How Law Is Taught, and Why the Method Matters
Chapter Twenty-Five
Syllabus topic 2, "Methods of Teaching - Merits and demerits"
Pages 92 to 94 of 543
In one line
A teaching method is the way a teacher arranges what a student does, and it matters because different methods produce different capacities: the same syllabus taught by lecture and taught by problem produces two graduates who can do different things.
In the wording a student can write in an exam: a method of teaching is the systematic procedure by which instruction is delivered and learning is produced; in legal education the choice of method determines whether a graduate acquires knowledge of legal rules, the capacity to reason with them, or the skill to apply them in practice, and since no single method produces all three, the merits and demerits of each must be assessed against the objective it is being used to serve.
Why the syllabus asks about methods at all
Because the objectives of chapters 20 to 40 have to be delivered by somebody, in a room. An objective is a statement about purpose; a method is what actually happens on a Tuesday afternoon.
Because the criticism of Indian legal education is a criticism of method. The 14th Report of 1958 and the 184th of 2002 both found overcrowded classes taught by part-time practitioners, which is a description of a method being forced by circumstances.
And because the regulator has taken a position. Schedule II of the Rules of Legal Education 2008 does not merely list subjects; for the clinical papers it prescribes simulation, practical exercises, case study, viva and periodical problem solution. The Bar Council has decided that some things cannot be taught by lecture.
The standard by which a method is judged
Every method chapter in this part asks the same six questions, and a student who memorises the six can construct an answer about any method, including one they have not been taught.
What does it produce? Knowledge, understanding, reasoning, skill or attitude. These are different things and no method produces all of them.
How many students can it serve at once? This is the question that decides what an Indian law college can actually do, and it is usually left out of textbook accounts.
What does it require of the teacher? Preparation time, subject mastery, and in some methods a willingness not to be the centre of the room.
What does it require of the student? Prior reading, willingness to speak, or willingness to be wrong in public.
What does it cost? Rooms, materials, library, practitioner time, and above all teacher hours per student.
And how is it assessed? A method that cannot be examined will not survive, because students allocate effort to what carries marks. This is the single most useful idea in the whole of Module I, and it is why topics 2 and 3 belong together.
How Law Is Taught, and Why the Method Matters
The methods this part covers
Teacher centred: the lecture, chapter 230.
Text centred: the case method, chapter 240, and the problem method, chapter 250.
Discussion centred: the Socratic method, the seminar and the tutorial, chapter 260.
Student production: the project and the assignment, chapter 270.
Doing: the clinical method, simulation and role play, chapter 280; the moot court, chapter 290; and court visits, trial observation and internship, chapter 300.
Mediated: technology, e-learning and the online classroom, chapter 310.
And the method this book is an instance of: teaching legal research and legal writing, chapter 320.
Chapter 330 then answers the question the topic really asks, which is how to choose.
A worked example of why the method decides the outcome
One syllabus item: the doctrine of frustration of contract. Three teachers.
Teacher A lectures. She states the rule, gives the leading authorities, explains the exceptions and dictates a summary. At the end the class can reproduce the doctrine. Ninety students were served in fifty minutes.
Teacher B uses the case method. The class reads two judgments in advance and spends the hour working out why the same doctrine produced opposite results. At the end the class understands why the doctrine is uncertain at its edges. Thirty students were served, and only those who read.
Teacher C uses the problem method. The class is given a contract, a set of facts and a client who wants to know whether he must still perform. At the end the class can advise. Twenty-five students were served, and the teacher spent three hours preparing the problem.
All three taught frustration. Ask which was best and the question has no answer until you say what the graduate is supposed to be able to do. Ask which an Indian law college with two hundred students in a class can run, and the answer is the first, whatever anybody prefers.
That is the whole of topic 2 in one example, and an answer that names methods without confronting the constraint has not engaged with the Indian problem.
What this topic is NOT about
It is not about which method is best. No examiner is looking for a winner, and a candidate who declares one has misread the label, which asks for merits and demerits.
It is not about teaching aids. A projector is not a method. The method is what the student is doing.
And it is not only about the classroom. Internship, trial observation and the legal aid clinic are methods, and three of them are examined under Schedule II.
Quick revision
A teaching method is the systematic procedure by which instruction is delivered and learning produced; the choice determines whether a graduate acquires knowledge, reasoning or skill.
How Law Is Taught, and Why the Method Matters
Six questions to ask of any method: what it produces; how many students it serves; what it demands of the teacher; what it demands of the student; what it costs; and how it is assessed.
The assessment question is the decisive one, because students allocate effort to what carries marks, which is why topics 2 and 3 belong together.
The regulator has taken a position: Schedule II prescribes simulation, practical exercises, case study, viva and periodical problem solution for the clinical papers.
The topic asks for merits and demerits, so no chapter in this part declares a winner.
Test yourself
1. Define a method of teaching in exam wording. The systematic procedure by which instruction is delivered and learning is produced, the choice of which determines whether the student acquires knowledge of the rules, the capacity to reason with them, or the skill to apply them.
2. Give the six questions by which a method should be assessed. What it produces; how many students it can serve at once; what it requires of the teacher; what it requires of the student; what it costs; and how it is assessed.
3. Why does the assessment question decide whether a method survives? Because students allocate effort to what carries marks, so a method that cannot be examined is not taken seriously however good it is, which is why examination reform and teaching methods are two halves of one problem.
4. Point to evidence that the regulator regards some things as unteachable by lecture. Schedule II of the Rules of Legal Education 2008 prescribes, for the clinical papers, practical drafting and conveyancing exercises, teaching in association with practising lawyers, simulation and case studies, and assessment by case study, viva and periodical problem solution.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.