SELİM İLERİ

The interview data suggest that PBL was demanding for beginning university students. How-ever, at the same time,itwas a rewarding learning methodforthem.Based on thestudent interviews, engagement was promoted in the following ways:

• Students had high expectations of the course. The course has a good reputation among stu-dents

• Challenging, relevant and authentic task/assignments were used. It means that the course washighlypractical, and students appreciatedthat. Students saw that they were able to put theoretical knowledge into practice

• Students reported in interview that the course helped them to make connections and syn-thesise the course content with their prior knowledge. Furthermore, students said that the course helped them to recognise and make connections between different concepts which were taught during the first and second study year (cf. Durrant & Hartman, 2015)

• The teaching and learning environment also supported students’ autonomy by giving them more opportunitiestomake their owndecisions andchoicesthan intheir previous courses

• Students did not haveothercoursesat the same time, thus they were able to concentrate solely on this course

• Students shared the meaningful learning goals for the group work

• Teacherencouragement, support and formative feedback were provided throughout the field period. Students experienced thatresponsibility for monitoring their own learning processes and to regulate the group work processes was a challenging task, butat the same time it was a strength of the course. The students emphasised in interview that the teacher’s support and external regulationfor the group workwascrucial. PBLcan be a very demanding learning activity especially for beginninguniversity students. Therefore, it is obvious that students neededteacher facilitation in their learning processes (cf. Aarnio, 2015)

• Co-operation among students. All students participated in the group work and knowledge constructions during the course. Observationdatashows that group cohesiondeveloped during the course. For example, a process of collective action ‘against’ the othergroups

arose, illustrating that students startedto highlight the differencebetween ‘we’and ‘them’. A recent casestudyofgroup cohesion by Hendry, Wiggins and Anderson (2016) demon-strates how a process of collective action against the othersimpact positively on group dynamics

Incontrast, students also reported that there were some otheraspects which diminished their engagement:

• Heavy workload

• Too tightschedule. Some students found that threeweeks were too short timeframe to conduct the research project

• A lack of personalfeedback. Some students wished for more personal feedback. As one student explained: ‘I wanted much more personal feedback about my performance in group work’

• Variationinprior knowledge and a lack of prerequisite knowledgeandskills, such as sta-tistical knowledge. Some students reported that too-difficult learning activities, such as statistical analysis of data, were not as effective at engaging them in learning

• Imbalances in group work. The observation data suggest that some students tended to dominate the group discussions, while others opted out of discussions

8.6 Discussion

This casereport provides an illustrative example of how a learning-focused approach is ap-pliedandenacted in the context ofbiology. Thissection providesan overview ofthe opportu-nities andchallenges identified during the course. Thiscaseimplies how alearning-focused pedagogicalapproach can provide students with anopportunity to facilitatelearning critical thinking and employ knowledge construction early at the beginning of university studies.

However, it is worth noting that PBL is not synonymous withcritical thinking. In all probabil-ity, critical thinking occurs if the students are supported, assessed, encouraged and given feedback asthey are using criticalthinking skills (such asanalysing and evaluating arguments and knowledge, recognising biasesand weakarguments, providing arguments and making decisions)with their peers and on theirown. In order to promotecritical thinking the use of authentic, complex, open-ended assignments including knowledge construction and prob-lem-solving havebeen suggested (see Arum & Roksa, 2011; Halpern, 2014).

8.6.1 Enhancing students’ critical thinking in PBL

Learning to thinkcritically is an important learning objective. Critical thinking is found to be an essential factor for university students in theprogress of their studies (Arum & Roksa, 2011). It is thus important to findways to enhancetheseabilitiesearly oninhighereducation.

Previous research showsthat criticalthinking involvesskills, knowledge and dispositions: a critical thinker needs to have the knowledge of what is reasonable to the context or task, ce r-tainskills toevaluate and use thatknowledge, aswellassharing the criticalspirit to do so

(Hyytinen, 2015; Halpern, 2014). In the literature on critical thinking the following key as-pects of teaching are promoted: (1) teaching and learning activities shouldfocus explicitlyon criticalthinking skills (e.g. teaching explicitly encourages and challenges students to analyse and evaluate arguments and knowledge, to recognise biases and weak arguments, to provide arguments and tomakedecisions); (2)teaching andlearningactivitiesshoulddevelop a dis-position for effortful thinking and learning; (3) teaching and learning activitiesshould focus on learning activities that increase the probability oftransfer; and (4) teaching and learning activities should focus on metacognitive skills (Halpern, 2014). The observation data suggest that theseaspects run through the course:in PBL students assessed, evaluated, and inter-preted knowledge from different sources, they drove well-reasoned conclusions bytesting them against relevant criteria, and they needed to think open-mindedly with alternative so-lutionsand to communicate their findingseffectively.Simultaneously, theteacher supported, asked open-ended questions, and gavefeedback, encouragedcritical engagement with ideas, and promoted thoroughelaborationof the topic.The field course also provided for students an opportunity to conduct an authentic research project.The envisaged design of the course thus followed the main principles of teaching critical thinking.

The reports of both teacher and students implies that the coursedesign also allowed stu-dents to employ conceptual knowledge in new contexts and make learning visible through conducting a research project. Students felt that they were able to put factual knowledgeinto practice. There is research evidence that PBL provides a suitable context for transferring what one haslearnt in one context toothercontexts or situations (Aarnio, 2015). In PBL students are also expected to gain a deeper understanding of the domain-specific knowledge that often appears to be veryabstract level. Based on the observationdata the course also taught stu-dents to cope withuncertainty and stress by not giving students aclearpicture of the prob-lem. The course, especially writing the field report and presenting findings, taught students that it is not enough toknow, but that theymust be able to use the knowledge in a meaningful way.The fieldcourse enabled students to work autonomously, to enjoy learningrelationships withothers, and to feelthat they were competent toachieve their own learning goals.The coursethus offered an educational experience for students that waschallenging and enrich-ing, and at the same time extended their generic academic abilities.

8.6.2 Alignment of the objectives, teaching and learning activities and assess-ment

As illustrated by this case, PBL offers a good starting point for designing and implementing learning-focused teaching and learning activitiesinbiology. In linewith the research litera-ture, thiscaseshowsthat PBL highlights the students’ active role in the learning processes (cf. Aarnio,2015). However, regardless of the teaching method used, enacting learning-fo-cused courses requires thorough planning in order to attend to the alignment of the different elements of the teaching-learning environment (Biggs & Tang, 2011). Inthiscourse, the lead teacher engaged withthis task in a thorough manner: the teaching and learningactivities, such asgroup work, seminars, topics of the lectures, feedback and home-based examination

were specific to the learning objectives. Theobservationdatasuggest that the envisaged de-sign followed for the most part the principles of constructive alignment: objectives, teaching and learning activities, and assessmentwere inline witheach other and the objectives clearly emphasised what kind of knowledge students were supposed to learn and why. However, the reports of both teachers and students implies that some part of summative assessment could be furtherdeveloped. For example, thegraded tasks could be better linkedback to course objectives via clearer assessment criteria and rubric. This would also increasethevisibility and fairness of the assessment.

8.6.3 Challenges in group cohesion in the PBL environment

As noted before, some students tended todominate the group discussions,while others re-main more or less passivebystanders. Previous research on PBLshows thatthere are several reasons for inadequate participation in discussions (see more, Aarnio,2015). First, some stu-dents can be shy in sharing their ideas in group work. However, ifstudents opted outofgroup discussion,the potential differences instudents’ thinking remaininvisible. Second, differing ideas in a group can evoke negative feelings such astension or irritation.These negative feel-ingscan result inconflict. Students usually try to avoid confrontation and conflict in a group (Aarnio, 2015).Third,students’ orientationtothegroup workcan differ. Fourth, studentscan compete with each other. Finally,in the present case, a great variation in prior knowledgeand a lack of prerequisite knowledgewere also reasons for inadequateparticipation.Weknow that conflict can be constructive or destructive. There is evidence that if students feelsafe, they do not competewith each other, and they have a sharedcommitmenttogroup work, then confrontation in group work ismost likely to lead to constructiveconflict (Aarnio, 2015;

Van DenBossche etal., 2006). According to theobservationnotes, the studentgroup observed facedconflicts that were mainly of aconstructive nature. The teacher also ensured that all students, especially those who seemedto withdraw from group work, had a task to undertake, and encouraged them to interact withother students. However, this issue should be explored in a moredetailedway.Aarnio (2015)found that dealing with conflict in PBLenhances stu-dents’ learning while also developing critical thinking skills.

8.6.4 Conclusion and recommendations

Inconclusion, this case providesinsights into a teaching and learning environment which aims tofacilitate beginning sciencestudents’ criticalthinking skills and deeplearning pro-cesses by adopting a learning-focused approach to teaching. The teaching and learning activ -ities of this case are basedon the principles of PBL, which provide a pedagogically-relevant foundation to the course. According to its theoretical underpinnings, PBL as a teaching method develops students’ knowledge by applying ittoauthenticsituations. Itfurther pro-motes students’ problem-solving abilities and self-regulation skills by addressing genuine problems from the respective discipline (Aarnio, 2015). Based on this case the following re c-ommendations can be provided regarding PBL courses:

• Carrying out the coursedescribed in thiscasereport requires many resources: PBL courses are time-consuming and they require a heavy workload both from teachers andstudents.

• This caseillustrates that it is important that students are informedbeforehand that the PBL requires them to work intensively both in a peergroup and independently. This helps students to orient themselves to the expectations.

• Inorder to ensure a successfullearningexperiencefor beginning students, it is necessary that teachers whoare involved in a PBL courseneed to haverelevant pedagogical under-standing about group work, i.e. they need to knowhow to facilitatestudents’ learning pro-cesses, howto promoteactive and equalparticipation in the discussion, andhowto pro-mote a safe atmosphere in the group. At the same time, teachersneed to be experts in sub-ject and content. The teachers’ task is to ensure that any misconceptions, vague notions or superficiality about the topic are challenged (see more Aarnio, 2015). Theseaspects need to be taken into account when recruiting teachers and tutors.

• When planning the PBL course it is important to considerwhether the level of the learning objectives is appropriate and realistic in light of the learners’ prior knowledge, level of de-velopment, and time available. It is important to ensure that students meetthe require-ments with regard to knowledge and skills necessary for the course. A lack of prerequisite knowledge can cause problems in PBL and break group cohesion.

• PBL alone does not enhance deeplearning processes or criticalthinking of students, mean-ing that teaching and learning activitiesneed to be inline withthe objectives of the course, contents and assessment procedures(Biggs & Tang, 2011). Theproblempresented in the PBL has to be challenging. Furthermore, inorder to promote critical thinking,students need support when they are using critical thinking skills to solve a problem

Heidi Hyytinen & Anne Haarala-Muhonen

This chapter:

• Gives an example of a lecture-based course for a large group of students, and how lectures and essay writing can enhance students’ understanding of legal methodology

• Discusses opportunities and challenges related to lecture-based courses, and in the area of legal methodology more specifically

• Illustrates challenges both in pedagogical approaches to the teaching of methods and in what is meant by methodology in a specific knowledge domain

• Provides recommendations on how to develop a lecture-based course in legal methodologies

9.1 Introduction

The present case reportfocuses on the use of largeclass lectures and essay writing in a course inlegal methodologies and how theseactivitiesprovide opportunities to deepen master’s stu-dents’ understanding of legalmethodology and reasoning. One of the mainrequired compe-tencies for legalprofessionals isadvanced legal writing and reasoning skills (Kowalski,2010).

However, previous research has shown that implicit teaching is often a primary way to sup-port students’ development of legal methodologyandreasoning (Mertz, 2007).The reasons for thismightbe that themethodologyoflaw has been describedas difficult and opaque, for example, comparedwithnaturalscience (Hirvonen, 2011). It follows that there are several definitions and conceptions of what is meant by legal methodology within the domain of law.

Inaddition,it has been describedasnon-strict and pluralistic (Hirvonen, 2011). Alsoin the legal methodology literature there are different ways to talk about legal methods. On the one hand, the concept of methodology is used as a synonym for the generallegal method and rea-soning which is neededinpractice and interpretationinlaw (Hirvonen, 2011). On the other hand, legal methodologycan also refer to the different research methods to conduct legal re-search and to develop a legaltheory of knowledge (Hirvonen, 2011). Itissuggested as im-portant that students learn to apply legal methodsand understand different aspects pertain-ing tolegal methodologyduring theiruniversity studies (Bager-Elsborgh, 2017; Hirvonen, 2011).

9 Large class lectures and essay writing in

legal education

The coursepresented inthisreport is a new courseinwhich thesedifferent aspects of legal methodologyare taught explicitly.The course combines both content-focused lectures and students’ independent learning. This course was selected as highly representative of lecture-based teaching and learning. Given these characteristics, the course we report here allows us to deepen our understanding of the elements of a teaching and learning environment which either enhance or impedestudents’ understandinglearning criticalthinking and knowledge construction. students’ understanding of legal methodology and reasoning. It also gives us an opportunity to examine and identify whatkind of challenges and advantages students and teachers face duringthecourse relating to combining lectures and students’independent learning. Thiscasefurther sets out toidentify whatwecan learn about issues that matter for quality of educational practices. Beforepresenting the coursedesign and activities of this case, we give a brief overview of the educational practices that are typical inthe discipline of law and what is relevant for understanding teaching legal methodologies.