Peer tutoring in clinical legal education as a learning community building method

ABSTRACT The legal clinic at the SWPS University started operating in 2011. Since 2017, a new model of its functioning has been created based on a peer- tutoring method. Among other things, it is based on a system of roles in which senior students coordinate customer service and are responsible for cases conducted by those starting cooperation with the clinic and also assess the quality of their work. The article presents the results of qualitative research conducted with the participation of all categories of students operating in the clinic, namely: junior and senior students and volunteers who are already graduates. The research was carried out using focus group interviews based on a semi-structured questionnaire. The interviews lasted about 100 minutes each. The most important threads raised during the discussion include the clinic’s role in building legal and social competencies, motivations and expectations of individual categories of students working for the clinic and – above all – the experience of students related to participation in peer-tutoring. The discussion of results is focused on good practices facilitating the knowledge transfer process within the legal clinic student community. The article also presents recommendations regarding the effective implementation of the proposed didactic model and further development directions.