A Study on the Influence of Sustainable Development Education Programs using Discussion Debate on the Communication Skills and Critical Thinking Skills of Elementary School Students

The purpose of this study was to develop a sustainable development education program using discussion debate and apply it to elementary school 4 and 5 graders to investigate the effect of elementary school students on communication skills and critical thinking skills. The contents of the program covered climate change, energy, environmental problems, biodiversity, etc., and the lessons were designed by applying appropriate discussion debate techniques to each topic. The results of this study were as follows. First, the sustainable development education program using discussion debate was effective in improving communication skills overall, and there was a significant improvement in verbal communication and nonverbal communication areas. Second, the sustainable development education program using the discussion debate was effective in improving the critical thinking function. Third, the sustainable development education program using the discussion debate was positive for improvement of critical thinking tendency, and there was significant improvement in all areas of sound skepticism, intelligent honesty, objectivity, systematicity, and reservationability. Based on the above results, it was found that the sustainable development education program using discussion debate had a positive effect on improving the communication skills and critical thinking skills of elementary school students.