In Search of a Modern Confucius for Effective Teaching in Law : A Trial Project to Promote Interactive Learning in Taiwan (松浦好治教授退職記念論文集)
This paper observes and reviews the progress of interactive learning in a Taiwan eConfucius Drama Classroom. Based on accumulated findings in a law classroom of blended learning, an innovative pedagogy is introduced to promote conversational teaching with passive students. The Socratic pedagogies may have led the western movements towards interactive learning. Given a different educational heritage in Taiwan, the constructivist teaching value may be realised with culturally situated methods to achieve Socratic ends. The ideas of “guided independent learning” are thus proposed with the back-up of filed findings. In the classroom of a modern Confucius, the teacher remains to be respected, yet learning-centred pedagogies are adopted to lead the students to become active and reflective learners.
More Pedagogic Techniques: Online Exercises & (and) Integrating Skills into Different Kinds of Courses
The Business Practice Clinic is an externship program that sends third-year students out to work either full-time or part-time in an agency or law firm. The externs are trained in the clinical program and during a biweekly class. There is also a three-credit class that students complete before they go into extern placement. It was a big challenge to complete the placement class in only two weeks because of the students’ busy schedules, so we began offering pieces of it online. We are moving more and more of this course to our online platform. This article discusses our experience in preparing third-year students for a transactional clinical experience through the course and how this has been accomplished in an online classroom environment.
Forces Driving and Shaping Legal Training Reform in Japan
After canvassing the history of, and rationale for, legal training reform, the article examines the recommendations of the Justice System Reform Council. It then examines some of the forces that led to the reforms; some of the forces that helped shape the reforms; and the major aspects of the reforms themselves. The second half of the article undertakes an initial assessment of the first year of operation of the new system, focusing on the University of Tokyo, and based upon the author's first-hand experience.