TY - JOUR

T1 - Two birds, one stone

T2 - combining student assessment and socio-legal research

AU - Potter, Gary

AU - Williams, Catherine

PY - 2007

Y1 - 2007

N2 - Assessing students is an essential part of any university law course.Traditional forms of assessment, predominantly examinations and essay typecoursework, can be an uninspiring experience for students, whooften sit many modules at the same time in a course and who facesimilar forms of assessment in their modules, again often at the sametime. The "strategic learner" may well engage more with the idea ofpassing the assessment—ticking the boxes for essay writing or examtechnique—than the actual subject matter. The social context of the law,the views and experiences of the public, may rarely get a look-in in thelearning and assessment process. At the same time marking courseworkcan be tedious with little or no benefit to the assessor other than againticking the necessary boxes and getting the students, production linefashion, through the course and qualification. This article examines oneway in which student projects can be harnessed both by the academic,for socio-legal research, and be used to enhance the student learningexperience. Using recent examples from the authors' own teaching(assessing) experience it aims to demonstrate how setting projects for lawstudents can be a valuable form of learning and assessment, and also auseful and valid tool for the academic researcher exploring socio-legalissues. The article is somewhat descriptive in approach, deliberately so.The aims are to introduce some ideas as to how assessment in lawteaching can be made more interesting and more useful for both studentsand teachers, and also to explore new ways in which teaching,assessment and research can feed off each other allowing academics tomaximise the utility of resources. Research funding is increasingly tight,yet the potential resource of student researchers is somewhat under used.We would welcome some debate as to how the method described can berefined.

AB - Assessing students is an essential part of any university law course.Traditional forms of assessment, predominantly examinations and essay typecoursework, can be an uninspiring experience for students, whooften sit many modules at the same time in a course and who facesimilar forms of assessment in their modules, again often at the sametime. The "strategic learner" may well engage more with the idea ofpassing the assessment—ticking the boxes for essay writing or examtechnique—than the actual subject matter. The social context of the law,the views and experiences of the public, may rarely get a look-in in thelearning and assessment process. At the same time marking courseworkcan be tedious with little or no benefit to the assessor other than againticking the necessary boxes and getting the students, production linefashion, through the course and qualification. This article examines oneway in which student projects can be harnessed both by the academic,for socio-legal research, and be used to enhance the student learningexperience. Using recent examples from the authors' own teaching(assessing) experience it aims to demonstrate how setting projects for lawstudents can be a valuable form of learning and assessment, and also auseful and valid tool for the academic researcher exploring socio-legalissues. The article is somewhat descriptive in approach, deliberately so.The aims are to introduce some ideas as to how assessment in lawteaching can be made more interesting and more useful for both studentsand teachers, and also to explore new ways in which teaching,assessment and research can feed off each other allowing academics tomaximise the utility of resources. Research funding is increasingly tight,yet the potential resource of student researchers is somewhat under used.We would welcome some debate as to how the method described can berefined.

U2 - 10.1080/03069400.2007.9959722

DO - 10.1080/03069400.2007.9959722

M3 - Journal article

VL - 41

SP - 1

EP - 18

JO - Law Teacher

JF - Law Teacher

SN - 0306-9400

IS - 1

ER -