Abstract:
Students sitting quietly, typing what their teacher is lecturing about – why do legal classrooms have to look that way? In this presentation, we (a student and a teacher) will reflect on our experience of student-teacher partnership and show that students are fully equipped to create knowledge and lead intellectual discussions.
The seed of our partnership was sowed back in 2017, when a group of HKU law students and their teacher Alice Lee founded a partnership project under the name “Legal Education Aligned with Diversity” (LEAD). During summer in the same year, LEAD members produced a series of educational videos and revamped lecture outlines for the land law course.
Since academic year 2017-2018, Optional Exploration, a learning and assessment activity that provides a platform for students to demonstrate their understanding of legal principles through creative means, has been implemented in the land law course. LEAD’s videos were used as samples to show how legal knowledge can be presented through multimedia tools. Students who would like to take part in Optional Exploration shall form groups and choose a topic from the syllabus to work on, submit an action plan, and upload their product onto Moodle in advance. To show how creative students can be and how much they gain from the activity, we will share videos produced by students, survey statistics and student feedback.
Finally, in light of the benefits of student-teacher partnership, we will explain why students taking the LEAD in legal education should be the new normal.
Speakers:
Prof. Alice Lee, Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Faculty of Law, HKU
Alice Lee, Associated Dean and Associate Professor of Law, has specialized in Land Law and Intellectual Property education since she joined the University of Hong Kong. She has co-launched Creative Commons Hong Kong, served on various consultative committees including the Advisory Committee on Review of the Patent System, and initiated an Intellectual Property Ambassador Programme with the government. As Associate Dean, she launched the Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award and chairs the Teaching and Learning Quality Committee. She is also chair of the HKU Teaching Exchange Scheme for academic staff. As a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (HEA), she has mentored colleagues and advocated HEA core values and strategies. She has been partnering with students in pedagogical and curriculum development since 2016 and received the University Distinguished Teaching Award from HKU in 2019.
Ms. Phoebe Woo, BA(Literary Studies) & LLB, HKU; LLM, University of Cambridge
Phoebe Woo obtained her bachelor’s degrees in laws and arts from the University of Hong Kong and is pursuing an LLM degree at the University of Cambridge. She is a co-founder of Legal Education Aligned with Diversity (LEAD) and is keen to promote student-led learning at the university. She is currently engaged in cross-disciplinary projects that explore how artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance the practicality of legal education, and support students in developing entrepreneurial skills.