CASDW 2014 Proceedings 96 Victor Ferry & Benoît Sans Educating Rhetorical Consciousness in Argumentation  Victor Ferry & Benoît Sans  Abstract In summer 2013 we initiated a project entitled “Rhetorical exercises: practical reasoning, creativity, citizenship.” Within this framework, we adapt ancient rhetorical exercises to contemporary pedagogy. This project includes a dimension of experimental archaeology: testing ancient rhetorical tools in an attempt to rediscover their purposes and their effects (in terms of targeted skills). This project also includes an educational concern: bringing rhetorical tools to future citizens. The first section presents our approach to rhetorical exercises and the general philosophy of our project. The second section is dedicated to the exercises we used to develop learners’ rhetorical consciousness and to the discussion of the initial results of our experiment. 1. Introduction In his treatise, Aristotle defines rhetoric as an ability ( dunamis 1 ) to discover, on any issue, the available means of persuasion (Rhet. I, 2, 1356a). This definition has important implications for the conception and the implementation of rhetorical training. Indeed, to be in line with Aristotle’s definition, the purpose of a rhetorical course should not primarily be to give students advice to produce persuasive speeches. Its primary purpose should rather be to educate students’ ability to cast a theoretical eye on argumentation. Along the same line, we started, in 2013, to implement rhetorical training aiming at developing students’ argumentative consciousness. By means of rhetorical exercises, we attempt to develop their ability to perceive argumentation as a field of theoretical inquiry, as a field in which there is progress to be achieved. This training was designed for young pupils in high school and for university  Victor Ferry is a Wiener-Anspach postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and a member of the research Group on Rhetoric and Linguistic Argumentation (GRAL). Benoît Sans is a FNRS postdoctoral researcher at the University of Brussels (ULB) and a member of the research Group on Rhetoric and Linguistic Argumentation (GRAL). 1 On the implications of Aristotle’s definition of rhetoric as a dunamis for the theory and the practice of this discipline, see Sans (2013).