Page 33 - Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century

Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century | Showcasing UJ Teaching and Learning 2021
4.
Legal skills
Reports indicated that law students face many challenges, and that
law graduates often lack certain skills, including literacy, numeracy and analytical skills (Sedutla
2013). In response to this concern,
I developed a new first-year module: Legal Skills. The purpose of this module is to equip students with the basic competencies and practical skills required for the successful study and practice of law. A student who has successfully completed this course will be able to access and understand a wide range of sources of information, through both the physical and virtual library. This includes
other information sources, legal research, how to analyse a legal problem and produce an associated written assignment. In addition, the student will be able to draft
a range of legal documents and have developed the basic numeracy skills required for law, as well as the basic litigation skills needed to apply the substantive.
One specific challenge to note is that students did not often see the value of a skills module, preferring to go directly to substantive law. Tutors were useful in addressing this and helped emphasise the benefits of the skills to the law profession in tutorials and in lectures.
Concluding remarks
In order to appropriately prepare South Africa’s next generation of lawyers, it is critical that students are empowered to question and analyse factual scenarios while at the same time embracing constitutional values such as equality, justice, inclusion and freedom. The aim is to equip graduates with practical skills, evolving knowledge and an unwavering passion for the field.
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References
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