The Cracovian Debate (regional spelling: debata krakoska) is a debate format developed by researchers from the Ignatianum University in Cracow: Dr. Jakub Pruś and Prof. Piotr Sikora. Unlike competitive debate formats (e.g., Oxford or Parliamentary), this model is based on cooperation between opposing sides, to achieve an increase in knowledge (known as cognitive gain) for both the participants and the audience.

The Cracovian Debate model was developed after more than five years of pilot research conducted with hundreds of high school and university students in Poland and across Europe. The scientific framework and theoretical foundations of the debate are presented in the following publications:

• Pruś, Jakub, Piotr Sikora. 2023. “The Dialectical Principle of Charity: A Procedure for a Critical Discussion.” Argumentation. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-023-09615-8.
• Pruś, Jakub, Piotr Sikora. 2025. “Cracovian Debate: Cooperative Debate Format Based on the Dialectical Principle of Charity.” TOPOI (forthcoming).

CTRL offers training sessions for teachers (and others) in the Cracovian Debate format – particularly focusing on how to organize such a debate in the classroom. However, this training is not required – we encourage you to explore the following two resources that will help you prepare to conduct this debate in a school or university setting:

• A webinar on the theoretical foundations of the Cracovian Debate, the need for cooperation, and the problems of competitive debate formats [in Polish]
• The first-ever public Cracovian Debate, featuring Prof. Piotr Sikora and Dr. Tomasz Dekert: “Are all religions equally true?” [in Polish] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OogHaUU-pM

The debate has both an educational dimension – teaching how to engage in honest and structured discussion – and a cognitive one, which makes it ideally suited for use both in the classroom and as a tool for deeper, fair-minded discussion on important topics.

We encourage teachers and university lecturers to organize a Cracovian Debate at their school or institution. Below, we provide materials useful for conducting a Cracovian Debate with students:

• Cracovian Debate Questionnaire – designed to measure epistemic gain (this can also be completed via QR code and online form)
• A brief outline of the Cracovian Debate format – recommended for distribution to teams preparing for the debate