Flipped Learning Case Study: Legislation

Lisa Silver (LLM), Faculty of Law

March 13, 2018

Course title

LAW 403: Legislation

Student profile

First-year law students

Class size

Four sections with 33 students each

Format

In-person, flexible learning space

One of the benefits of teaching at the University of Calgary is the supportive and innovative teaching and learning environment. Yes, we are scholars, but we are also creating leaders of tomorrow. This recognition of what matters here at U of C is exemplified in the [Flipped Learning] Community of Practice (COP), which connects like-minded instructors throughout the U of C landscape under one banner. I am proud to be part of this unique opportunity to create new learning spaces through flipped learning.

Flipped learning, I learned, is not the pushing out of lectures from the classroom but is about creating space in the classroom for student-based learning, which lies outside of but parallel to instructor teaching. The course I will speak to in this posting is an example of how student-centered learning can enhance traditional legal pedagogical teaching and can engage law students in their own learning about the law. Legislation or Law 403 is a mandatory first-year or 1L course which went through a number of transformations before landing on the need to provide performance-based learning through classroom dialogue. It is a course which was fine-tuned before I started teaching it but in which I immediately saw the potential for a meaningful learning experience.

About the course

It is a team-teaching course as the entire 1L class is divided into four class sections with 33 students in each class. Each of the instructors teach the same material on the same day and at the same time. The course itself differs from the other 1L doctrinal courses as it does not emphasize one area of law, such as torts or contracts, but focuses on an analytical tool used in all areas of law. Legislation, as the name suggests, is all about statutory laws. The course is divided into three parts. Part one on law and policy discusses how laws are created and how they may be challenged in court. Part two on drafting, requires the student to create laws. The final part three on statutory interpretation discusses how the courts discern the meaning of those written laws. The course was designed to provide the sharing of information through traditional means but also in-class exercises to provide context to the information. The in-class exercises, what I would call the flipped class experience in the course, turn the lecture word into student performance.

Learning activities

The exercises run the gamut of break-out group discussion of hypothetical fact scenarios to individual and group drafting of legislation. All instructors have access to a number of such exercises which we can choose for each class. These exercises do not require pre-class preparation other than a good working knowledge of the course materials in the form of pre-reading assignments. What does require out of class preparation, is a new element I introduced into my section called “Legislate Me!”. This module requires student participation through a short exercise to kick start each class. Two students volunteer for each class and prepare a short presentation of a piece of legislation which is new, possibly controversial, but has personal meaning for the student. This exercise, as with most flipped learning, brings the “real” into the classroom and connects the material to life experiences.

After teaching the course that first year, I realized the student-centred portion of the course would be greatly enhanced through the use of smart technology. I applied for and was granted the opportunity to offer the course in the flexible learning spaces of the Teaching Institute. This unique learning space provides just the right learning environment and infrastructure needed for the student-based learning exercises to flourish.

In the learning studio, the students engage more effectively with the material and each other by sitting in groups of five students. Each group can access a large multi-media monitor where they cast their group and individual work for small group discussion. The even larger “jumbo Tron” monitor at the front of the classroom highlights group work for the other students to analyze and review. This promotes a multi-layer free flow of discussion of the work at hand. Students learn better and perform better as they apply the doctrinal aspects of the law to real life experiences.

The flexible classroom setup offers an added advantage of being different from a traditional classroom making the class “special.” The students, when they walk into the room know that the approach and learnings in the class will go beyond the usual traditional lecture scenario and provide a safe place where the student will lead, not the instructor. Flipped learning becomes flipped classroom, both literally and figuratively.

Although I have used performance-based learning moments in my courses previous to Legislation, this course taught me the benefits of a fully integrated classroom experience. It also taught me that thinking big does not require many changes to the classroom experience, it just requires thinking differently.