The Debate & Analysis (D&A) course trains many of Hong Kong's top students, including many debate team members from Hong Kong's top secondary school teams.

Capstone’s aim in creating the this program is two-fold.  The first objective is to develop our students into critical thinkers with superior presentation and public speaking skills.  The second objective is to encourage students to take an active role in learning about world events and how it affects us and others.  Many children today are taught to memorize, not how to think – the D&A course moulds students into leaders with the intelligence to think through concepts and the poise to present opinions and ideas assertively.

In our course we heavily stress the teaching of impromptu debate, an organized debate format which provides students limited time to frame ideas into arguments and rebuttals.  We emphasize this type of debate rather than the British Parliamentary format because parents want their children to be able to intellectually - and quickly - respond to a variety of opinions and criticisms; the time-sensitive nature of impromptu debate  forces the development of more rapid thinking on the part of students.

Within the lessons, students present extemporaneous speeches, present prepared presentations and participate in impromptu debate while being assessed for presentation ability, depth and breadth of ideas, and structuring and flow of their speeches.  As an added challenge, students are also graded on diction, the quality and accuracy of the words they use as they present.

Students are also taught how to frame and breakdown large problems by identifying key arguments and supporting evidence.  From there, students are taught a logical process to assess the validity of each argument and methodically break it down and prepare for rebuttal.  This is a skill that will help them for life, quickly dissecting arguments and immediately assessing the validity of the argument as a whole.

The D&A course is a comprehensive program that strives to develop students for both short-term academic needs and long-term leadership.