Asking the right questions: the pedagogical advantages of using media reports as assessment problems in the Law Curriculum

Abstract

This paper describes an assessment practice employed in a law course (tort law) whereby locally sourced newspaper articles serve as assessment problems in both examinations and task-based assessment activities. The principal pedagogical reason for doing so is to provide an assessment derived from authentic material that is more likely to be taken seriously by students, more likely to encourage students to make connections between the substance of the law as studied and the community and the world around them, and more likely to foster skills of the sort legal practitioners and professionals actually need and use. Such an assessment strategy will lead students away from short-term reproductive learning towards more reflective learning in which they themselves make the relevant connections. It has potential for application in disciplines other than law, in particular, social science and humanities.