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1 – 10 of over 54000The paper sets out to contribute to the ongoing debate on the deficiencies in the teaching of law to non‐law students, specifically, addressing the question of whether the…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper sets out to contribute to the ongoing debate on the deficiencies in the teaching of law to non‐law students, specifically, addressing the question of whether the pedagogical approach should differ from that traditionally used for the teaching of law to law students and, if so, to what degree.
Design/methodology/approach
The existing literature is reviewed and the author draws on his practical experience of teaching law to non‐law university students in building and real estate. Reference is also made to experiments in curriculum design and pedagogy at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which included a survey of student and practitioner opinions.
Findings
Although some progress is noted, serious defects are identified in both curriculum design and its underlying methodology in the areas studied. Demands in the twenty‐first century for the teaching of law in these contexts are shown to have outstripped the relevant pedagogical theory and practice. Nevertheless, possible ways to improve the situation are identified from the literature, and from recent examples of educational practice. Since professional knowledge is resistant to any substantial restructuring, it is proposed that departments must insist on the implementation of change, which is consistent with available research findings. The paper proposes (inter alia) that greater attention should be paid to preparing non‐law students for their legal studies in addition to the present focus on the study of substantive legal topics.
Research limitations/implications
Although the article makes reference to some quantitative questionnaire research, it is not presented as an empirical study. As stated in the text, the empirical investigations are used, together with the literature review, to inform the thesis presented by the author, which uses theory to addressing practical issues.
Originality/value
The paper fills an identified gap in the theoretical knowledge of the subject and provides some ideas and suggestions for ways forward.
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This paper aims to consider a more visual approach to property law teaching practices. This will be achieved by exploring the existence of “visual learners” as a student body…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to consider a more visual approach to property law teaching practices. This will be achieved by exploring the existence of “visual learners” as a student body, evaluating the use of more visual teaching techniques in academic practice, recognising the historic dominance of text in legal education, and examining the potential for heightening visual teaching practices in the teaching of property law.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews and analyses some of the available literature on visual pedagogy, and visual approaches to legal education, but also introduces an amount of academic practitioner analysis.
Findings
This paper evidences that, rather than focusing on the categorisation of “visual learner”, the modern academic practitioner should use the customary use of more visual stimuli, consequently becoming a more “visual teacher”. This paper demonstrates that these practices, if performed effectively, can impact upon the information literacy of the whole student body. It also proffers a number of suggestions as to how this could be achieved within property law teaching practices.
Practical implications
The paper will provide support for early-career academic practitioners, who are entering a teaching profession in a period of accelerated and continual change, by presenting an overview of pedagogic practices in the area. It will also provide a stimulus for those currently teaching on property law modules and support their transition to a more visual form of teaching practice.
Originality/value
This paper provides a comprehensive overview of visual pedagogy in legal education, and specifically within that of property law, which has not been conducted elsewhere.
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The purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation of a storytelling teaching method in a company law course for accounting students and to evaluate its influence on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation of a storytelling teaching method in a company law course for accounting students and to evaluate its influence on engagement and effective learning.
Design/methodology/approach
The learning activity, known as “corporate villains”, is based on theories of storytelling and engagement. Selected qualitative and quantitative data from university course and teaching evaluation surveys were used to assess the achievement of objectives and identify learning outcomes.
Findings
The corporate villains learning activity engaged students at the beginning of the lecture and influenced student learning by demonstrating the relevance, or “real life” application, of company law to accounting students. Corporate villains also stimulated curiosity in learning more about the law which is characteristic of students pursuing a deep approach to learning.
Originality/value
The study extends the research on storytelling in accounting and legal education and supports empirical evidence as to the positive impact of storytelling on student engagement in learning. In particular, the study reveals the potential for corporate villains to address various academic and student concerns about company law by humanising the law and enabling students to connect the legal concepts to the story and to the curriculum.
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The paper aims to explore the role of outcome‐based education, criteria‐referenced assessment, and work‐integrated education in the teaching of law to non‐law students. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to explore the role of outcome‐based education, criteria‐referenced assessment, and work‐integrated education in the teaching of law to non‐law students. The difficulties inherent in the use of such techniques in this particular context have not yet been thoroughly articulated or theorized because it is not clear what we want of our students: to think like lawyers, to do like lawyers, to be like lawyers – or none of the above. The paper proposes some answers.
Design/methodology/approach
Discussion within the paper draws on theories articulated within the established literature relating to the issues under consideration.
Findings
The paper reveals several gaps that need to be addressed by proposed empirical and longitudinal research projects to answer specific research questions.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the developing theory of teaching law to non‐law students.
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For more than two decades, clinical legal education scholars have touted the value of cultural competence. Professors, practitioners, and law school administrators now agree that…
Abstract
For more than two decades, clinical legal education scholars have touted the value of cultural competence. Professors, practitioners, and law school administrators now agree that experiential learning opportunities not only provide students with exposure to real clients and organic factual scenarios but also offer students the opportunity to work with diverse individuals. Indeed, because cultural competence is so important to the lawyer–client relationship, many clinical programs offer classroom instruction on cultural competence before allowing students to interact with clients.
Generally, clinical education is reserved for upper-level law students while first-year students spend their time immersed in doctrinal courses and a legal writing and analysis course. Clinical faculty have no opportunity to introduce cultural competence skills to law students unless they enroll in a clinic. As a result, many students receive no training in cultural competence.
This chapter proposes a framework for introducing cultural competence during the first year of law school. The central focus of the framework is the concept of cultural self-awareness. Through an education in cultural self-awareness, students will learn that they are cultural beings whose perspectives on the law are colored by their own life experiences and any attending biases. They will also learn that judicial decision-makers, like other human beings, are influenced by their culture. This approach is necessary to disabuse first-year law students of the notion the law is objective, gender-neutral and colorblind. The chapter offers specific strategies for a Torts course, but the general concepts are applicable to the other first-year courses.
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This study is carried out to evaluate how well legal knowledge can be demonstrated by a built environment professional via the scenario-based approach to the learning of law…
Abstract
Purpose
This study is carried out to evaluate how well legal knowledge can be demonstrated by a built environment professional via the scenario-based approach to the learning of law modules.
Design/methodology/approach
A Delphi analysis of the advice provided by an MSC quantity surveying student, on a scenario-based legal problem arising due to a property contract, is carried out. The tendered legal advice was submitted as part of the assessment requirements for an MSc law module, following the university criteria, after the teaching of a law module. The student report, which attained an A-grade, and the assessment criteria used for marking/grading by the university were subsequently sent to 18 practicing lawyers, who were selected to constitute an expert panel, to independently judge the extent of legal knowledge demonstrated in the student report.
Findings
The Delphi analysis outcome showed that the expert panel holds a similar consensus view to the university on the level of legal knowledge demonstrated and by extension the effectiveness of the law module in imparting legal knowledge to a non-lawyer. The study outcome shows how well legal knowledge can be acquired and applied by a non-lawyer, within the context of the built environment, via scenario-based teaching of a law module.
Originality/value
This study serves as a preliminary step necessary to arouse further research toward empirically profiling the current outlook of a wider range of graduating students receiving scenario-based legal education in the built environment.
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This paper aims to evaluate how critical thinking be integrated in intellectual property (IP) law teaching.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to evaluate how critical thinking be integrated in intellectual property (IP) law teaching.
Design/methodology/approach
It used doctrinal methods based on existing pedagogical scholarship in the field of effective teaching and learning at the university level.
Findings
It demonstrated how the use of critical thinking in IP law education could facilitate deeper understanding of IP law issues from different socio-economic, environmental, historical and political dimensions.
Research limitations/implications
It is yet to be tested for practical application in other jurisdictions and students having background from diverse socio-economic and cultural settings.
Practical implications
The application of critical thinking in IP law could help students to apply IP law from practical perspectives to meet societal objectives and business interests as well.
Social implications
This will facilitate in broader societal understanding in using IP law to achieve sustainable development goals.
Originality/value
Till date, little work has been undertaken on the use of critical thinking in IP law teaching. Therefore, this study tried to make a unique contribution to incorporate critical thinking in IP law education.
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Susan Frelich Appleton and Susan Ekberg Stiritz
This paper explores four works of contemporary fiction to illuminate formal and informal regulation of sex. The paper’s co-authors frame analysis with the story of their creation…
Abstract
This paper explores four works of contemporary fiction to illuminate formal and informal regulation of sex. The paper’s co-authors frame analysis with the story of their creation of a transdisciplinary course, entitled “Regulating Sex: Historical and Cultural Encounters,” in which students mined literature for social critique, became immersed in the study of law and its limits, and developed increased sensitivity to power, its uses, and abuses. The paper demonstrates the value theoretically and pedagogically of third-wave feminisms, wild zones, and contact zones as analytic constructs and contends that including sex and sexualities in conversations transforms personal experience, education, society, and culture, including law.
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The initial purpose of this study was to examine the educational needs and perceptions of students and clinicians in Canadian legal clinics.
Abstract
Purpose
The initial purpose of this study was to examine the educational needs and perceptions of students and clinicians in Canadian legal clinics.
Methodology/approach
The author conducted a literature review of leading educational materials in Canada and the United States focusing on required or preferred competencies for law students. The author then interviewed law students, clinicians, social workers, and community legal workers from across Ontario, Canada, all of whom were working or studying at law school-affiliated legal clinics. Interview subjects were asked a series of questions about their learning experiences in hopes of informing the creation of clinical teaching and learning materials.
Findings
The data revealed an under-reliance of the affective elements of teaching, learning, and practice in both existing literature and current teaching practices. The data also revealed deep structural divides between doctrinal and clinical teaching and learning approaches.
Originality/value
Without further integration between these two approaches, students and, ultimately, communities and clients will not reap the benefits possible from an integrated curriculum.
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Two cases recently decided by the U.S. Supreme Court will likely determine the future direction of U.S. higher education. The cases Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger…
Abstract
Two cases recently decided by the U.S. Supreme Court will likely determine the future direction of U.S. higher education. The cases Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger challenge the legality of affirmative action programs in the University of Michigan Law School and in the University of Michigan Undergraduate College. The plaintiffs, supported by the Center for Individual Rights and other conservative organizations, contend that the University of Michigan's affirmative action programs engage in “reverse discrimination” by favoring Black and Latino students for admission over equally or better qualified white students. The University of Michigan, joined by a broad coalition of universities, corporations, and social activist organizations, reject characterizations of affirmative action programs in the Law School and Undergraduate College as “racial preferences” or “racial quotas.” Instead, the University argues that race is but one of several factors legitimately considered in the effort to assemble a diverse student body where the educational benefits of diversity are maximized.