Abstract:
Various forms of problem-based learning (PBL) have over the years been trialled in law schools around the world. PBL is generally considered to be more student-centred and better capable of motivating law students than more traditional legal teaching methods. PBL is also recognised to enhance students’ skills, such as problem-solving or communication skills. Yet it is rare to see a direct link between problem-based learning and traditional means of assessment in law, such as research essays. This presentation brings that link to bear, using the example of the intensive ‘Health Law’ elective taught at Flinders University in the (Australian) summer of 2020. It seeks to demonstrate that by embedding different aspects of legal research into carefully crafted scenarios used within classic forms of problem-based learning (where students do not receive any information, readings or lectures before working on these scenarios), students can be provided with the scaffolding they need to perform well in traditional forms of assessment, notably final research papers.
Speaker:
Dr. Esther Erlings, Lecturer, Flinders University, Adelaide (AU)
Esther Erlings is a lecturer in law at Flinders University, where she is also the Honours Coordinator and Area Advisor for Higher Research Degrees (Law). Esther has taught a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate topics during her time at Flinders, most of which in the
areas of tort law, health law and research skills. She is also her College’s representative to the Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity and was recently invited to join Flinder’s Health Care Management Course Quality Advisory Group.
Esther’s primary research focus is intra-family dispute resolution, in particular parent-child mediation (where parents and children mediate directly with each other). She also researches on other matters of family law such as parental responsibility, health law, education law and law & religion. Esther recently published her monograph ‘Religious Rights Within the Family: From Coerced Manifestation to Dispute Resolution in France, England and Hong Kong’ (Routledge, 2019).