How Can Legal Education Speak to the Discovery-enriched Curriculum?
| Date | 01 January 2017 |
| Published date | 01 January 2017 |
| Author | Daniel Pascoe |
| DOI | 10.1177/1326365X16667155 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
How Can Legal Education Speak
to the Discovery-enriched Curriculum?
Daniel Pascoe1
Abstract
City University of Hong Kong’s (CityU) Discovery-enriched Curriculum (DEC) is a pedagogical approach
involving discovery, innovation and creativity. With its focus on invention and experimentation, this
approach lends itself naturally to the artistic and science-based disciplines; yet with an open mind, it can
also be implemented within the undergraduate curriculum in law.
This article discusses the DEC and its theoretical basis within the educational literature on discovery-
based learning and the undergraduate research movement, before moving on to suggest the ways and
means by which the undergraduate law curriculum at CityU could be changed in order to implement
DEC and equally as importantly the ways in which established law-teaching practices already fit within
the DEC framework. To fully implement DEC within CityU’s Bachelor of Laws curriculum, some
changes to long-standing teaching practices and the list of core courses will be necessary, but perhaps
fewer changes than a sceptic might first believe. Overall, DEC has the potential to become a model
for other law schools to follow in adopting inductive learning methods, if these are implemented in
accordance with the results of existing pedagogical research.
Introduction
City University of Hong Kong’s (CityU) Discovery-enriched Curriculum (DEC) is a pedagogical
approach involving discovery, innovation, and creativity.2 With its focus on invention and experimentation,
this approach lends itself naturally to the artistic and science-based disciplines; yet with an open mind, it
can also be implemented within the undergraduate curriculum in law.
In 2015, I was appointed as the DEC ‘Coordinator’ at the School of Law at CityU. Each and every
college and school providing undergraduate education at CityU must have a staff member assigned to
audit their course delivery in compliance with the DEC. It has become my responsibility to ensure that
all law courses speak to this DEC framework and that each undergraduate law student has the opportunity
1 School of Law, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
2
Office of the Provost, Discovery-enriched Curriculum, CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG, available at http://www.cityu.
edu.hk/provost/dec/ (last visited 13 October 2016).
Asian Journal of Legal Education
4(1) 17–32
© 2017 The West Bengal National
University of Juridical Sciences
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1326365X16667155
http://ale.sagepub.com
Corresponding author:
Daniel Pascoe, School of Law, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong.
E-mail: dcpascoe@cityu.edu.hk
Acknowledgments: I would like to thank Hugo Ho for his research assistance and Professor Geraint Howells and
Provost Arthur Ellis for their suggestions.
18 Asian Journal of Legal Education 4(1)
to make at least one new discovery in the field, as required by CityU’s 2016–19 Academic Development
Proposal.3
Accordingly, this article discusses the DEC and its theoretical basis within the educational literature
on discovery-based learning (DBL) and the undergraduate research movement, before moving on
to suggest the ways and means by which the undergraduate law curriculum at CityU could be changed
in order to implement DEC and equally as importantly the ways in which established law-teaching
practices already fit within the DEC framework. To fully implement DEC within CityU’s Bachelor of
Laws (LLB) curriculum, some changes to long-standing teaching practices and the list of core courses
will be necessary, but perhaps fewer changes than a sceptic might first believe. Overall, DEC has the
potential to become a model for other local and international law schools to follow in adopting inductive
learning methods, if these are implemented in accordance with the results of existing pedagogical
research.
Literature on ‘Discovery-based Learning’
DBL (or ‘discovery learning’) as a method of pedagogy has a long history. Although the DEC was only
formally adopted at CityU from 2011,4 DBL’s modern development can be traced back to the 1960s, and
its popularity has waxed and waned since then.
Definitions of DBL include the following:
The active participation of the learner in the learning process…students construct knowledge based on new
information and data collected by them in an explorative learning environment[.]5
Discovery learning requires inductive processes, in which information and knowledge [are] generated from
the experiments performed…. The skills necessary for the successful performance of this learning process are
similar to scientic skills.6
[T]he learner is not provided with the target information or conceptual understanding and must nd it
independently and with only the provided materials.7
[T]he emphasis is on ‘process’ rather than product and engages the student exercising solution-nding/problem-
solving skills in the process of ‘discovering or reinventing’ the content.8
3 Id.; Professor Gary Feng, Associate Provost (Academic Planning & Undergraduate Education), personal email correspondence
(18 March 2016).
4 Office of the Provost, DEC Launch, CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG, available at http://www.cityu.edu.hk/provost/
BDEC/agenda.htm (last visited 13 October 2011).
5 Ali Günay Balim, The Effects of Discovery Learning on Students Success and Inquiry Learning Skills, 35 EJER, 1, 2 (2009).
6 Nadira Saab, Wouter R. van Joolingen & Bernadette H.A.M. Van Hout Wolters, Communication in Collaborative Discovery
Learning, 75(4) BR. J. EDUC. PSYCHOL. 603, 604 (2005).
7 Louis Alfieri, Patricia J. Brooks, Naomi J. Aldrich & Harriet R. Tenenbaum, Does Discovery-based Instruction Enhance
Learning? 103 J. EDUC. PSYCHOL. 1, 2 (2011).
8 P. BRUHN & M. GIBSON, THE TERMINOLOGY OF PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING AND EDUCATIONAL APPROACHES
THAT HAVE INFLUENCED THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING. EXCERPTS FROM PROBLEM-
BASED LEARNING IN TECHNICAL AND FURTHER EDUCATION 24 (1987).
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