Learning in Law Annual Conference 2008: (Dis)integration...designs on the law curriculum

Reports and links to papers on values at Learning in Law Annual Conference 2008:

• International survey on the teaching of ethics – Sara Chandler (College of Law) and Nigel Duncan (City Law School) read report below
• Enhancing employability: developing professionalism within the curriculum – Charlotte Woodhead (University of Derby) read report below

International survey on the teaching of ethics

Nigel and Sara presented an interim report on their international survey into the teaching and learning of ethics, launched in June 2007 – see Nigel’s Learning in Law Annual Conference 2009 paper, Ethics in the undergraduate curriculum: an international wiki community, for the latest information on the survey.

The survey has three aims:

• to explore the level of provision of learning opportunities about ethics across a variety of jurisdictions
• to discover the views of those engaged in teaching ethics as to its role and purpose, as well as the most appropriate learning methods
• to explore teaching and curriculum ideas for dissemination

Respondents were asked for their views on the content of ethics courses, desired outcomes and learning methods, who teaches and who regulates. The results reveal a number of different issues, arising from the different approaches taken to ethics teaching. Some jurisdictions have no regulation of the legal profession and no teaching of ethics, although this is rare.

Different interpretations may be put on the concept of ‘teaching ethics’. As one survey respondent put it: “Teaching ethics poses important challenges for law teachers, including the questions of what we aim to achieve (knowledge, problem solving skills, moral character or commitment, analysis of cultural economic, philosophical, political, psychological or sociological dimensions of legal work, etc), how we achieve our goals, whether and how we measure the progress of our students towards them. Given the potential for a huge variety in goals, methods and assessment regimes, when law teachers discuss ‘teaching legal ethics’ it becomes important to clarify what we do and what we aim to achieve, to avoid unnecessary disputes generated by what ‘teaching legal ethics’ means.” It is hoped that the survey will begin to provide a degree of the clarification required.

A core tension is that between the educational interests informing most university practice and the desire to prepare ethical practitioners. While recognising that these are far from incompatible, careful attention must be paid to curriculum design and content if the tension is to be managed effectively.

Survey respondents provided significant insight into their attitudes towards these issues and how they might be addressed. For example: “There is a real struggle to ensure students move beyond the formal professional conduct rules and see the link (and tension) between these rules and the lawyer’s own ethical commitments and broader philosophical theories. Students need to have some training in moral reasoning and see ethics in the context of legal and other professions, otherwise it becomes either mechanistic or abstract. The key is to bring the theory and the practice together in a clinical environment, but with a class-based component and teaching resources that require students to grapple with the underlying moral questions.”

A further issue is whether ethics is taught pervasively or as a discrete module – this issue was explored in the session by participants in small groups, who were asked to decide whether they were in favour of pervasive or discrete teaching and then to devise programmes and activities that could deliver their learning outcomes. The outcome of the exercise was a widespread feeling that a better approach was a combination of discrete modules with a pervasive approach.

Enhancing employability: developing professionalism within the curriculum

Charlotte’s paper considered the means by which personal development planning and employability can be enhanced through a skills-based, situated learning environment, and how students can evolve as professional individuals.

A compulsory second year skills module at Derby requires students to undertake various skills-based activities as if they were running cases within a law firm. In 2006-07 a mock continuing professional development (CPD) scheme was introduced to the module. The scheme gives recognition to extra-curricular activities, helping to develop students’ responsibility for both their personal and professional development, mirroring the core expectation of many jobs.

Under the scheme students are required to undertake qualifying activities in four key areas:

• legal knowledge
• non-legal knowledge
• legal skills
• careers and employability

The students undertake/engage with various qualifying activities, record/evidence their engagement through a written record of the course/activity and then reflect/evaluate their engagement and the use to which the skills/knowledge are put by completing a written reflection.

The scheme meets four of the five perceived intentions of personal development planning articulated in the Quality Assurance Agency’s Policy statement on a progress file for higher education, ie that students:

• become more effective, independent and confident self-directed learners
• understand how they are learning and relate their learning to a wider context
• improve their general skills for study and career management
• encourage a positive attitude to learning throughout life
  The final intention regarding the articulation of personal goals was not achieved by the initial scheme, however in the next iteration of the module students were required to complete an application form including an action plan setting out their goals in order to join the fictitious firm. The ‘real life’ experience of a law firm is enhanced through the use of practice management software and management structures, including a retired partner from a firm of solicitors acting as practice manager.

The module, and in particular the CPD scheme within it, provides students with an opportunity for situated learning, so that reflection and personal development planning is not just seen as a course requirement but also perceived as a focused exercise providing opportunities for personal self-development and development as an employable individual.

Last Modified: 9 July 2010