Law TeacherPub Date : 2022-02-07DOI: 10.1080/03069400.2021.2022391
E. Pannebakker, H. Pluut, S. Voskamp, W.S. de Zanger
{"title":"Empirical legal studies in the law school curriculum in the Netherlands: what is the state of the art and where do we go from here?","authors":"E. Pannebakker, H. Pluut, S. Voskamp, W.S. de Zanger","doi":"10.1080/03069400.2021.2022391","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2021.2022391","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper describes and discusses the portfolio of courses in which empirical legal research skills are currently taught to law students in the Netherlands. It results from an in-depth country-wide study we undertook as part of a project supported by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) in view of the growing attention to empirical legal studies (ELS). The paper concludes with a reflection on the future of ELS education in the Netherlands.","PeriodicalId":44936,"journal":{"name":"Law Teacher","volume":"56 1","pages":"384 - 403"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49002394","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}
Law TeacherPub Date : 2022-01-17DOI: 10.1080/03069400.2021.2000232
Patrick R. Goold
{"title":"The Legal Judgment: A Novel Twist on the Classic Law School Problem Question","authors":"Patrick R. Goold","doi":"10.1080/03069400.2021.2000232","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2021.2000232","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In recent years, educators have sought to diversify the types of assessment used in the legal curriculum. This article introduces a novel form of assessment: the legal judgment. Much like a classic “problem question”, a “legal judgment” presents students with a factual scenario to analyse. However, rather than ask students to provide legal advice, the legal judgment asks students to decide the case by issuing a written judgment. This article showcases this form of assessment while exploring its advantages and challenges. The article argues that this novel twist on the classic law school problem question helps students to develop higher-order legal reasoning abilities, is more intellectually inspiring than the classic problem question, and encourages students to truly “think like lawyers”.","PeriodicalId":44936,"journal":{"name":"Law Teacher","volume":"56 1","pages":"368 - 383"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42210344","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}
Law TeacherPub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03069400.2021.2005971
Anne Macduff, Vivien Holmes
{"title":"Harnessing the winds of change","authors":"Anne Macduff, Vivien Holmes","doi":"10.1080/03069400.2021.2005971","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2021.2005971","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Emerging scholarship demonstrates that the curriculum can have a positive impact on student wellbeing. Indeed, a well-designed and delivered curriculum may serve a protective function, bolstering the wellbeing of students in the classroom when life outside is full of pressures and stressors. This is good news. It suggests that educators concerned about student wellbeing can make a positive difference by focusing on educational design principles and developing sound teaching practices. There are already a number of high-quality, web-based resources designed to assist educators in this task. One important issue yet to be explored concerns the barriers teachers experience in implementing curriculum change and how to overcome them. This article evaluates the effectiveness of a “Wellbeing in the Curriculum Tool” at an Australian law school. We argue that if we wish to improve law student wellbeing, the way that the message of change is delivered needs to be as enhancing of wellbeing as the content.","PeriodicalId":44936,"journal":{"name":"Law Teacher","volume":"56 1","pages":"130 - 144"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46052873","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}
Law TeacherPub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03069400.2021.2020507
M. Fay, Yvonne Skipper
{"title":"“I was able to ask for help when I became stressed rather than sitting alone and struggling”: psychology and law students’ views of the impact of identity and community on mental wellbeing","authors":"M. Fay, Yvonne Skipper","doi":"10.1080/03069400.2021.2020507","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2021.2020507","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT People derive a sense of self from membership of social groups. Universities consist of many different groups and provide a significant opportunity to explore how group memberships can affect mental wellbeing. A key university group is students’ school of study, membership of which enables individuals to develop an academic identity. We argue that a strong sense of belonging, and thus academic identity, within the school community can lead to positive mental wellbeing. We focus on belonging within academic schools because the positive impact of group membership is likely to exist to a greater degree in an academic school than in other university communities. We conducted online focus groups with 21 undergraduate students studying either law or psychology at a research-intensive university. Our aim was to explore their academic identity and belonging within their academic school of study, and how these variables affected their mental wellbeing. Our thematic analysis indicates that students with strong identities, who feel a sense of belonging in their school community – particularly among peers – display greater help-seeking behaviours in difficult times. If peers are viewed negatively, students are less forthcoming when in need of support. Promoting peer support is therefore a way of improving student mental wellbeing.","PeriodicalId":44936,"journal":{"name":"Law Teacher","volume":"56 1","pages":"20 - 36"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41705120","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}
Law TeacherPub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03069400.2022.2030955
D. Meyer, Caroline Strevens
{"title":"Is using the term wellbeing with students a mistake? Evaluating a wellbeing intervention in a UK Law School - suggestions for repositioning strategies to address the impact of deficit-discourse","authors":"D. Meyer, Caroline Strevens","doi":"10.1080/03069400.2022.2030955","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2022.2030955","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper evaluates a curriculum-based and student co-created approach to improving student wellbeing and psychological resilience in a law school. The pilot employed an enhanced pedagogic framework informed by an evidence-based psychological literacy model compatible with self-determination theory (SDT). Level 4 students were introduced to a simple psychological model for recognising the role of emotion regulation in successful learning and the relevance to this of developing supportive connections and a sense of belonging within an inclusive learning community. Student “Wellbeing Champions” received further peer support and leadership training referencing this model and were then supported in developing the role primarily through community-building initiatives. Staff were also issued with a bespoke “Student Success” framework, encouraging them to support student motivation and success by incorporating activities for building relationships, creating a sense of community and belonging with safety to make mistakes, and scaffolding understanding of assessment and feedback. Recognising the limiting positions offered within a medicalised or deficit-focused narrative about wellbeing and mental health, the findings evaluate the effectiveness of the repositioning strategies represented within the pilot interventions, including a focus on learning success and leadership.","PeriodicalId":44936,"journal":{"name":"Law Teacher","volume":"56 1","pages":"54 - 66"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46744252","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}
Law TeacherPub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03069400.2021.2005305
Rachel Spencer
{"title":"“Hell is other people”: rethinking the Socratic method for quiet law students","authors":"Rachel Spencer","doi":"10.1080/03069400.2021.2005305","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2021.2005305","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article is a reflective analysis of my own teaching methodology arising from my experience with teaching quiet law students, and reconciling this experience with a statement in Martin Seligman’s Flourish, his best-selling work about positive psychology. Seligman asserts that Jean Paul Sartre’s famous line “Hell is other people” in his play No Exit seems “wrongheaded” and “almost meaningless” today. This article will argue that Seligman’s comments about Sartre’s existentialist angst are the views of an extrovert. This article argues that much of the teaching in legal education today relies on the assumption that law students are extroverts, when the opposite is in fact often the case. It argues that catering only to extroverts is inappropriate. It explores the idea that pushing an aggressive agenda through the Socratic method of teaching diminishes the development of less aggressive legal techniques to resolve problems and ignores the learning needs of students with personalities that tend towards introversion. It argues that the Socratic method of teaching perpetuates a culture that has no place in modern legal practice. It also suggests that progressive approaches to law and dispute resolution require more contemplation, more active listening and less aggressive advocacy, and draws on the work of Susan Cain to demonstrate that recognising the needs and strengths of introverts is important in this process.","PeriodicalId":44936,"journal":{"name":"Law Teacher","volume":"56 1","pages":"90 - 104"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42774989","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}
Law TeacherPub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03069400.2022.2033494
E. Jones, Caroline Strevens
{"title":"Legal education for wellbeing: design, delivery and evaluation","authors":"E. Jones, Caroline Strevens","doi":"10.1080/03069400.2022.2033494","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2022.2033494","url":null,"abstract":"Over the past five or so years, it has become almost trite to refer to the significant wellbeing issues which arise within higher education among both the student body generally and law students in particular. In the UK, the increasing acknowledgement of these issues is demonstrated by the publication of the Universities UK Step Change: Mentally Healthy Universities Framework and the University Mental Health Charter. Both of these advocate a “whole university” approach to wellbeing, viewing wellbeing as fundamental to all aspects of university life, not just those traditionally viewed as pastoral in nature. The starting point for this special issue is that it is vital for law schools to adjust to this “whole university” approach in the way they design, deliver and evaluate their teaching, foster learning, interact with their students and facilitate their students’ experience. Whilst mental health, wellbeing and other pastoral services have a crucial role to play in higher education, they are not sufficient on their own. Neither are generic central policies and processes for recognition of wellbeing as a curricular matter. An effective “whole university” approach also requires each individual school and department to consider how to acknowledge the value of wellbeing and integrate it into the curriculum in an evidence-based and sustainable manner appropriate to their discipline. For law schools in particular, there is a rich body of international evidence demonstrating that the culture, norms and approaches common in legal studies can be potentially harmful to student wellbeing. As a result there is a strong ethical imperative upon them to address their role in this as part of implementing such a “whole university” approach. Given the bi-directional relationship between wellbeing and","PeriodicalId":44936,"journal":{"name":"Law Teacher","volume":"56 1","pages":"1 - 4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45270209","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}
Law TeacherPub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/03069400.2021.2010406
Stella Coyle, Hannah Gibbons-Jones
{"title":"“Make glorious mistakes!” Fostering growth and wellbeing in HE transition","authors":"Stella Coyle, Hannah Gibbons-Jones","doi":"10.1080/03069400.2021.2010406","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2021.2010406","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper uses Keele’s Legal Essentials module as a case study to evaluate how curriculum design can promote wellbeing in first-year law students, by supporting their transition to higher education and fostering a sense of belonging to the Law School community. Module design is grounded in recognition that the orientation process for new law students should emphasise the importance of wellbeing1 and that wellbeing initiatives are most effective when integrated into the curriculum.2 Legal Essentials aims to give new law students an early experience of a community grounded in collaboration and authentic critical engagement, where risk-taking is fostered and supported. Module delivery incorporates co-teaching and panel-style discussions, including more senior students and members of the wider legal world. Academics, students, and professionals thereby share their own experiences of learning, practice, and wellbeing, modelling a community where vulnerability is not a weakness and collaboration is encouraged.","PeriodicalId":44936,"journal":{"name":"Law Teacher","volume":"56 1","pages":"37 - 53"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48001763","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}
Law TeacherPub Date : 2021-12-15DOI: 10.1080/03069400.2021.2005348
Nigel Jones
{"title":"The role of employer/educator collaboration in improving the wellbeing of lawyers","authors":"Nigel Jones","doi":"10.1080/03069400.2021.2005348","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2021.2005348","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Well before Covid struck, wellbeing was already being taken seriously by organisations involved in both the education and employment of lawyers. Both groups were looking for ways to help lawyers keep themselves well, build their personal resilience and help them thrive in the profession. The crisis has added further impetus to those endeavours, and made wellbeing an even higher priority. This paper considers whether the chances of achieving those objectives would be increased if the two stakeholder groups collaborated more effectively, and what that collaboration might look like. Its focus is on the UK profession. It is written from the employer perspective, in particular that of large law firms based in the City of London. And it is primarily based on the first-hand experience of the author. It also considers the approach of other employers and the broader stakeholder community (including in the third sector), based on personal communications and published literature. It explains why those employers are taking lawyer wellbeing more seriously, what steps they have taken and which they believe are having a positive impact, and how the training of their future employees might be changed in order to help maintain their health. Its objective is to promote debate between educators and employees about what better collaboration might look like.","PeriodicalId":44936,"journal":{"name":"Law Teacher","volume":"56 1","pages":"119 - 129"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47345557","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}
Law TeacherPub Date : 2021-12-02DOI: 10.1080/03069400.2021.1999151
Daniel Bansal
{"title":"Open book examinations: modifying pedagogical practices for effective teaching and learning","authors":"Daniel Bansal","doi":"10.1080/03069400.2021.1999151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2021.1999151","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, law schools in England and Wales hastily moved their learning and teaching and assessments online to ensure that students could continue with their studies with the least amount of disruption to their education and schedules as possible. One consequence of this emergency change was that, although assessments were now online and (mostly) un-proctored, they became open-book examinations (OBEs) in the process. Unfortunately, because of the short timescale in which these changes had to be implemented, there is a risk that these OB examinations are assessing closed-book examination (CBE) pedagogy. This article argues that if academic staff retain pre-existing learning and teaching materials, initially designed for CBE, but then examine students by OBE, this will only bring the disbenefits of both CBE and OBE; academic staff need to review the design, assessment, guidance, formative assessments, and delivery of modules to ensure that they align with this mode of examination. This article provides some guidance for law schools on these matters drawing on the pedagogical theory on OBE.","PeriodicalId":44936,"journal":{"name":"Law Teacher","volume":"56 1","pages":"354 - 367"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41930274","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}