Learning Module: Violence and Legal Stories

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One of the functions of legal jargon is to mask the narrative function of rules, the stories that they tell about us, our society, our shared values. Choked in legalese these rules can sometimes appear objective but are more likely to seem archaic, inaccessible and disconnected from everyday life. This exercise tries to get students to think about the social context of rules and the values they embody.

Learning Module: Rules and Ruleplay

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If you have read my previous blog entries you will know that I find rules systems fascinating and absolutely fundamental to what we do as lawyers. Like the law itself, we have traditionally thought about rules as being neutral systems which aspire toward fairness, objectivity and equal treatment. Like law, we must realise that the rules of games (including sport) reflect particular cultures, points of view and values.

Learning Module: Logic and legal problem solving

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I have a friend with a maths degree who gets enraged when anyone suggests that she must like Sudoko. It may use numbers as logical symbols but it is not maths. It is, however, logic. Logic is a subject which has fallen by the wayside with the disappearance of the Hogwarts style classical education or, rather, the expansion of academic opportunities to those who don't come from elite schools. I don't know, they may still teach logic at Eton, but who cares, really.

Learning Module: Household Dilemma

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This one is an oldie, but I think a good one. Using the scenario of conflict resolution in a student household, students step into the role of different legal theorists to answer questions about law and justice. Rather than alienate students at the start (ugh, not theory!), each of the positions is presented as a different student character - Thomas Aquinas is just Tom the theology major, Karl Llelwyn just Karl the busines student.

Learning Module: Talking Like a Lawyer: Legal Language

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All first year students feel swamped by the amount and complexity of the reading they are expected to do. This exercise provides a broad selection of different quotes on the theme of violence and asks students, without knowing where each quote comes from, to discuss what the quote means and whether they think it comes from a legal or other source. Of course this also opens discussion for what a legal source actually is.

Learning Module: Legal Knowledge and Reflective Learning

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This is a two part exercise that works best if there is a week between classes for students to reflect and think about their knowledge. I tend to combine this with other learning modules during each of the weeks, but you might find that students have enough meat to fill a class, especially if you return to them with 'new developments' in the scenario.

This task asks students to think about the way in which disciplinary knowledge effects your point of view (POV) on a social issue or dispute. The first part focusses on an interpersonal dispute, the second takes that dispute into the broader social context.

This is a fairly introductory task and it does allow for problem based learning – there is no specific correct answer and part of the fun involves seeing how the different disciplines contest each others knowledge, particularly how law insinuates itself as the top dog in the knowledge pack.

In the second part of this task we introduce reflective learning, give students a short guide to reflective learning and then ask them to reflect on their answers to the first part, using the second task as a means of returning to the original ideas, but from a different angle. Most students will find that if a week has elapsed between tasks, that their knowledge will have evolved, they will have discussed ideas with others and drawn connections between the task and other areas of study. If they have done these things and can describe what has happened, they are well on the way to becoming reflecitve learners.

Learning Module: Role Models and Bad Influences

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This is a basic activity which is useful as an icebreaker. This should provide a topic that all students have something to contribute on.

This is also a good starting point to think about professional identity and the influence of others on the way in which we define our own identity. You can also catch up with what all the kids are watching.

I have found some groups tend to focus on Judge Judy as a 'safe' topic for discussion, sometimes only the mavericks are willing to discuss other preferences and mark themselves out as individuals. I am not sure if this is because the 18-23 demographic do not watch law shows on tv or whether this is a kind of groupthink. Maybe Judge Judy is just that popular? I have considered removing Judge Judy from the list of suggestions in case this is leading the discussion.