Teaching Law and Educational Theories

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Teaching Law and Educational Theories

• Issues, Hints and Sources for good guidance

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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

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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

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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

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

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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?

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Tutorial Role SOLO taxonomy and scaffolding
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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

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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

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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/