Helping law students via spaces and performance
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The document discusses a module aimed at teaching law students critical thinking and performance skills through innovative pedagogic strategies, emphasizing group work and reflective practices. Feedback from previous years indicates mixed experiences, with some students finding the course beneficial for skills development while others felt unclear about its purpose and content. Suggested next steps include enhancing the curriculum design, promoting educational action research, and continuing to innovate teaching practices to foster deeper learning experiences.
Helping law students via spaces and performance
- 1. Helping law students viaspaces and performance Career and key/soft skillsCritical issuesCritical thinkingGrier Palmer,Warwick Business School.Cath Lambert,Reinvention Centre and Sociology.Jonny Heron,Capital Centre; and Fail Better Productions
- 2. PREVIOUS FEEDBACK 07/08“Very much enjoyed, which I’m not sure every one did. I liked that it wasn’t about theories and knowledge like in the business school ….. presentations were stressful, but end product was very good.” 07/08“In terms of improving groupwork and presentation skills, the module was very useful. However, a clearer 'syllabus' would be helpful because the structure and content of the course was sometimes unclear” 07/08“Unique style picking up on skills and learning techniques foreign to most modules” 07/08“It would be good if there was more substantive feedback and more tutor guidance. … I know that it might be against the student centred learning objective but guidance could help a student see the "bigger picture" and think out of the box easier.” 07/08
- 3. PREVIOUS FEEDBACK 07/08“This module is an absolute joke, a complete waste of my time turning up to this every week…. I have finished this module still having no idea what "thinking critically" really means and nor do I have any desire to know what it is as it has had no impact on my life, university speaking or otherwise. “ 07/08Apart from developing presentation skills I don't think I have learnt anything of substance. “ 07/08“I wouldn't say I learned a huge amount of knowledge; what I enjoyed and did learn a lot in this module are skills and a different way of thinking. “ 07/08
- 4. LILI 2006: Academic cultures and student learningMoving outside the box: teaching Undergraduates Reflective and Critical thinking -1. Educational Innovationgiven HE context of strong influences and educational tensions, what pedagogic strategies should University Law Teachers adopt to achieve ‘illuminated’ students using Critical and Reflective approaches? 2. Educational Action Research what teaching designs and classroom practices can successfully create different and innovative kinds of learning experiences, to counter-balance the apparently instrumental approaches of many Students?
- 5. Moving outside the box: teaching Undergraduates Reflective and Critical thinking –REFLECTIONSLONG ESSAY‘Critical Issues in Law and Management’Pedagogic Strategy:1. Group process; 2. Critical Reflection; 3. Student led, process drivenActivities and Assessment:Case study presentations in syndicate teams (20% marks); (‘Book’ review group discussions) individual written review (20%); 2 individual written reflections, at the end of each term (20%); and a ‘Long’ Essay (40%) at the end of the module. NO EXAMS! NO LECTURES!BOOK REVIEWSCASES
- 6. Moving outside the box: teaching Undergraduates Reflective and Critical thinkingA Preliminary Balance sheet of the CILM ModuleStudents as Students+ Self direction; Personal awareness; Communication, Group skills. (More presenting and teamwork than Criticality? Year 3 thinking quality?)AlsoTeachersThe Schools/UniversityStudents as AdultsEmployers’ intake
- 7. LILI 2006: Academic cultures and student learning‘Moving outside the box’: teaching Undergraduates Reflective and Critical thinking - CILMNEXT STEPS?Continue Educational Innovation:Holistic, go back to year 2Look for Change allies **Review design and delivery**Promote moreIncrease Educational Action Research**Interview Students, AlumniSurvey in vivoPeer observation**Analyse other data and documents** and You??
- 8. Moving outside the box: teaching Undergraduates Reflective and Critical thinkingA Preliminary Balance sheet of the CILM ModuleStudents as Students+ Self direction; Personal awareness; Communication, Group skills. (More presenting and teamwork than Criticality? Year 3 thinking quality?)AlsoTeachersThe Schools/UniversityStudents as AdultsEmployers’ intake
- 9. CILM Assessment?Book rev 1Book rev 2(30 Cats)Book rev 3Assd Book review& ReflectionA reflective piece, mid course (10%)Assessed coursework: a group Case presentation (20%)A book review and reflection (20% + 10%)A Case based long essay (40%).Assd Case Long Essay
- 10. CRITICAL THINKING & ‘Book’ ReviewsA suggested approach for your review issummarise the key themes.identify issues arising reflect critically on these
- 12. Tutors; and Reinvention team*PeterDilipBrianElisabeth*, alsoTutorDanny*JonnyCath*
- 13. CILM in new SpacesCapital Centre, with Jonny Heron(Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning):in the StudioReinvention Centre and social learning:“both teacher and student are engaged in an active, collective and collaborative process of knowledge construction, production and dissemination”Teaching Grid
- 17. CILM and performanceCapital Centre, with Jonny Heron(Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning):in the Studio
- 18. CILM in new SpacesCapital Centre, with Jonny Heron(Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning):in the StudioReinvention Centre and social learning:“both teacher and student are engaged in an active, collective and collaborative process of knowledge construction, production and dissemination”Teaching Grid
- 19. Results?2 Focus groupsOur and tutors’ observationsStudents’ reflective assignmentsStudents’ reflective mid point workshopImpact of ‘theatre’- presentations include staging, roles, working with the audienceConfidence increasing in discussions, trying out new, working with group dynamicsSome sceptical awareness of texts and going below the surface meaning
- 20. Reflections. Next stepsSynergy of interventions!Students’ worlds, vocabularies, valuesCritical material, media?Development of academics and tutorsE- Intermediation (facebook)Productive stimulus of Practitioner/Action research (but students?)Assessment of heavier assignments (cases, book reviews)Post course feedbackReinvention researchSowing seeds in year 2Sustaining the interventions?Exporting the lessons?
Editor's Notes
- #2: This project is based on previous student feedback and observations (as well as educational literature) which have illustrated that Students find critical and reflective thinking difficult, and also lack confidence in communicating and presenting their thoughts on complex, ambiguous, perhaps emotional themes and material.Additionally students find a student led, self managed pedagogy very challenging after 3 years of lectures and exams.This project therefore exploits different disciplinary assets and resources to attempt to boost wider thinking and perspectives.And this presentation shares the initial results and reflection focusing on spaces and performance The Reinventing Spaces project is funded by the Reinvention Centre forUndergraduate Research. (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/research/cetl/about/)It involves ongoing qualitative research exploring the relationships between curriculum, pedagogy and space in, and between, school and university settings. It is being carried out by a collaborative team of Sociology staff and students (doctoral,postgraduate and undergraduate) at the University of Warwick.One aspect of the research involves ethnographic investigation in to theexperiences of the students and staff involved in CILM in 2008-2009. Themodule was chosen because of the range of university spaces used by thesame group, offering an opportunity to observe, document and analyse therelationship between teaching and learning and the physical environment.The CAPITAL Centre (Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning) is a collaboration between the University of Warwick http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/ and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) http://www.rsc.org.uk/, established to use theatre performance skills and experience to enhance student learning and to draw on University research and resources to shape the development of the RSC acting companies.Contact: Grier Palmer, Warwick Business School. Grier.Palmer@wbs.ac.uk
- #6: 2006/2007 cohort 2007/2008 cohortHow appropriate or relevant are these aims and objectives to your degree course as a whole?Not relevant: 1 No comment: 2 Not at all relevant: 5 Not relevant: 3Quite relevant: 8 Quite relevant: 9 Very relevant: 8 Overall, how valuable would you rate this module in terms of what you have learned? **Low: 1 Fairly low: 2 Low: 4 Fairly low: 5 Average: 3 Average: 8 Fairly high: 13 High: 1 F airly high: 2 How appropriate was the style of delivery (eg balance of lectures/seminars, group work, class participation etc)?Low: 1 Fairly low: 2 Q changed!Average: 5 Fairly high: 10 High: 2 How would you rate this lecturer overall? #Very poor: 1 Poor: 1 Average: 4 Good: 9 Very good: 4 Sometimes a little vague with subject matter. Again a friendly man who perhaps took questions about the module as a personal blow An excellent and inspiring lecturer. Good lecturer, would have benefitted from more feedback on book reviews submitted. Ability to encourage critical thinkingVery poor: 1 Poor: 1 Average: 3 Good: 8 Very good: 6