Teaching Law and Educational Theories

1. Teaching Law and Educational Theories Issues, Hints and Sources for good guidance

2. Issues • Overview of educational theory issues • Course design • Assessment – formative and summative • Teaching method and practice • Evaluation • Avoidance of duck-weed • Focus on teaching method and practice

3. Approaches to Teaching • Student-centred as opposed to Tutor-centred • Tutor-centred • Communication of knowledge and information • Focus on accumulating ‘skills’ • Student-centred • Focused on analysing approaches to learning • Reflective as opposed to accumulating ‘skills’

4. Student Approaches to Learning • Surface Approach • External tasks that have to be completed • Gaining general knowledge of the subject • No attempt to think through relevance or connection between different subjects • Rote memorizing and learning • Deep Approach • Intrinsic interest in the task, satisfying curiosity and enjoyment • Understanding ideas and develop meaning • Connection to understanding in the real world • Strategic/Achieving Approach • Time management approach to a particular task • Focus on examination performance, or performance relative to others • Dictates particular approach taken to a particular task in hand • Alienation and Engagement • Surface: passive alienation • Strategic: active alienation • Deep: engagement

5. Presage, Process, Product Student Characteristics Students’ perception of context. Students’ approaches to learning Students’ learning outcomes Course and Departmental Learning Context

6. Application to Law at Oxford • Course and Departmental Learning and Dangers of surface approach • Heavy work load • Examination-based • Large factual and technical content of law • Student background • Law ‘A’ level • How to overcome this • Changing students’ perception of this context • Guidance as to reason for this structure • Role of tutorial • Formative and summative assessment

7. Tutorial Role Divergence between student and tutor perceptions at the macro-, and meso- levels • Levels of analysis • Macro: purpose of tutorials as a whole in law • Meso: purpose of tutorials in a particular law subject • Micro: aims and purpose of the particular tutorial • Divergence: • Surface as opposed to deep approach • Influence of strategic approaches • Solution?

8. Tutorial Role: SOLO taxonomy and scaffolding

9. Tutorial Role Inter-disciplinary nature of law and divergence at the micro-level • Inter-disciplinary • Hard/pure: e.g. natural sciences • Soft/pure: e.g. history • Hard/applied : e.g. engineering • Soft/applied : e.g. education • Different Aims and Implicit student requirements • Hard/pure: logical reasoning, linear argumentation/ memorise facts and solve logical problems • Soft/pure: command of intellectual ideas, creativity and fluency/lateral thinking, wide reading. • Hard/applied: problem-solving practical skills/applying theoretical ideas to practical contexts • Soft/applied: practical skills, personal growth and intellectual breadth/open-ended problem solving abilities, fluency in expression but with a pragmatic end in view • Example of European Community Law • Solution • Modification of the traditional tutorial model • Clearer guidance on reading lists

10. Formative Assessment Nicol and MacFarlane-Dick (2006) • Clarify meaning of ‘good performance’ • Facilitate the development of self-assessment • Deliver high quality information to students about their learning process • Encourages teaching and peer dialogue around learning • Encourages positive motivational belief and self-esteem • Provides opportunities to close the gap between current learning and desired performance • Provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape the teaching

11. Sources • Ramsden Learning to Teach in Higher Education (2nd edition: Routledge/Farmer 2003) • http://www.ukcle.ac.uk/index.html • http://www.learning.ox.ac.uk/