Pat Chew realizes the value of student-to-student learning in her Employment Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution courses and interdisciplinary seminars in the School of Law. “I try to set the tone right away,” she says. “I tell them: ‘This class won’t be like your other classes.’ ” Chew, who has been teaching law at the University of Pittsburgh since 1985, says she has moved beyond just the traditional method of law school teaching (i.e., Socratic-method instruction). “That method assumes that the professor is the only teacher in the room, but I think students have a lot to offer, too.”
Chew believes that students can learn a concept more completely by teaching one another. “I try to get them involved in the subject matter,” she says. “Learning is more effective when it’s participatory and interactive…the more engaged students are in the material, the more likely they are to learn and enjoy it, and the more likely they are to commit to it. Why should law school be any different?”
On some days, she structures her classes around a technique she calls “Pass the Chalk,” in which students take turns leading and participating in group discussions. “I use a whole set of learning activities, including 360 degree role-plays and group projects that simulate real lawyering, that get the students directly involved and introduce them to the idea that they’re going to be teaching one another.”
In an Employment Law class, Chew draws a timeline across the chalkboard. At one end, she says, is the moment someone is hired. At the other end is the moment the person is fired or voluntarily leaves. “Let’s fill this in,” she tells her students as she passes the chalk randomly around the room, requiring each student to get up and present at the board. One by one, the students draw upon what they know about the work-world and create what Chew says is a comprehensive—and often funny and very human—chronicle of employment events.
Chew notes that “Students come from many different work backgrounds. In fact, some have never been employed. Therefore, what I try to do is give everyone a sense of the difficult employee-related decisions that managers sometimes have to make and the varied work issues that employees face. This gives students an idea of the context in which legal disputes occur in the workplace.”
Presentation and performance are essential to Chew’s teaching techniques. “I could just ask the same questions and wait for people to raise their hands. But Pass the Chalk actually gets them physically involved by putting them in the position of teacher,” she says. Pass the Chalk also helps make the material more alive for students. “Ultimately, they know they’re going to have to get up and talk to the class. They know that I expect them to be prepared, to participate, and to learn from one another.”
Chew says students are attracted to interactive teaching and learning because “it’s much more natural for them to learn in an interactive, non-intimidating way.” She often gets compliments from former students, many asserting that her interactive teaching has given them a creative edge in the workplace. “One student told me that it forced her to be critical about what she was reading and learning, because she knew she was going to have to put it into action.”
That’s exactly the point, according to Chew. The positive effect of interactive, performance-based courses continues to draw students to her classes, and Chew thinks she knows why. “I try to help them see what the law means in life, rather than what the law means in a textbook.”
By Ryan Rydzewski, Teaching Times Intern
Ryan Rydzewski is a junior majoring in Creative Nonfiction and Political Science.
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