First-year law students’ construction of professional identity through writing

While there is a considerable body of research on law student identity construction based on interviews and transcripts of classroom talk, there is very little work based on student written texts. In this article two letters of advice written by beginning law students are analysed, using Ivanic and Camps’s (2001) framework, as an example of identity formation. Legal identity is argued to be formed by students’ attempts to accommodate a dynamic, partial, practitioner role of provider of advice to the traditional analytic focus of the law student. The process of accommodation is evident in the language of the letters, which show disfluencies resulting from attempts to combine different roles into a coherent legal identity. Comparison with a professionally written letter suggests that, rather than seeking to shape a coherent position, lawyers are able simultaneously to hold incompatible perspectives, concealing the tensions by foregrounding some perspectives and backgrounding others.

Student responses to questions about assessment practices across three different countries

This dataset relates to the assessment practices used in the RMIT School of Accounting and Law in programs taught in Melbourne, Singapore and Hong Kong between 2005 and 2006. These assessment parctices were examined to determine, first, how they measured students’ attainment of the profession’s generic skills, and second, whether different approaches to assessment were taken across the three locations. The students enrolled in these programs were investigated - their cultural backgrounds, their prior learning experiences, their assessment practices and their performance in assessment. At the same time, consultations were held with teaching staff and with employers across the three locations to determine their views about assessment and student and graduate quality. Finally, as a result of the feedback from the previous stages, a number of different approaches to assessment were trialled and evaluated.

Socratic teaching, the law and professional identity

This paper uses critical discourse analysis of interactions between law students and their lecturer to show how ‘Socratic’ teaching is used as a powerful technique to shape student identities. Data from a moot or simulated court in taxation law is analysed to show how students position themselves and are positioned as legal professionals. The paper argues that one student’s poor performance in the moot can be interpreted as resistance to attempts to influence her to adopt an uncongenial speaking position. This example supports the view that the difficulty law students have in learning to ‘think like a lawyer’ results not from a failure of skill but from the problems they have in assuming the speaking position of a legal professional. It is suggested that educators should consider helping students come to terms with the fragmented and contradictory subject positions associated with professionalisation.

Family law

This series comprises a range of student texts, each adopting a problem-solving approach within a discrete area of the law. This text is designed as an easily accessible account of the legislative and judicial principles contained in Australian family law.

Real property law

The aim of this book is to provide the student and/or practitioner with a straightforward outline of some of the primary elements underlying the recognition and regulation of real property.

Corporations law text and essential cases

Corporations Law: Text and Essential Cases is designed as a student text but will be a useful book for practitioners seeking a good, current, concise book on corporations law. Author Julie Cassidy is a proven, successful author and has carefully ensured that the case extracts in this book are long enough to be useful to lawyers needing to cite case authorities in opinions and court submissions.

Study mode and student university choice : an empirical investigation

The thesis investigated the importance of study mode in university choice relative to other considerations. Study mode was found to be more important than either university or tuition fees. However, differences existed across segments. Also identified were segments based on students' preferences for combinations of face-to-face and distance study modes.

Learning approaches and student perceptions of teaching quality

This research investigated the links between students' personal characteristics, their approaches to learning and their perceptions of teaching quality in a first-year accounting unit. Significant learning differences were found between Australian and Chinese students, and strong inter-relationships between contextual factors, such as teaching quality, and learning approaches were identified.

Is the lecturer in the room? a study of student satisfaction with online discussions in practical legal training

Reports an exploratory practitioner-initiated study that developed and implemented an online questionnaire to collect data from PLT students in three states, regarding their satisfaction with online discussions. Students’ perceptions of ‘community of inquiry framework’ elements, Marzano and Kendall’s ‘self-system’ factors, and other contextual aspects, were investigated and tested for correlations.The study found student satisfaction with the online discussions was most closely associated with ‘teaching presence’. Students’ satisfaction with student-student interactions was closely associated with ‘self-system’ factors.