Lina Tay
Have you ever been so curious about how and what a Professor does to set up the class effectively? That is also my question. This short blog will explore my direct observation to several law classes at the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana in order to provide the answers.
My name is Lina, from Cambodia. I join the YSEALI Fellowship program in this fall season at the University of Montana. Throughout the four days in a row this week at the University of Montana, firstly I met my fellowship coordinator, namely Professor Monte Mills who is a head of Margery Hunter Brown Indian law Clinic for the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana. At an orientation session for my first arrival at his office, Pro. Mills introduced me the operation of the law school, legal clinic, faculty members and guided me to tour around the campus. What impressed me the most with a law program here is the program has the clear mission and vision to educate students with knowledge, skills and values necessary to serve society as lawyers.
After having a long conversation in the first day, Pro. Mills guided me to attend several law classes in order to observe how law professors approach the class differently and effectively. I sat among students and witnessed the various types of pedagogies in teaching different law courses such as White-Collar Crime, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Constitutional Law, Employment Law and Domestic Violence. I found the classes I attended looked very interactive between professor and students. To kick off the productive discussion and legal analysis, the professors used different approaches ranging from IRAC methodology (for legal analysis and stand for Issue, Rule, Application and Conclusion), Socratic method (based on asking and answering to simulate critical thinking), guided outline for interactive dialogue, video clip showing and guest lecture. Additionally, I learned that some professors used new technologies and application to supplement their teaching like Moodle, OneNote, presentation slide, white board and photos.
I am so impressive not only what I observed the classes but also met face to face with some professors that I attended their courses. I had opportunity to figure out their teaching approaches and experiences in setting up the class effectively. We had exchanged our different points of view in the contexts of American and Cambodian legal education. Besides that, I was allowed to join the clinic faculty meeting and learned what clinical programs at the Alexander Blewett III School of Law had cared of capacity building for students, peer support among faculty members, and development of the program. That inspired me to come up with a new initiative for my teaching human rights community of practice that I would add this type of meeting into the program when I return to my home country.
Witnessing different teaching approaches, figuring out how the approaches were applied and learning new ideas of running a legal clinic meeting and new technologies make my fellowship fruitful and satisfactory. I really sparkle exploring the learning and teaching forms in the University of Montana.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE YSEALI PROFESSIONAL FELLOWS PROGRAM: MANSFIELD CENTER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA 