{"title":"An Interdisciplinary Classroom in Law and Social Work: Can It Be Done?","authors":"J. Venables, T. Walsh","doi":"10.53300/001c.74263","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53300/001c.74263","url":null,"abstract":"When our social work and law classes were scheduled during the same timeslot, we took advantage of this unique opportunity to engage in a series of joint classroom activities throughout the semester. We ran three activities that encouraged students to reflect on the roles of their professions when working with shared clients. Our aim was to create an interdisciplinary learning experience that allowed law and social work students to better understand one another and appreciate the role that each profession can play in bringing about positive outcomes for clients. Previous research suggests that personality differences, stereotypes and lack of knowledge about professional roles creates barriers to interdisciplinary learning for social work and law students. However, we found that student attendance and institutional barriers posed the greatest challenges to shared learning programs like ours.","PeriodicalId":43058,"journal":{"name":"Legal Education Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47227643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jill Howieson, Ben Di Sabato, Emmelie Sparkes, Vincent O. Mancini
{"title":"Balancing Convenience and Connection: Blending Law School Teaching and Learning During a Pandemic","authors":"Jill Howieson, Ben Di Sabato, Emmelie Sparkes, Vincent O. Mancini","doi":"10.53300/001c.67932","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53300/001c.67932","url":null,"abstract":"This article reports on the lived experiences of 30 students completing a two-week intensive course on Dispute Resolution (DR) at the University of Western Australia Law School in 2021. The course was delivered fully-online in the first week, and in a traditional face-to-face setting in the second week. The adoption of online learning was in response to a government-mandated lockdown to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic created a new landscape for higher education providers, where teachers needed to implement rapid adjustments to the delivery of legal education. By providing students with activities designed to capture their experiences with face-to-face and online delivery modes in the context of DR, Law School staff were able to gain valuable insight into the life of a law student during this time. The qualitative and quantitative findings revealed that the transition to online delivery was in some ways paradoxical, as students reported both benefits and limitations. This article contributes to accumulating literature exploring the impact of online delivery of education within a law school context, highlighting the potential barriers and facilitators to effective implementation identified by students. Further inquiry remains imperative in a post COVID-19 landscape where online delivery is increasingly relevant.","PeriodicalId":43058,"journal":{"name":"Legal Education Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46877149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Faculty Perception of Tasks Relevant to Academic Success in the First Year of Law School: A Longitudinal Analysis","authors":"Gregory Camilli, J. Wegner, A. Gallagher","doi":"10.53300/001c.67930","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53300/001c.67930","url":null,"abstract":"Using results from surveys conducted in 2003 and 2018, we examined the perceived importance attributed to a set of specific tasks taught by faculty in required law school courses, with each questionnaire item in the survey corresponding to a task that describes a particular competency, such as critical reading. In this study, the results from two surveys completed by instructors of required law school courses are reported for a set of survey tasks representing competencies that regularly appear as topics in the legal education literature. We asked survey respondents to indicate the importance of each set of tasks for success in such courses. While one goal was to identify the competencies perceived as important by the faculty in required courses, another goal was to identify which competencies are becoming more or less important over time.","PeriodicalId":43058,"journal":{"name":"Legal Education Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42097395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Electronic Audio Feedback in Legal Education","authors":"D. Carter, A. Vogl, E. Methven, L. Billington","doi":"10.53300/001c.39640","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53300/001c.39640","url":null,"abstract":"The provision of high quality, effective feedback is critical to supporting student learning. In tertiary legal education, student feedback is commonly provided in written form, with the benefits of audio or multimodal feedback underexplored. Academics regularly express dissatisfaction regarding the time it takes to provide assessment feedback and a perceived lack of student engagement with it. Students also report concerns relating to the tone, quality and timeliness of the feedback they receive. This article discusses the findings of a program which used electronic audio feedback amongst undergraduate and postgraduate law students at an Australian university to explore whether a change in mode from written to audio or multimodal feedback could offer a solution to these challenges. It explains the pedagogical implications that arose from the use of electronic audio feedback, including that the provision of feedback in an audio mode allowed for the provision of more detailed feedback in a comparably shorter period of time; compelled students to engage with feedback in a sustained fashion; was able to simulate an authentic feedback experience in professional practice; better facilitated personalised, constructive feedback; and, when used alongside written feedback, catered to a greater variety of learning approaches.","PeriodicalId":43058,"journal":{"name":"Legal Education Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48432318","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. Hewitt, Laura Grenfell, Hadieh Abiyat, M. Hendry, J. Howe, Sam Whittaker
{"title":"Weighing the Cost of Expectations that Students Complete Legal Work Experience","authors":"A. Hewitt, Laura Grenfell, Hadieh Abiyat, M. Hendry, J. Howe, Sam Whittaker","doi":"10.53300/001c.38777","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53300/001c.38777","url":null,"abstract":"Having completed multiple periods of legal work experience is often regarded as ‘pseudo mandatory’ for an Australian law graduate to be competitive for professional legal positions. This article explores the implications of these expectations, at a systems level, but also individually for past and recent graduates, and current students. It does this through both an exploration of literature, and through an ‘auto-ethnography’ in which the authors’ present their own experiences of seeking legal work experience and graduate legal positions. These data sources shed new light on the costs of expectations that graduates should already have practical legal work on their CVs, which calls into question the broad encouragement of work experience by universities, legal firms, and law societies.","PeriodicalId":43058,"journal":{"name":"Legal Education Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43314397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Building a (Self) Reflective Muscle in Diverse First-Year Law Students","authors":"Sandra Noakes, Anna Cody","doi":"10.53300/001c.36738","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53300/001c.36738","url":null,"abstract":"Research relating to the development of law students’ professional identity has long recognised that as they develop their identity as part of a profession, as well as their academic identity, they need to develop an ‘ethical muscle’. In addition to the idea of an ‘ethical muscle’ others have proposed that students, and lawyers, need to develop a ‘reflective muscle’. Self-reflection, a form of personal reflection that asks students to question themselves, their actions, and behaviours, is particularly important for ‘diverse’ or ‘non-traditional’ law students. These students often experience a disconnect between their expectations of university, and their lived experience, which is overlaid by the complications of the hidden curriculum. These factors may combine to result in diverse students attributing their lack of success early in their studies to a lack of ability, rather than to structural impediments in a system that does not make the ‘rules of the game’ explicit. This mixed-methods study examines one aspect of a holistic first-year transition program for a diverse first-year law cohort: a Self-Reflection Survey. It demonstrates that an instrument such as the Self-Reflection Survey might be used to scaffold diverse students’ self-reflection skills and assist law schools to manage students’ expectations, make explicit aspects of the curriculum that may otherwise be hidden from them, and instil an early sense of professionalism and purpose. Supporting the transition of diverse students to university does not end with entering university; this is where it starts. The results of this study provide encouraging ways forward to build the likelihood of success of diverse students in their law studies.","PeriodicalId":43058,"journal":{"name":"Legal Education Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45111414","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Coding for Critical Thinking: A Case Study in Embedding Complementary Skills in Legal Education","authors":"T. Ryan","doi":"10.53300/001c.36060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53300/001c.36060","url":null,"abstract":"This article contributes to the debate over the place of skills in the law curriculum, offering observations from the author’s experience in scaffolding critical thinking skills and coding into an online legal philosophy class at the University of Canberra. It begins by justifying the selection of critical thinking and coding as skills that should be better integrated into the law curriculum in the 21st century. It then describes pedagogical models for improving students’ skills through scaffolding and other strategies. It proceeds to explain how these can be implemented to facilitate students’ critical thinking and coding skills and, in a complementary way, mastery of the subject matter. The article suggests how different types of skills can be integrated into law units and how the risks of over-crowding the curriculum can be managed. The conclusion reiterates the importance of critical thinking and coding skills and urges other educators to consider how these and other skills can be better integrated into their teaching.","PeriodicalId":43058,"journal":{"name":"Legal Education Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46427176","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Learning and Teaching Method for the Online Environment that Delivers: Coupling a Soft Socratic Method with a Humanistic, Nurturing Approach","authors":"A. Evans","doi":"10.53300/001c.35839","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53300/001c.35839","url":null,"abstract":"There is limited literature on soft Socratic methods of teaching in Law and limited literature on effective teaching methods for the online environment. With the movement of learning and teaching online by universities in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and attendant lockdowns, one question became important – what is a successful pedagogical method for the online environment? While universities initially saw this as a temporary, emergency measure, learning and teaching online now looks to be more of a permanent change in tertiary education. This article evaluates the effectiveness of a student-focused teaching method, which couples a soft version of the Socratic Method with a Humanistic, nurturing approach, that I observed in Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Noah Feldman and Ropes & Gray Professor Alvin C Warren Jnr’s classes at Harvard Law School in 2013, and then adapted for the online environment and refined between 2016 and 2018. The evaluation is made using the four lenses from Stephen Brookfield’s book Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. Those lenses are: contextualisation in theory; students’ eyes; colleagues’ perception, and self-reflection. For the theoretical lens, the article analyses the traditional Socratic Method and the wide-ranging criticisms of it. The article then presents data collected from student surveys, peer reviews and self-reflection as a preliminary study. It is hoped that this article will assist other academics who are navigating online learning and teaching, and are curious about techniques and methodologies that have grown out of institutions in the United States of America. While this method was developed to teach Tax Law at a postgraduate level in groups of between 18 and 50 students, the technique could easily be applied in teaching: undergraduate students; students in other courses in Law, and in other disciplines.","PeriodicalId":43058,"journal":{"name":"Legal Education Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41520696","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Technology Law in Legal Education: Recognising the Importance of the Field","authors":"Marcus Smith","doi":"10.53300/001c.35492","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53300/001c.35492","url":null,"abstract":"Technology law is rapidly growing in importance as subject of legal study and scholarship. Although this is beginning to be recognised by accreditation bodies and legal academics, a range of factors contribute to it not being taught as effectively as it should be, including a lack of expertise and the pace at which technology is advancing. Knowledge and understanding of technology law should be recognised as vital for law students and a necessary part of the contemporary law curriculum. Legal education must adapt to ensure students are prepared for the rapidly growing impact of new technologies on the legal system. This purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of the field and propose that it be taught through a core, stand-alone technology law subject within law degrees.","PeriodicalId":43058,"journal":{"name":"Legal Education Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48276029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Authentic Assessment - The Right Choice for Students Studying Law?","authors":"T. Collins","doi":"10.53300/001c.34707","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53300/001c.34707","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43058,"journal":{"name":"Legal Education Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43546570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}