Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to enhance knowledge on debates as a pedagogical learning technique. Design/methodology/approach: This empirical research was conducted in a northeastern university in the USA on graduate and undergraduate business students taking human resource management (HRM) classes. This research was conducted in the spring summer, and fall semesters of 2009. A total number of 68 completed student surveys from both graduate and undergraduate students were collected over the entire year. This empirical paper provides the null and alternate hypotheses for understanding the relationship between debates and short- and long-term learning outcomes. This study uses the Pearson's correlations and significance levels to reject or accept the hypotheses. The means, SD, and percentages of students' responses with their open-ended comments are also provided to enhance understanding of the subject. Findings: This research suggests there are positive correlations between debates and short- and long-term learning outcomes. Further, most of the statements for short- and long-term learning outcomes and debates are significant at the 0.01 and 0.05 levels. Open-ended comments from students in the survey also enrich the data by providing relevant positive and negative comments. Practical implications: This study will help educators enhance the understanding of debates and also the impact of short- and long-term outcomes on student learning. This paper also provides debate prompts and formats that HRM professors could possibly adopt in their classes. Originality/value: This paper has integrated the learning taxonomies of Bloom's and Angelo and Cross' with the learning process of debates to provide a comprehensive theoretical understanding of this learning technique. (Contains 4 tables.)