International Conference on the Future of Legal Education
Georgia State University College of Law, Atlanta, Georgia.
February 20-23, 2008.
Integrating the Knowing, the Doing
and the Practise for
Radical Curriculum Renewal.
Professor Sally Kift
Carrick Senior Fellow
QUT, Australia
a university for the
real world
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
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Queensland University of Technology,
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
• Where we are
Brisbane
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/australia/
a university for the
real world
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
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QUT and Australian
legal education context
• QUT: approx 40,000 students;
4
campuses; 9 Faculties; 3000 staff
• QUT Law: approx 3,500 in undergrad, postgrad and
research; 3 schools; 60 F/T law teachers
• Law in Australia:
–
–
–
–
Undergraduate degree (F/T3-4 yrs); double degree 5yrs
then a Legal Practice Course (F/T 6mths) or Bar Practice;
then admitted to practice.
Most states have mandatory CPD [“CLE”].
a university for the
real world
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
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“Law schools rarely teach students
how to be lawyers”
The Wall Street Journal
Meet the Clients
Law schools rarely teach students how to be lawyers.
BY CAMERON STRACHER
Friday, January 26, 2007 12:01 a.m.
The recent arrest of Anderson Kill & Olick paralegal
Brian Valery for practicing law without a license
raises a number of questions about how the ersatz
Fordham graduate could have gotten away with
representing corporate clients in complex litigation-without ever having gone to law school. The more
salient question, however, is: Would it have mattered
if he had?
http://www.opinionjournal.com/forms/printThis.html?id=110009581
a university for the
real world
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
CRICOS No. 000213J
Why radical law curriculum renewal?
• Confluence of legal and non-legal drivers
• Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC)
– Urged curriculum re-orientation towards “what lawyers
need to be able to do [rather than] anchored around
outmoded notions of what lawyers need to know” –
endorsed MacCrate and Ormrod (1971, UK)
• Resonated with what was happening around us
– Dynamic change in both HE and legal services sectors
by reason of (eg) globalisation, competitiveness and
competition reform, information and communications
technology, shifting knowledge and practice bases,
and significant structural change
a university for the
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
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Big changes in Higher Education
• Changing patterns of student engagement and massification
of HE participation = diversity
• Expectations of professionalism in HE learning and teaching
(reflected in institutional policy)
– esp re nature of student learning (active vs passive) and
assessment for, of and as learning; criterion referenced assessment
• Students now change careers several times over working life
– 50-60% of law graduates only remain in longer term legal practice
• Law School role in continuum of lifelong (legal) learning
• Students needed knowledge, skills and attitudes to engage
effectively in new knowledge economies
– Beyond technical disciplinary expertise
a university for the
real world
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
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“Graduate Attributes”
“employability skills”
• Graduate attributes: “the qualities, skills and
understandings a university community expects its students
to develop during their time at the institution and,
consequently, shape the contribution they are able to make
to their profession and as a citizen”.
Bowden et al, Generic Capabilities of ATN University Graduates, ATN, 2000.
http://www.clt.uts.edu.au/ATN.grad.cap.project.index.html
• Since 1998, almost every Aust uni has its own statement
– Required to embed in core curriculum
– QUT: Discipline knowledge & skills; critical, creative & analytical
thinking; problem-solving; communication; life-long learning; work
independently & collaboratively; social & ethical responsibility;
Indigenous & international perspectives; self-reliance and leadership
a university for the
real world
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
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“Graduate Attributes”
“employability skills”
• Employability skills are a “subset” of GAs
• Universities urged to play role in developing these skills
• Employability skills:
• US Partnership for 21st Century Skills Learning for the 21st Century
(2002): workers need critical thinking, problem solving, team work
and decision-making skills
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=42
• UK Leitch Review of Skills (2006)
• [Aust] Graduate Employability Skills (2007)
(http://www.dest.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/E58EFDBE-BA83-430E-A5412E91BCB59DF1/18858/GraduateEmployabilitySkillsFINALREPORT.pdf)
8 employability skills: communication, teamwork, problem solving,
self-management, planning & organisation, technology, lifelong
learning, initiative and enterprise
• How different from MacCrate?
a university for the
real world
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
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Consequent Law Curriculum Renewal
• To address
– First year transition and experience issues (re
massification and diversity)
– To “pay attention to the overall purposes and effects
of [our] school's educational efforts” (Carnegie at 89)
– To do so on a genuinely systematic & comprehensive
basis
• “Efforts to improve legal education have been more
piecemeal than comprehensive. Few schools have made the
overall practices and effects of their educational effort a
subject for serious study. Too few have attempted to address
these inadequacies on a systemic basis.” (Carnegie at 190)
a university for the
real world
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
CRICOS No. 000213J
Whole of course approach for desirable
student learning outcomes
My School
– Whole-of-course approach to the intentional integration
and incremental sequencing of knowledge, skills and
attitudes (including pervasive professionalism) for
progressive development and acquisition over the course
of degree
– Worked with the “graduate attributes” (GAs).
Carnegie Report
– Integrate the three “professional apprenticeships”
1. The “cognitive apprenticeship”
2. The “practical apprenticeship” and
3. The “ethical-social/formative apprenticeship”
a university for the
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
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A “staged, holistic and consultative process”
(McKenzie et al, 2005)
Step 1 – what are the learning objectives?
– Additional to discipline knowledge
– Identify the attributes and the generic & discipline-specific
skills required by and of our law graduates
– Used multiple sources – esp MacCrate and Bell &
Johnstone (UK); also international reports; employers and
graduates surveys; generic and discipline research and
data; QUT’s generic list of GAs
– Developed Table of Core Skills
• Several rounds of feedback from graduates, staff, students,
employers (through surveys & focus groups)
– Evaluated, disseminated and iterative
• (eg) revisiting again this year in cyclical curriculum review
a university for the
real world
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
CRICOS No. 000213J
A “staged, holistic and consultative process”
(McKenzie et al, 2005)
Step 1 – what are the learning objectives?
– Six desirable attributes of a law graduate determined as:
• Discipline Knowledge; Ethical Attitude; Communication;
Problem Solving and Reasoning; Information Literacy;
Interpersonal Focus.
– Deconstruct GAs to identify various skills that desirably
combine for student development and acquisition of them
• Generic & discipline specific skills interrelate with each other
and also overlap to underpin effective (holistic) skills
development and the ultimate attainment of the desirable
graduate attribute package
– Then articulate 3 progressive levels of skills development
for staged acquisition over course of degree
a university for the
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
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The skills identified – broadly categorised
Attitudinal skills
• Ethical values
• Creative outlook
• Reflective practice
• Inclusive perspective
• Social justice orientation
• Adaptive behaviour
• Pro-active behaviour
Cognitive skills
• Problem solving
• Legal analysis
• Information literacy
• Legal research
• Document management
• Discipline & ethical knowledge
a university for the
real world
Communication skills
• Oral communication
• Oral presentations
• Advocacy
• Legal interviewing
• Mooting
• Negotiation
• Written communication
• Drafting
Relational skills
• Work independently
• Teamwork
• Appreciation of diversity
• Time management
• International perspective
• Indigenous perspective
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
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Aust Models for skills integration.
• Johnstone & Vignaendra Learning Outcomes &
Curriculum Development in Law (2003) at 134-161
http://admin.carrickinstitute.edu.au/dspace/handle/10096/3492
 Minimalist (largely ad hoc, general, implicit);
 More explicit (more systematic and structured –
some stand alone units, some clinical, some
elective);
 Integrated (where skills are built up incrementally
and in a co-ordinated manner)
 Integrated Professional Legal Training into the
LLB
• Most Aust Law Schools w/i first two models
a university for the
real world
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
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A taxonomy for skills acquisition
• Step 2 – a skills taxonomy to enable embedding
• Graduate Capabilities: qualities, skills & understandings
Uni agrees its students should develop while at institution
• Skills: broadly categorised as attitudinal, cognitive,
relational & communication
– Course Objective: level of competency expected of a
graduate for each skill on graduation
• Demonstrated Ability: of graduate for each skill – ie, to
meet final course objective, will need to demonstrate
certain abilities
– 3 broad levels of incremental progression for each
level, skill mapped onto appropriate unit
a university for the
real world
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
CRICOS No. 000213J
A taxonomy for skills acquisition
• Step 2 – a skills taxonomy an example
• Graduate Capability – Communication
• Skill – written communication/ legal letter writing
– Course Objective – Demonstrate ability to write legal
letter in plain English; “customised” depending on the
purpose for which it is written by identifying whether the
function of letter is (a)information (b)request
(c)persuasion (d)record or a combination of these
functions; utilising formalities such as salutations; for
appropriate audience.
• Demonstrated Ability: to level 1, 2, or 3 of the 3 broad
levels of incremental progression
a university for the
real world
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
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Curriculum Mapping
• Step 3 – review degree to map new learning
objectives “appropriately”
– most Aust Law Schools now have done or are doing
– “appropriate” re considered, sequential placement of
skill (as previously for content)
– “appropriate” re thoughtful alignment of skill with the
subject content (eg: advocacy in criminal law,
negotiation in contract law, client interviewing in torts
law, etc)
– Quickly discovered necessity to attend to first year
curriculum design in the developmental sense to
provide the indispensable curriculum foundation on
which to build whole-of-program profile
a university for the
real world
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Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
CRICOS No. 000213J
Step 3 – Curriculum Mapping
Broadly –
– Starts with whole program mapping – matrix
– Then each subject w/i program: how does each subject contribute
to overall program development of knowledge, skills and values –
having regard to
• Whether taught, practised and/or assessed AND (Biggs) alignment;
• To what level – (eg novice, intermediate, advanced?);
• Building on existing expertise & prior learning;
• Complementing concurrent subjects;
• Preparing students for higher order outcomes as they progress;
• Making career relevance explicit;
• Forming professional identity.
– Review whole program looking for gaps & over-emphasis
– Ongoing monitoring, evaluating & renewal over time
a university for the
real world
R
Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
CRICOS No. 000213J
Lessons learnt
• Not simple or mechanistic
• Big culture shift for Faculty and students
• Takes time, resourcing and commitment to transformative
and integrative practices – esp authentic LT &A
• Embed in robust program documentation
• Assessment challenging – we revisited in 2003…
• Articulate Law School role in continuum of legal education
• Need to attend to tertiary literacies of law students (esp
academic literacies of reading, referencing, listening, writing
and presenting orally in the discipline – “unlearning”)
• Pervasive professionalism is hard – affective domain
a university for the
real world
R
Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
CRICOS No. 000213J
What we [I] would do differently
• Be even more explicit in communication with students
– Esp explicit (and constantly iterated) program roadmap for them
• Try for more “cross-integration” at higher levels
• Be careful about over assessing
• “Refresh” teaching delivery
– Esp as an opportunity to deliver blended learning environments
– Scaffold student experience of program – first year to capstone & out
•
•
•
•
Make (better) informed decisions about what to leave out
Articulate and enact the teaching/research nexus
Build in more peer-to-peer interaction (PASS / SI schemes)
Embrace the ePortfolio
a university for the
real world
R
Sally Kift, QUT, AUSTRALIA
CRICOS No. 000213J
Thank-you for listening
Questions and Comments
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Queensland University of Technology