A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

Enhancing learning in legal education
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necessarily having an impact on all law schools. Although resourcing issues, as discussed,
are a significant (limiting) factor, this diversity can and should be seen as a useful spur
for rethinking traditional approaches and seeking different ways of engaging students in
the study of law.
Interrogating practice
What factors do you see as blocking change to learning, teaching and
assessment practices? How can these ‘blockers’ be turned into opportunities
to lever change?
In setting the context for this chapter a number of issues have been identified as having
a potentially limiting effect on the development of the curriculum. Some of these are
beyond the control of the individual lecturer to influence (for example, rising student
numbers). However, the impact of these factors can be mediated and in some cases turned
to positive advantage as traditional approaches perhaps prove too inflexible to deal with
a wider range of student needs and demands. In the next section, two approaches to
learning are described and examples of how they may be implemented are offered. Their
respective advantages are highlighted, together with some particular challenges they
may pose.
PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING
Defining problem-based learning
Although not unique, the focus on problem-solving activities is a strong and distinctive
feature of legal education. Problem-based learning (PBL) encourages academics to place
that aspect at the centre of the learning process.
PBL is where students are confronted with the materials and facts underlying a problem
from which they have to work out both the nature of the problem and an appropriate
solution, usually without (much) prior instruction in the necessary knowledge to solve
it. The commonly acknowledged characteristics of problem-based learning are:
1 Stimulus materials are used to help students define and discuss an important
problem, question or issue.
2 Problems are presented as a simulation of professional practice or a real-life situation.
3 Students are guided in critical thinking and provided with limited resources to help
them learn from defining and attempting to resolve the given problem.
4 Students work cooperatively as a group, exploring information in and out of class
with access to a tutor who knows the problem well.