in oral or written text with the image of previously mentioned person. In senior classes of secondary school the skills of inference are applied in more complex tasks, such as perceiving and understanding a subtle implicit message in the interlocutor's speech that can be revealed through the choice of biased or stylistically marked vocabulary. The skills of drawing inferences and seeing the reliability of inferences drawn are essential for developing students' research skills. As far as the scientists and researchers deal with information collected from observation and experiment, they have to assess what can and cannot be inferred from the data given (Butterworth & Thwaites, 2013, p. 126).

Interpretation refers to the student's ability to detect and clarify the meanings of any message conveyed by means of language or extralinguistic (non-verbal) context. It can be viewed as the process of discovering, determining or assigning meaning. Facione (1990) defines interpretation as an ability to “comprehend and express the meaning or significance of a wide variety of experiences, situations, data, events, judgments, conventions, beliefs, rules, procedures or criteria” (Facione, 1990). Interpretation skills can be applied to any pieces of information including written and oral messages, non-verbal communication, information visually presented through maps, diagrams and charts. This skill is essential for preparing the students for being a part of modern society as far as it deals with interpreting the meaning of behaviours, social interactions, events in the given cultural context.

Explanation skills can be defined through the student's ability to give reasons for explaining why something is as it is, to offer some grounds or evidence for the current state of the problem discussed. According to Butterworth & Thwaites (2013), “explanation, like argument, involves giving reasons; but explanatory reasons do not lead to conclusions, as reasons do in arguments” (Butterworth & Thwaites, 2013, p. 137). Unlike arguments, explanations work with the information known or assumed to be true and help to obtain its detailed understanding. On the linguistic level explanation and reasoning could be expressed through such indicator words as “because”, “therefore”, “for this reason”. In oral monologues the utterance labelled with the use of these words are the most likely to contain explanations.

The evaluation skills are used for assessing credibility of any claims made. Evaluating critically means “assessing the strength of the support that the reasons, if true, give to the conclusion” (Butterworth & Thwaites, 2013, p. 190). The practical application of this skill is assessing the quality of reasoning behind the arguments provided. Critical evaluation is aimed at identification of any flaws or logical fallacies in reasoning. Moreover, evaluation skills can be applied to any product of human thinking such as opinions, beliefs, decisions and hypotheses. Critical evaluation skills enhance the ability to assess the credibility of speakers and writers (Straus, Glasziou, Richardson, & Haynes, 2018, p. 103). Consequently, this skill is essential for finding relevant information sources among those containing falsifications or unjustified statements.

Self-regulation refers to self-monitoring and correcting any mistakes made during previously mentioned stages of analysis, inference, interpretation, explanation or evaluation. In the process of mastering the previously mentioned core critical thinking mistakes are hard to avoid, they may appear in form of logical fallacies, misinterpretation, wrong evaluation. When any kind of mistake is made, self-regulation skills can be applied for self-correction. In addition to monitoring one's own mistakes, self-regulation corresponds to self-monitoring behaviour while setting and achieving goals. According to Schunk (1990), self-regulation is an “active thinking system in a way to determine decision, attitude, and feelings aimed to achieve the planned goals” (Schunk, 1990, pp. 71-86).

The two sides of Facione's critical thinking comprehensive model are interconnected: in order to cultivate critical thinking, one should link the core thinking skills with the critical thinking dispositions (Facione, 2006). The first notion that appears in the row of main critical thinking dispositions is open-mindedness. Being open-minded is one of the key characteristics of critical thinkers, which can be viewed as being open and receptive to all ideas and arguments expressed by others even in case when agreement cannot be reached. In other words, open-mindedness corresponds to the way of thinking when different opinions are not understood as wrong or flawed until logic, claims, argument and evidence used is analysed. Open-mindedness means the possibility of agreeing with opinion that is contrary to one's personal point of view if the analysis shows that is more valid.

Secondly, critical thinking is described as analytic in its nature. Respectively, critical thinkers are supposed to be interested in understanding the contents of a message, asking questions about the message, breaking it into its individual components and examining each in turn (Facione, 1990). By dissecting the message and dividing its separate components a critical thinker looks for the presence of formal logic and reasoning.

Thirdly, systematicity is another critical thinking disposition. Taking this disposition into account, to think critically means to activate a systematic mode of thinking by taking time to examine the message by applying some criteria or conditions. From this point a critical thinker should be consistent and follow the formal logic. Moreover, systematicity deals with “being organized, orderly, focused, and diligent in inquiry” (Facione, Giancarlo, Facione, & Gainen, 1995).

The fourth critical thinking disposition is inquisitiveness, or an inclination to be curious and seek answers to the problematic questions by attempting to know more and acting to learn more. Being described as inquisitive, critical thinking is targeted at receiving new information, expanding the horizons of knowledge and constant questioning. The students' inquisitiveness could be expressed though desire to understand a task given by the teacher, its requirements, available options and limits.

The further disposition describes critical thinking as judicious referring to sensibility and maturity of the way how a critical thinker approaches the problems. Instead of sharing common thought or idea a critical thinker would rather prefer to approach the problem-solving, inquiry and decision-making with a sense that some problems could be ill-structured, or more than one solution is possible. Being judicious, a critical thinker would be prepared to accept complex decisions involving multiple stakeholders.

Another critical thinking disposition is the search for truth. Being truthseeking, a critical thinker adopts an ethical foundation that is based on searching for the truth and proving the validity of facts. By understanding that even the commonly accepted theories can contain weak points and shouldn't be accepted as the absolute truth, a critical thinker admits that even specialists can be wrong while suggesting a problem solution. Disposition towards truthseeking can be understood as an ability to participate in the argument or debate with no self-interest involved but only for the purpose of finding a solution to the problem.

Finally, the last critical thinking disposition is being confident in reasoning or placing trust in one's reasoning processes. This disposition is expressed through faith in the power of logic and sound reasoning. In other words, being confident in reasoning is trusting the soundness of one's own claims, arguments and evidences and one's ability for rational problem solving. The level of critical thinking self-confidence should correlate with the level of individual critical thinking abilities. While some students underestimate their ability to think critically, others may overrate their level of critical thinking skills development.

By reviewing these specific features, it could be concluded that critical thinking is a complex process of human mental activity that includes multiple dimensions. It could be defined as a set of skills and dispositions which are interconnected and inseparable. The main skills belonging to critical thinking are analysis, inference, interpretation, explanation, evaluation and self-regulation. At the same time, main critical thinking dispositions include open-mindedness, analyticity, systematicity, inquisitiveness, judiciousness, truthseeking and being confident in reasoning. Consequently, developing the ability for critical thinking is improving a variety of interconnected thinking skills and cultivating dispositions towards unbiased and rational way of thinking.

3.3 Developing critical Thinking Skills by Using Debate Technique

Research Hypothesis. At the beginning of the current research the following hypothesis was put forward: debate technique can be used as an effective means of critical thinking skills development in teaching English as a foreign language in senior classes of secondary school. The pedagogical experiment was designed with the aim to check the research hypothesis. The decision to put forward the current hypothesis was the fact that debate's potential benefits in developing critical thinking skills development were described by numerous researchers. Thus, Morse (2011) claims that “valuing both sides of each debatable issue” is essential for developing critical thinking (Morse, 2011, p. 111). Omelicheva (2007) maintains that enhancement of critical thinking is the educational merit of debate (Omelicheva, 2007, p. 163). Nevertheless, the evidence on using debate as a means of critical thinking enhancement among youth learning a second language in senior classes of secondary school was still lacking. The following experiment was designed in order to cover this gap in knowledge.

Participants. The current study was conducted at the National Research University Higher School of Economics from November 2018 to March 2019 in the “Higher School of Debate”, the organization that was found by the Department of Foreign Languages. “Higher School of Debate” club unites students from senior classes of secondary school participating as debaters (accompanied by their teachers), bachelor and master students performing the roles of game hosts and judges and university professors coordinating the whole process and giving methodological instructions. The participants were 53 students aged 15-18 studying at the senior classes of secondary school (10-11). The participation of students in the current research was voluntary and they were informed about its aim, all personal data of participants were anonymized for the purpose of maintaining their safety and privacy.

Research Design. The research was designed with the purpose to check correlation between debate participation and developing the skills of critical thinking. The pedagogical experiment involved control and experimental groups. A brief critical thinking test was created within the framework of the current research aiming at checking the student's ability to perform such core critical thinking skills as analysis, inference, interpretation, making assumptions and deductions. The test materials were distributed to the students of the control and the experimental group in form of handouts and the experiment participants were given no more than 10-15 minutes to complete the test. Depending on the number of the correct tasks submitted each student could get from 0 to 10 points, the ten-point scale was used for the purpose of scoring. After all works were checked, the test results were processed to form a data set consisting of critical thinking skills results of school students that were divided into three groups: the participants from the control group with no debate experience, the freshly joined debaters and the experienced debaters. The average test grade, the median test grade and the mode were counted for each group of experiment participants before the data set was analysed in order to find the correlation between participating in debates and improving critical thinking and to check the research hypothesis.

The Control Group. The control group included 22 secondary school students from senior classes with no experience of debate participation within the framework of the university club. Though the participants of control group had an intention to learn more about the art of debating and to start engaging into structured debates for deepening their knowledge, there was no any significant influence of the debate technique on their test performance. The students of the control group joined the “Higher School of Debate” club session in March 2019 and answered the test questions before engaging into debate for the first time. Consequently, the results of the control group students were representative in showing the state of student's critical thinking skills development unaffected by use of debate technique and could be effectively compared to the ones of the experimental group students.

The Experimental Group. The experimental group consisted of 31 students with practical experience of structured debates and was divided into two subgroups in order to show gradation and reflect the difference in critical thinking test performance for the freshly joined and the experienced debaters. The first subgroup included 16 recently joined club members whose debate participation was limited to a very scarce number of sessions (from one to three debates). The second experimental subgroup united 15 students that were participating in debates on a monthly basis starting from the very beginning of the 20018-2019th academic year, some of the second subgroup members joined the “Higher School of Debate” in the previous academic year and engaged into debate club activities for even more prolonged time period.

Results. The collected results are presented in the Figure 1, which gives the information on the data set formed by critical thinking test results including mean value of grades, the median and the mode for the students with no debate experience in the control group, the debaters with scarce experience and the more experienced debaters in the experimental group. With a more precise look at the data in Table 1 it can be noticed that the average grade for the critical thinking skills test grows gradually with the number of debate sessions into which the students were engaged. The average result performed by the control group is the lowest value in the whole data set whereas the average test result of newly joined debate club members shows a tendency for the slight growth. The average critical thinking test result reaches its peak when it comes to analysing the results of active debaters that took part in debate club activities on a regular basis.



Fig. 1. The critical thinking test results of control and experimental groups

	Control group	Experimental group, the 1st subgroup	Experimental group, the 2nd subgroup
Debate sessions attended	0	1-3	4-8
Test grade, mean value	5,86	6,81	8,73
Median test grade	6	7	9
Mode test grade	6	6	9

Figure 2 shows the average critical thinking test results performed by the three groups of experiment participants visually compared in form of a bar chart. The growth tendency could be seen in a following way: the more the students have participated in debates organized by “Higher School of Debate” club, the higher were the critical thinking test results they have performed.

Fig. 2. Debate participation and critical thinking test results

As it can be concluded from the data gathered and analysed within the framework of pedagogical experiment, there is a positive correlation between engaging into structured debate and developing the skills of critical thinking including analysis, inference, interpretation, making assumptions and deductions. The results showed that the use of debate technique has a positive influence on critical thinking skills development. It may be proposed that the development of critical thinking skills is the outcome of constant need to provide valid arguments for defending the position of the team, to support any statements by proven facts, to build a successful strategy of team performance and to sound persuasive and trustworthy as a speaker. Moreover, debaters are required to be flexible due to random distribution of team roles, which means that in lot of cases students had to represent the supporters of position that is contrary to their view on the topic outside the debate conditions.

Research Limitations. It is important to mention a few limitations to the current study. The development of critical thinking skills could have been affected by a small number of debate game sessions - only one per month within the framework of the “Higher School of Debate” club. Nevertheless, the school teachers accompanying the students were encouraged to use debate technique during their English lessons and some additional training occurred between the debate club sessions.

Another limitation lies in the fact that the sample chosen for the pedagogical experiment was rather small and it is limited to those students who were voluntary participating in debates in their free time or expressed their wish to join the debate club (for the control group). However, the limited number of debate participants provided the club with a possibility to function properly, each participant had an ability to participate actively as a speaker, to be a team player, to ask the opponents additional questions and to get personal feedback on language and speech contents from judges.

Conclusion

The growing concern for critical thinking skills development resulted into a search for new educational techniques that can enhance student's critical thinking. Among the wide range of modern educational techniques debate, a practice of formalized argumentative discussion is gaining its popularity among educators. Fully corresponding to the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard and the specialists in the field of secondary school education, debate technique is can be used in classroom or as a form of extracurricular activity.

In order to apply the whole educational potential of debate technique, educators should follow several rules: adequate formulation of the motion, stimulating the student's understanding of their roles during debate, maintaining the correct order of oral presentations and time limits. Taking into consideration these features of debate technique, it can be concluded that it may require additional time and effort for preparing its realization.

The use of debate is multipurpose. The analysis of debate technique from the point of foreign language teaching methodology showed that it has multiple benefits for teaching a second language in senior classes of secondary school. The systematic use of debate technique contributes to the development of communicative competence and enhances receptive and productive language skills, it can also be a means of improving lexical, grammatical and phonetical skills of the students.

Moreover, the use debate technique enhances critical thinking. Being a complex mental process belonging to high order thinking, critical thinking is viewed as a set of skills and dispositions. The pedagogical experiment revealed the positive correlation between debate participation and critical thinking skills development. The results of this research support the idea that debate can be an effective means of improving critical thinking skills in second language classroom.



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Appendix

Appendix 1

Arguments Provided During Debate Club Sessions.

Fig. 1

Motion: Alternative medicine is a waste of time and money.
Government team	Opposition team

Appendix 2

Arguments Provided During Debate Club Sessions.

Fig. 1

Motion: Alternative medicine is a waste of time and money.
Government team	Opposition team
G1: Directions of alternative medicine aren't proved by scientists. You can't treat a serious illness as cancer in this way. Herbs used in alternative medicine are toxic and can be dangerous.	O1: Some of them [methods of alternative medicine] are listed as useful, for example, acupuncture. It can improve your usual curing The healers pay attention to your situation and choose the herbs you need.
G2: Acupuncture and other methods are not very useful for people and healers just take money from them. No possibility for a true recovery. A lot of people who do this don't have any qualification.	O2: Medicine can't always give you help when you are in terrible situation. People in hospice are not cured by usual medicine. Not all usual doctors have education.
G3: The alternative medicine is a collective name of methods of medicine that aren't officially proved. In 21st century traditional medicine is the best way to be cured.	O3: Alternative medicine is important because we still have illnesses which we can't defeat. Alternative medicine gives us hope, the chance to cure something that usual doctor cannot cure.

Fig. 2

Motion: It's better to live in a rural area than in the urban area.
Government team	Opposition team
G1: In a rural area there is less noise and stress. Relationship between people is closer, they are friendly. The food in the rural area is healthier.	O1: There is no good education and workplaces. You still need to use transport to get there. In the city you have more privacy. Healthy food is not always delicious.
G2: In the urban area education level still can be low because of unqualified teachers. People from the city can be selfish in comparison to suburbs. Country food is better for people with allergies.	O2: Services such as public transport, shops, police and healthcare are developed better in the city. In the urban area there is more people you can make friends with. You need to grow food on your own which is quite difficult. In the city you can just order it.
G3: Living in a rural area is more comfortable and better for your health. Relationships between people are better and the food is healthier.	O3: There is no reason for living in the suburbs when you have developed services, education chances and delicious food you can order.

Fig. 3

Motion: A single global culture would result into better world.
Government team	Opposition team
G1: The government will have full control under citizens (safety is one of the wishes of the citizens). It will remove religious worries.	O1: It's easier to manipulate people when it's one culture. It's impossible to remove all religions that we have. Fighting with religions will result into economic problems.
G2: Safety is important. Without the full control conflicts may take place. Economics is not connected with religion. The single global culture will help us to develop business projects.	O2: Total control can cause a war between countries and people. Business is not important if it will destroy cultural heritage.
G3: The single global culture is modern, safe and good for business.	O3: There is no need in destroying cultural heritage. People without cultural roots are easy to manipulate.

Fig. 4

Motion: The use of wild animals in circuses and zoos should be banned.
Government team	Opposition team
G1: When the animals are kept in cages, they are scared. For them it may be close to torture. In middle ages people were less educated and it was normal for them in cages but now it should be banned.	O1: The government team said that animals shouldn't be kept in cages. But animals are kept in suitable conditions. For example, in Shanghai Zoo animals get appropriate care. Such services as Shanghai Zoo became tourist attractions, gain a lot of money for government and charity.
G2: In zoos animals are kept in limited space and that can harm their health. Animals are taught to do the tricks they would never do in natural environment.	O2: Zoos can save some animals from extinction. For instance, Australian scientists saved many species. Zoo imitates natural habitat of the animals, so keeping them in captivity is not harmful.
G3: Zoos and circuses should be banned because keeping animals in captivity is harmful for their health. They lose their natural habitat. In circuses animals are forced to do tricks.	O3: Nowadays the conditions in many zoos are good enough for keeping animals. In natural conditions the animals can easily die or become extinct while in zoos they get healthcare.

Fig. 5

Motion: Parents should secretly install spyware on their children's devices.
Government team	Opposition team
G1: Parents should protect their children from the negative things they see online. Spyware helps to avoid bad influence. If parents know their child's problems, their relationships become closer and warmer.	O1: You've said that after installing such programmes parents and children would better communicate with each other. But if parents secretly install spyware, they don't respect their children because they don't talk about their decision. Sometimes teenagers need to solve their personal problems themselves.
G2: When parents install this kind of software, they demonstrate that they love their children and take care of them. That's because the use of spyware can prevent dangerous situations. Spyware is installed secretly because child's reaction is unknown. Parents do it in this way because they want to avoid conflicts. Teenagers are old enough to go outside on their own, without their parents. But they are still easy to harm, and that's why GPS technology can be useful. Parents just want to prevent crimes against teenagers. Looking through the messages and browser history is helpful for preventing child's mental trauma.	O2: Even if spyware can be helpful it's unfair to install it secretly. Children have rights for their own secrets. You've described the dangers in real life. Anyway, spyware can't fully protect children from criminals. Psychologists say that building trust between parents and children is better than spying. Spying can identify some problems, but it won't solve them. If children trust their parents, they tell them about their life themselves. In some countries spying on teenagers can be against the law.
G3: A wish to protect your child can never be against the law. Information is power, all information about your child is useful for seeing the problems in his or her life. Spyware isn't something which is bad or illegal, it's a useful instrument for parents who want to protect their children.	O3: If children become bad persons in future, it's because of their parents who abuse them, who don't give them any privacy and spy on them. The use of spyware is abuse of power. Children have basic human rights and instead of spying on their phone parents can just talk to them.

Fig. 6

Motion: St. Valentine's Day should be banned.
Government team	Opposition team
G1: First of all, we should remember that St. Valentine is the day of couples. Not everyone has a couple. People that are single may feel too lonely. This day everything is sold for higher prices. The holiday turned into business.	O1: If someone wants to celebrate this holiday, they will celebrate it. You shouldn't think about money when you talk about St. Valentine's Day gifts because people may like giving presents to their loved ones. It shouldn't be the question of money because gifts are for pleasure and fun.
G2: Many people get upset and even have problems with their health. Even if giving gifts is fun, you don't get presents if you don't have a couple. Celebrating St. Valentine's Day in Russia is a part of globalization, which is not good for identity and independence. We live in mostly Orthodox culture, but St. Valentine's Day is a Catholic holiday. Peter and Fevronia Day is better for celebrating in Russia, it belongs to its culture. Instead of buying useless stuff you can send some money to charities.	O2: Yes, St. Valentines is a Catholic holiday, but now it is celebrated without religious context. It's less about faith and more about love. Everybody can celebrate it, even those who don't believe in anything. And banning it would be a discrimination of Catholics. Not only couples celebrate this day, but also families. If you feel lonely, there are a lot of traditions that will help to find your couple. It can be profitable to sell chocolates or flowers as small business. A part of the money you've earned can be a donation to charity.
G3: There's no need to celebrate St. Valentine's Day in our country. It distracts people from what they need to do at school, at their workplace. This holiday is harmful for those who don't have a couple. It's good only for businesses.	O3: This celebration is only for those who want to be a part of it, there's no need to ban the holiday. If you dislike St. Valentine's Day, you can just ignore it. St. Valentine's Day is not only for couples but also for families. You can celebrate it with your parents, brothers, sisters, even friends or colleagues.

Fig. 7

Motion: Great leaders are born rather than made
Government team	Opposition team
G1: According to some book that describe how the election of new leader looked in the past, the ruler was someone who had royal blood. In royal families all sons are taught to rule the country. You can't learn to be a leader if you don't have an example in your family. Some scientists think that all rulers are related. According to some genetic data, all 44 presidents of America are somehow related to British royal blood.	O1: You've sad that all rulers have royal blood in them. But the history proved that many kings had royal blood and were bad as rulers. We build our personalities with our own hands. For example, Steve Jobs was a great leader of the Apple company, but he built his personality himself.
G2: Some leadership qualities can be only obtained from birth. If your parents are not intelligent, you also can't be intelligent. This is the law of genetics. Your childhood has influence on your ability to be a leader. Son of the king is prepared to be a king since childhood.	O2: If you are working hard to become a good leader you can develop new qualities which you don't have from birth. Twin studies showed that children with identical genes have different lives when they are grown up. That shows that being a good leader has nothing to do with your genetic information. Circumstances are more important that genes.
G3: Genes mean a lot in shaping human character. If your parents are doing sports and you are doing sports too, it is likely that your children will be physically strong. The same with reading books and learning. All the great leaders receive their genetic information from parents.	O3: There are lot of examples of great leaders that become strong by learning and working hard rather than having aristocratic roots. Such as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook.

Appendix 2. A Brief Test on Critical Thinking Skills

1. Question on debate participation: How many times have you participated in a debate?

- It is the first time I take part.

- 1-3

- 4-8

- 8 or more

2. Questions on analysis: In each group of four words find the odd word out.

- To manage

- To direct

- To organize

- To control (X)

- Catastrophe

- Disaster

- Accident (X)

- Tragedy

- To defend

- To protect

- To preserve (X)

- To advocate

3. Questions on inference: Make a conclusion.

I. Some lions are living in captivity. All lions are cats.

- All cats are living in captivity

- No cats are living in captivity

- Some cats are living in captivity (X)

- Some cats are not living in captivity

- No conclusion

II. All birds are animals. All chickens are birds.

- All chickens are animals (X)

- No chickens are animals

- Some chickens are animals

- Some chickens are not animals

- No valid conclusion

III. The British National Library has the largest collection of publicly owned books in the United Kingdom.

- There might be a larger collection of books in the United Kingdom. (X)

- There might be a larger collection of publicly owned books in the United Kingdom.

- The British National Library is in the United Kingdom. (X)

4. Question on interpretation: interpret the data from the chart given. The chart shows time taken by machines 1 and 2 to produce 1 item. The machines can work for 8 hours in a day. What is the maximum number of product X that can be produced in 1 day?

You may use a calculator.

Product	Machine 1	Machine 2
Product X	12 mins	18 mins
Product Y	15 mins	10 mins

· 68

· 66 (X)

· 62

· 70

5. Question on making assumptions: Mark the correct assumptions. (More than one answer is possible.)

Monarchic nations, i.e. those with royal families, differ from republican nations in several ways. An example of this difference is that citizens of monarchic nations pay more tax than citizens of republican nations.

· The governments of monarchic nations are responsible for setting tax rates on their citizens. (X)

· Republican nations do not have a royal family. (X)

· The only types of nation are monarchic and republican.

· A monarchic nation cannot be a republican nation. (X)

6. Questions on making deductions:

Mary is a chef in a new company. New companies are more likely to fail than well-known companies.

· Mary's company will fail.

· Mary's company is more likely to fail than a well-known company. (X)

· Well-known companies are more likely to succeed than the new ones.

Statistics have shown that companies selling baked goods, such as cookies and bread, are more likely to be successful if they are advertised as French or German.

· French and German products are more expensive.

· French and German baked goods must taste better.

· Advertising baked goods as “French” or “German” is more likely to result in successful sales. (X)

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