Do all clinical models have the same objectives?

Not necessarily, but there are some things that all forms of clinical experience are potentially good at:

• enabling students to understand experientially how the law works in practice (especially as clinic problems will often cut across conventional law school subject boundaries)
• enhancing knowledge and understanding of a particular area of law
• facilitating and empowering students to take a more active and reflective role in their learning
• providing a realistic context in which students can practice their general transferable and applied communication skills
• integrating professional (and perhaps personal) ethics and values into the law school curriculum.
• integrating learning and assessment (we come back to this in question 9)

Additionally live client clinics:

• provide students with ‘on-the-job’ training in a way that complements their overall programme of learning
• provide students with direct experience of (as appropriate) the role of advice agencies, law centres and the legal profession in delivering legal services, and a range of ‘access to justice’ issues
• offer a service to the community and provide a means of meeting unmet legal need

Where the clinic is part of the formal curriculum, these generic aims should be translated into a set of learning objectives or formal outcomes against which students can be assessed. Remember that effective learning objectives and outcomes should:

• speak to the learner
• be clear and specific
• match the assessment requirements of the module

Learning outcomes in particular are behavioural and performance-based statements. They tend therefore to be written with a high degree of specificity. The development of outcomes statements can be a useful way of identifying key knowledge attributes and behaviours that are to be learned and assessed. At the same time, however, concerns have been expressed about the reductionist tendencies and behavioural assumptions of outcomes-based approaches (see Maughan et al, 1995; Macfarlane, 1998), particularly in that they tend to emphasise product at the expense of process and may be of limited value in clarifying learning and assessment of complex and high inference behaviours.

If you choose to go down an outcomes path, outcome statements are best constructed by:

1. Selecting a verb for performing the task. This involves determining whether it is the most appropriate verb to describe what students must be able to do (generic words like ‘know’ and ‘understand’ are best avoided, unless you intend to incorporate a clear statement of the standard to be achieved).
2. Identifying the object of the learning
3. Specifying the conditions under which or the context in which the task is to be performed.

Thus, for example, a learning outcome might be to:

• critically evaluate (verb) your ability to give accurate advice (object) in a client interview (context)

For some useful guidance on writing learning objectives and outcomes, see Hinett, 2002:37-8. Some additional learning outcomes appear below. Obviously the set is illustrative rather than exhaustive!

Sample learning outcomes

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By the end of this module you will be able to:

• demonstrate the ability to plan a client conference on known facts based on available case materials
• accurately identify a client’s objectives during a client interview
• write a letter before action that is accurate, clear, and concise, using appropriate grammar
• assess what material should be included in a particulars of claim
• use the legal formalities required in drafting statements of case
• demonstrate a capacity to construct a logical and appropriate theory of the case in your chosen criminal case
• conduct a negotiation with a principled strategy
• define steps to be taken to remedy any weaknesses you have observed in your casework skills
• contribute to determining individual roles and functions in completing group tasks
• demonstrate an ability to work to deadlines in managing your clinical casework

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In addition, it is sometimes suggested that objectives or outcome statements should clearly indicate the standards expected, ie they should state precisely what learners have to do to do well. Note, however, that practice in English law schools seems highly varied in this respect. (From my experience it seems unusual to include a standard within each learning objective or outcome statement, though a separate statement of assessment criteria and, sometimes, standards may be required.)

There may also be other valuable benefits, which may not be reflected in your formal objectives or learning outcomes, for example:

• to help students decide whether a career in practice, or a particular area of practice, is for them
• to enhance students’ self confidence, and in particular to reduce uncertainty about their ability to work as a lawyer
• to stimulate reflection and scholarship on (clinical) legal education among participating, and perhaps even non-participating, faculty

Last Modified: 2 August 2010