scholarly journals Beginning in the first year: Towards a vertically integrated curriculum for clinical legal education. A Practice Report

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Leiman ◽  
Deborah Ankor ◽  
Jocelyn Milne
Keyword(s):  
Integrated Curriculum ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
First Year

Can You Talk Like a Lawyer and Still Think Like a Human Being? Mertz's The Language of Law School

2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (04) ◽  
pp. 983-1015 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Conley
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Law School ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Year ◽  
Language And Thought ◽  
School Classroom ◽  
New Students ◽  
School Learning ◽  
The Relationship

The last thirty years in anthropology, as well as in linguistics and in many of the other social sciences, have been characterized by a shift in theoretical focus from structure to practice. In The Language of Law School: Learning to “Think Like a Lawyer” (2007), linguistic anthropologist and law professor Elizabeth Mertz has brought this practice perspective to bear on the extraordinary linguistic and cultural venue that is the first‐year law school classroom. In revealing the linguistic realities of teaching new students to “think like a lawyer,” she raises fascinating questions about the relationship between language and thought, the subtle effects of legal education, and the nature of law itself.

Learning styles of medical students change in relation to time

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erol Gurpinar ◽  
Hilal Bati ◽  
Cihat Tetik
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Learning Styles ◽  
Learning Style ◽  
Integrated Curriculum ◽  
Sample Selection ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Curriculum Models ◽  
Hybrid Curriculum ◽  
Over Time

The aim of the present study was to investigate if any changes exist in the learning styles of medical students over time and in relation to different curriculum models with these learning styles. This prospective cohort study was conducted in three different medical faculties, which implement problem-based learning (PBL), hybrid, and integrated curriculum models. The study instruments were Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (LSI) and a questionnaire describing the students' demographic characteristics. Sample selection was not done, and all first-year students ( n = 547) were targeted. This study was designed in two phases. In the first year, the study instruments were delivered to the target group. The next year, the same instruments were delivered again to those who had fully completed the first questionnaire ( n = 525). Of these, 455 students had completed the instruments truly and constituted the study group. The majority of the students were assimilators and convergers in both the first and second years. A change in learning style was observed between 2 yr in 46.9% of the students in the integrated curriculum, in 49.3% of the students in the hybrid curriculum, and 56.4% of the students in the PBL curriculum. The least and most changes observed between the learning style groups were in assimilators and divergers, respectively. Curriculum models and other independent variables had no significant effect on the change between learning styles. The learning styles of medical students may change over time. Further followup studies in larger groups are needed to clarify this relation.

scholarly journals Eportfolios as Reflective Assessment of Social Justice

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-28
Author(s):  
James Gallen
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
University Education ◽  
First Year ◽  
Prior Learning ◽  
Reflective Assessment ◽  
Student Reflection ◽  
Critical Approaches

This article explores the potential for eportfolios to contribute to the development of student critical awareness of social justice, including the role of the university as a social justice actor, through module assessment. It will critically address how eportfolios were introduced in 2019-20 to assess student reflection on social justice in a first year law module ‘Critical Approaches to Law’ at DCU. To date, there has been a slow adoption of eportfolios in Irish higher education (Farrell 2018). Although there is some evidence of reflective assessment in comparative legal education, especially in schools with an emphasis on socio-legal approaches to law, and in clinical legal education, there is limited analysis of eportfolio assessment in classroom-based or blended legal education, (Waye and Faulkner 2012) and none in the Irish context.   The article will discuss the motivation to use eportfolios; the benefits, challenges and lessons learned in the design of the assessment, and the first time experience for the educator of marking and student experience of eportfolios. It assesses eportfolios as a mechanism for prompting student reflection and the development of critical thinking, (Farrell 2019) with a particular reflective focus on social justice and university education as a social justice experience. (Connell 2019). It queries the extent to which eportfolios enable students to incorporate prior learning experiences to their reflection, (Chen and Black 2010) and for students self-determine the parameters of their personal interaction with social justice questions raised by the experience in the module and their lived experience. (Brooman and Stirk 2020)

scholarly journals “10 lessons for new clinicians”

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Angela Macfarlane ◽  
Paul McKeown
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Education ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
Clinical Educator ◽  
Potential Problems ◽  
Risk Areas ◽  
Practical Performance ◽  
Academic Year

<p>As a new clinician, if you have trained as a lawyer via a traditional legal education route you inevitably have very little experience of clinical education to bring to the role, although you of course have your professional and practical experience to draw on. Although many readers are experienced clinicians, this is a timely opportunity to go back to the beginning and re-assess the potential problems or risk areas that clinicians face at the beginning of a new academic year, with a new intake of students. Society changes continually so each year will bring new issues as well as those well known to all clinicians.</p><p>In clinic at Northumbria University final year students are placed in to groups of up to six students known as firms and each firm is allocated an area of law such as employment or housing. Each firm is supervised by a qualified solicitor who allocates cases to the students. Students can work individually or in pairs, depending on the complexity of the case. At the end of the academic year, students are assessed on their practical performance using grade descriptors. They also submit reflective pieces about their experiences in clinic.</p><p>These “lessons” have emerged from our own first year of transition from practising lawyer to clinical educator. We hope some of them ring true with other new clinicians.</p>

scholarly journals 5. Transcending Boundaries in Legal Education: A Vehicle for Teaching Students to Think Critically

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Rosalie Jukier
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Integrated Curriculum ◽  
Political Geography ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Critical Perspective

Legal education has traditionally been defined by many boundaries.  Characterized by taxonomic structures and doctrinal categories, legal education is, for the most part, still seen as inextricably linked to a particular political geography and state normativity.  The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the pedagogical benefits of shattering established boundaries in legal education.  It will assess how teaching from multiple perspectives in an integrated curriculum inculcates critical thinking skills in students, better enabling them to question assumptions, uncover hidden assumptions, and graduate as independent and innovative legal thinkers.  Focusing on the transsystemic McGill Law Program, this paper will discuss the rewards of engaging students in an intellectually pluralistic and tradition-neutral legal curriculum, one that eschews silos and borders and focuses on creating agile and creative minds in future jurists who will be able to confront contemporary legal issues holistically and with a critical perspective.

scholarly journals Teaching and Assessing Problem Solving: An Example of an Incremental Approach to Using IRAC in Legal Education

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 106-124
Author(s):  
Kelley Burton ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Journal Article ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Legal Reasoning ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Incremental Approach

Legal reasoning is a type of problem solving, and is situated within thinking skills, one of the six threshold learning outcomes established under the auspices of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council’s Bachelor of Laws Learning and Teaching Academic Standards Statement. The threshold learning outcomes define what law graduates are ‘expected to know, understand and be able to do as a result of learning’ (Kift et al., 2010, p. 9). The assessment of legal reasoning, and thus problem solving, should receive greater attention in legal education discourse (James, 2011, p. 15, James, 2012, p. 88). The dominant approach for problem-based questions in the discipline of law over the last 40 years is IRAC (issue, rule, application and conclusion). The acronym IRAC is not offensive and potentially instils a positive professional legal identity and is a student-centred approach to problem solving. This journal article documents an incremental approach to IRAC in law where first year students answer a problembased law question using a grid format before preparing a barrister’s advice.

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