How to Improve Teaching and Learning Strategies through Educational Research: An Experience of Peer Observation in Legal Education

Authors: L. Mortari, A. Bevilacqua, R. Silva

Abstract:

The experience presented in this paper aims to understand how educational research can support the introduction and optimization of teaching innovations in legal education. In this increasingly complex context, a strong need to introduce paths aimed at acquiring not only professional knowledge and skills but also reflective, critical and problem-solving skills emerges. Through a peer observation intertwined with an analysis of discursive practices, researchers and the teacher worked together through a process of participatory and transformative accompaniment whose objective was to promote the active participation and engagement of students in learning processes, an element indispensable to work in the more specific direction of strengthening key competences. This reflective faculty development path led the teacher to activate metacognitive processes, becoming thus aware of the strengths and areas of improvement of his teaching innovation.

Keywords: Discursive analysis, faculty development, legal education, peer observation, teaching innovation.

References:

[1] J. E. Lane, Building a smarter university: Big data, innovation, and analytics. critical issues in higher education. State University of New York, Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2014.
[2] C. Denvir, Modernising legal education. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
[3] R. Stuckey et al., The Best Practices Report for Legal Education. United States: Clinical Legal Education Association, 2007.
[4] L. Carasik, "Renaissance or Retrenchment: Legal Education at a Crossroads", Indiana Law Review, vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 735-818, 2011.
[5] D.L. Rhode, “Legal Education: Rethinking the Problem, Reimagining the Re-forms”, Pepp. L. Rev., vol. 40, n. 2, pp. 437, 2012.
[6] N.J. Knauer, “Learning communities: A new model for legal education” Elon L. Rev., vol. 7, pp. 193-224, 2015.
[7] American Bar Association, Legal Education and Professional Development – An Educational Continuum. Chicago: American Bar Association, 1992.
[8] W.M. Sullivan & Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Educating lawyers: Preparation for the profession of law. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2007.
[9] W.M. Sullivan, “After Ten Years: The Carnegie Report and Contemporary Legal Education”. University of St. Thomas Law Journal, vol. 14, n. 2, pp. 331-344, 2018.
[10] E. Ryan, X. Shuai, Y. Ye & L. Haomei, “When Socrates meets Confucius: Teaching creative and critical thinking across cultures through multilevel Socratic method”, Neb. L. Rev., vol. 92, n. 2, pp. 289-348, 2013.
[11] T.D. Barton, “Re-Designing Law and Lawering for the Information Age”, Notre Dame JL Ethics & Pub. Pol’y, vol. 30, n. 1, pp. 1-36, 2016.
[12] K. Sheriff, The Empathetic Lawyer’s Training Ground: Fostering Resilience to Vulnerability in Legal Education Through Transformation of Reactive Institutions to Reflective Institutions and Waking the Sleepy Responsive State, May 2015, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2676473 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2676473
[13] E. M. Bloom, “Creating Desirable Difficulties: Strategies for Reshaping Teaching and Learning in the Law School Classroom”, U. Det. Mercy L. Rev., vol. 95, n. 2, pp. 115-151, 2017.
[14] A. Niedwiecki, “Teaching for lifelong learning: Improving the metacognitive skills of law students through more effective formative assessment techniques”, Cap. UL Rev., vol. 40, p. 149, 2012.
[15] E. Jones, “One size fits all? Multiple intelligences and legal education”, The Law Teacher, vol. 51, n. 1, pp. 56-68, 2017.
[16] A. Beach, M. D. Sorcinelli, A. Austin, & J. Rivard, Faculty development in the age of evidence. Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2016.
[17] R. E. Stake, Evaluating the Arts in Education: A Responsive Approach. Columbus, Ohio: Merrill, 1975.
[18] L. Mortari, Ricercare e riflettere. Roma: Carocci, 2009.
[19] C. Carroll & D. O’Loughlin, “Peer observation of teaching: enhancing academic engagement for new participants”, Innovations in Education and Teaching International, vol. 51, n. 4, pp. 446-456, 2014.
[20] L. Mortari, “La Grounded Theory: Una via per la formazione alla ricerca educative”, in Didattica universitaria tra teorie e pratiche. D. Orlando Cian, Ed., Lecce, Italy: Pensa Multimedia Editore, 2002, pp. 115–128.
[21] M. Heidegger “Brief über den Humanismus” (Lettera sull’umanesimo), in Platons Lehre von der Wahrheit, (La dottrina di Platone sulla verità), F. Volpi, trad. it., Milano: Adelphi, 1987.
[22] J.L. Austin, “How to do things with words. The William James Lectures, Harvard University”, in How to do things with words, J.O. Urmson & M. Sbisà, Eds., 2nd ed., 1975, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955.
[23] R. Rorty, “Introduction: Metaphilosophical Difficulties of Linguistic Philosophy”, in The Linguistic Turn: Recent Essays in Philosophical Method, R. Rorty, ed., The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1967, pp. 1-41.
[24] H. Blumer, “The methodological position of symbolic interactionism. Sociology”. Thought and Action, vol. 2, n. 2, pp. 147–156, 1969.
[25] N. K. Denzin, Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials (Vol. 3). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2008
[26] L. Mortari, & R. Silva, “Words Faithful to the Phenomenon: A Discursive Analysis Method to Investigate Decision-Making Processes in the Intensive Care Unit”, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, vol 17, pp. 1-14, 2018.
[27] L. Mortari, Cultura della ricerca e pedagogia. Prospettive epistemologiche. Roma: Carocci, 2007.
[28] M. Q. Patton, “Developmental evaluation”, Evaluation practice, vol. 15, n. 3, pp. 311-319, 1994.
[29] M. Q. Patton, “Evaluation for the way we work”, Nonprofit Quarterly, vol 13, n. 1, pp. 28-33, 2006.
[30] M. Q. Patton, “What is essential in developmental evaluation? On integrity, fidelity, adultery, abstinence, impotence, long-term commitment, integrity, and sensitivity in implementing evaluation models”, American Journal of Evaluation, vol. 37, n. 2, pp. 250-265, 2016.
[31] E. Felisatti, “La valutazione all’Università: riflessioni dal passato e prospettive per il futuro”, Giornale Italiano della Ricerca Educativa, vol. XII, pp. 15-28, maggio 2019.
[32] S. Bennett & J. Santy, “A window on our teaching practice: Enhancing individual online teaching quality though online peer observation and support. A UK case study”, Nurse Education in Practice, vol. 9, n. 6, pp. 403-406, 2009.
[33] G. Domenici, “Quando la Valutazione diventa risorsa aggiuntiva nei processi di istruzione”, in Azioni formative e processi valutativi. Scritti in onore di Achille Maria Notti, A. Marzano, & R. Tammaro, eds., Lecce: PensaMultimedia, 2018, pp. 65-76.
[34] L. Mortari, Apprendere dall’esperienza: il pensare riflessivo nella formazione. Roma: Carocci, 2003.