This document summarizes a project aimed at developing professional development resources for sessional law teachers in Australia. It notes that sessional teachers undertake half of university teaching but receive little support. The project aims to identify development needs, design and evaluate resources, and distribute them freely online. It involved surveys of sessional staff and associate deans, as well as focus groups. The resulting resources cover areas like critical thinking, ethics, and diversity. They are peer-reviewed, discipline-specific, and focus on just-in-time support. The project seeks to address longstanding and emerging needs in legal education.

1. 1
Building the capacity of
sessional law teachers to meet
the changing demands of legal
education
Natalie Skead, University of Western Australia.
Mark Israel, University of Western Australia.
Mary Heath, Flinders University.
Kate Galloway, Bond University.
Anne Hewitt, University of Adelaide.
Alex Steel, University of New South Wales.
Support for this project has been provided by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching.
The views in this project do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Office for Learning
and Teaching.

2. CHANGING CONTEXT OF LEGAL EDUCATION
Widening participation, increasing access
Increasingly diverse cohort of students
Law student wellbeing at risk
Threshold Learning Outcomes for Law

3. NOT TO MENTION…
Changing nature of legal practice
Increasing proportion of graduates unlikely to end up
as legal practitioners
Declining numbers of students entering law
schools
Changing regulation and accreditation

4. SESSIONAL LAW TEACHERS SHARE THESE
CHALLENGES
Precariously
employed &
little professional
development
Undertake half
of all university
teaching in
Australia (Percy
et al, 2008)

5. SMART CASUAL: PROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN
SESSIONAL TEACHING IN LAW
What
• Provide professional development training for sessional staff in Law
Who
• Natalie Skead and Mark Israel (UWA), Anne Hewitt (Adelaide), Mary
Heath (Flinders), Kate Galloway (Bond), Alex Steel (UNSW)
• Funded by Office for Learning and Teaching Seed Grant ($49k) and
Innovation and Development Grant ($225k)
How
• Identify professional development requirements
• Design, trial and evaluate resources
• Distribute the resources to Australian law schools
5

6. I use the methods that the course
coordinator asks me to use. I’m not being
paid to dream up teaching techniques. I’m
being paid to teach a class and to convey
the necessary material to the students. If
the course coordinator wants me to do this
in a specific way, he/she will tell me to do
that.
So, what would it take...?
6
CURRENT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
PRACTICES?

7. 7
We are different
They are different
It is different
WHY DISCIPLINE-SPECIFIC?

8. Professional
development
resources for
sessional legal
educators
Addressing
identified
national
need
Discipline-
specific
Peer-to-
peer model
Available
freely
online
Just-in-
time

9. WHAT AREAS?
9
Not at all Slightly agree Moderately
agree
Very much
agree
Completely
agree
Facilitate critical thinking of students
Facilitate/manage student participation (in class)
Provide quality feedback to students
Facilitate deeper understanding for students
Assess student learning
Knowledge of practical teaching techniques
Design a tutorial/seminar/workshop
Knowledge of teaching and learning theory
Reflect upon my teaching
Facilitate/manage student participation (online)

10. 10
1. Survey of
Sessional Staff
2. Investigation
involving Assoc
Deans
3. Literature
Review
4. Develop
modules
5. Expert review 5. Revise modules
7. Trial modules 8. Evaluation 9. Refine modules
10. Distribution 11. Dissemination 12. Work with partners

11. SMART CASUAL 1, 2014
Engagement
Problem
solvingFeedback

12. FOCUS GROUPS
‘It was really pleasing to open the modules and think ‘oh,
someone is really concerned about me and what I’m doing’.
Normally you get things that are vague and generic and just
about ‘teaching’ not teaching law. Which is very, very
different.’
‘Every module was extremely important. When I first started
tutoring three years ago I literally got a textbook handed to
me and a topic guide and they said ‘off you go’. I had never
done any teaching before and had no idea what I was doing.’
‘… this is something I could pick up again in two or three
years’ time and look over and still get something out of..
12

13. SMART CASUAL 2, 2015-2016
SIX NEW MODULES
Wellbeing-in-
Law
Indigenous
Peoples and
the Law
Communication &
Collaboration
Critical Legal
Thinking
Reading Law
Legal Ethics &
Professional
Responsibility
TLOs
Existing
research
Smart
Casual 1
findings

14. Diversity Gender
International-
isation
Digital
literacies
PLUS FOUR INTEGRATED THEMES
longstanding + emergent needs identified by legal education stakeholders; in
TLOs

15. DIVERSITY
Law slow to embrace student diversity (Burns, 2014) yet…
Quality in higher education is
synonymous with a broad interpretation of
social inclusion in higher education in that
both are concerned with equitable access,
participatory engagement and empowered
success.
Gidley et al, 2010: 142

16. GENDER
ALRC 1994 recommendations still not achieved
The failure is that we still do not take
sufficient account of the ways that women’s
experience is different from that of men
whether as practitioners or as people forced
to use the law …
Kennedy, 2005

17. INTERNATIONALISATION
Australia has the most internationalised
higher education system in the world, (OECD
2009) without evidence of an
internationalised approach to teaching
Sawir, 2011

18. DIGITAL LITERACY
Competency in using the technologies
relevant to legal practice, but also the
technologies relevant to law teaching to
better prepare law students now for the
practice of law tomorrow.
Thomson, 2009

19. WELLBEING IN LAW
Support for this resource has been provided by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. The views in
this resource do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching.

20. CONCERNING FACTS
Over 35 per cent of Australian law students report experiencing
symptoms of high or very high levels of psychological distress
(Kelk et al 2009)
While this was a self-selected sample, this proportion is significantly
high.
On entering law school, our students enjoy levels of wellbeing equal
to, if not higher than, the general population.
From the first semester of their law studies, students report beginning
to experience symptoms of psychological distress at alarmingly high
rates.
Levels of psychological distress may vary in relation to particular
groups of law students and/or when dealing with particular aspects of
the curriculum.
20

21. BUT WHY?
What are
the
possible
causes?
Innately
pessimistic and
adversarial
nature of law
Heavy student
workload
Grading and
ranking system
Teaching
methods
commonly
adopted in
teaching law
Competitive
nature of law
and law
students
Inadequate
feedback
Finding a
professional
identity
Feelings of lack
of social
connectedness,
competence
and autonomy
High cost of a
legal education
21
Of these possiblecauses, are there any you might affect through your teaching?

22. 22
Expectations
Click on a topic
Respect
Inclusion
Engagement
Support
Feedback
Collaboration
Delight
Sensitivity
EXPLORE FURTHER

23. RESPECT #1
The most important principle of successful teaching is to have a deep
respect for students
(Otto Eckstein quoted in Gullette 1984: 48)
A respectful learning environment:
makes each student feel valued as an individual member of the group
begins with a respectful mindset
requires an awareness of the diversity of the group and an understanding of what
respect might mean to each member of the group
necessitates respectful online and face-to-face behaviour
is fertile ground for:
• exploring, sharing and challenging ideas
• solving problems
• critical reflection
without fear of embarrassment, humiliation or judgment.
23

24. TOOLKIT: RESPECT #1
24
•Work with students to identify what respect means for the group and how it will be
demonstrated
Encourage students to develop a respectful mindset and behave respectfully
•Encouraging students to speak
•Modelling respect when responding to questions, answers, ideas and observations
•Acknowledging and empathising with different perspectives and feelings – even if this may
not traditionally be seen as a consideration in law or legal practice
•Demonstrating critical self-reflection (eg ‘with hindsight perhaps my comment wasn’t
correct/appropriate/wise’)
•Using respectful and considered language when discussing contentious cases, issues,
conduct or topics that students may find upsetting or confronting
•Promoting autonomy through non-controlling language (eg ‘there are several ways you
could present this, the choice is yours’)
Articulate the rules in positive rather than negative terms by
Here John discusses how he creates standards
for mutual respect in his classes [1.10]
How might you nurture a respectful and safe learning environment?

25. COMMUNICATION
AND
COLLABORATION
Support for this resource has been provided by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. The views in
this resource do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching.

26. COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION ‘BLOCKS’
What do you think about the following statements? (adapted from Arkoudis 2014)
Students before they
enter their course of study, and teaching these skills should not be part of higher
education curricula.
is an international
student issue.
Law does not require communication and collaboration skills development
incorporated within the curriculum, as they are not an important part of teaching and
do not have the time or the necessary skills to assess effective
communication and collaboration.
Why might a colleague disagree with your view/s?
How might you respond to that colleague?
26
should develop their communication and collaboration skills
Law teachers
learning in law.
The development of communication and collaboration skills

27. 27
Click on a topic
Feedback
Active
listeningClarifying
expectations
Using
language
specialists
Persuading
Negotiating
Collaboration
and
Teamwork
Working
with
diversity
Explaining
and
advising
Written
communication
Interviewing
clients
Digital
technologies
EXPLORE FURTHER

28. WORKING WITH DIVERSITY
A culturally competent lawyer can anticipate the areas where difference is most likely to arise,
and, equally importantly, the direction in which the differences are most likely to proceed. Knowing that, the
lawyer can anticipate provisionally the places where her model's world view might not be the same as that of
her culturally different client, remaining open to possible misunderstanding and the possibility of conversation
about the differences, if appropriate.
(Tremblay 2002-03: 385-6)
Law schools have an obligation to embrace, celebrate and accommodate diversity by:
building gender-inclusive learning environments that promote gender equality
equipping law graduates to take their place in a multicultural society
teaching and planning learning that both caters for students’ diverse needs and celebrates the variety of student
experiences and perspectives
recognising and responding both to the strengths a diversity of students bring to law and the challenges they will
experience
fostering wellbeing among law students, by facilitating social connectedness among students.
28
… and about awareness of
gendered roles in tutorials [1:30]
Fiona talks about recognising and responding to
diversity [1:29]…
Wellbeing module
Indigenous Peoples and
the Law module

29. TOOLKIT: WORKING WITH DIVERSITY
How might you nurture students’ communication and collaboration skills to
help:
29
• Identify and constructively challenge stereotypical characterisation when
encountered, for example in external sources, student communication and
collaborative behaviour, or dealings with colleagues
• Use gender-neutral language
Promote gender equality
• Accommodate and learn to engage with variation in linguistic competence,
language use and accent by offering opportunities to practice oral
communication, in a safe environment
• Adopt strategies to assist students with communication-related disabilities
• Allocate groups for that reflect and take advantage of the student
cohort’s diversity
Create learning environments
that identify, accommodate
and celebrate the diversity of
students
• Incorporate issues of race, gender, class, sexual orientation, religion and
disability in the examples, names and characters used to illustrate legal
principles
• Facilitate an understanding of how to respond to client diversity, for example
asking students what would help them understand a lawyer’s advice if they
were not fluent in English (use of ‘plain English’, avoiding colloquialisms).
Embed a range of diverse
experiences, needs, values and
perspectives within the
teaching and practice of law
including active listening
teamwork

30. https://smartlawteacher.org
@smartcasuallaw