Visual approaches to property law pedagogy
Author | Francis King |
Position | Law School, University of Westminster, London, UK |
Pages | 80-94 |
Visual approaches to property
law pedagogy
Francis King
Law School, University of Westminster, London, UK
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to consider a more visual approach to property law teaching practices.
This will be achieved by exploring the existence of “visual learners” as a student body, evaluating the
use of more visual teaching techniques in academic practice, recognising the historic dominance of text
in legal education, and examining the potential for heightening visual teaching practices in the teaching
of property law.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews and analyses some of the available literature
on visual pedagogy, and visual approaches to legal education, but also introduces an amount of
academic practitioner analysis.
Findings – This paper evidences that, rather than focusing on the categorisation of “visual learner”,
the modern academic practitioner should use the customary use of more visual stimuli, consequently
becoming a more “visual teacher”. This paper demonstrates that these practices, if performed
effectively, can impact upon the information literacy of the whole student body. It also proffers a
number of suggestions as to how this could be achieved within property law teaching practices.
Practical implications – The paper will provide support for early-career academic practitioners,
who are entering a teaching profession in a period of accelerated and continual change, by presenting an
overview of pedagogic practices in the area. It will also provide a stimulus for those currently teaching
on property law modules and support their transition to a more visual form of teaching practice.
Originality/value – This paper provides a comprehensive overview of visual pedagogy in legal
education, and specically within that of property law, which has not been conducted elsewhere.
Keywords Information literacy, Pedagogy, Academic property law, Learner attributes,
Legal education, Visual teaching practices
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
This article seeks to analyse the use of visual aids in the teaching of property law
modules, to evaluate the resultant impact on student engagement, and the potential for
embedding deeper learning habits (Biggs, 2003). This visually focused project is
particularly pertinent in developing practice for modules that are recognised as being
situated within a predominantly text-based discipline (Moran, 2012). This paper,
therefore, seeks to consider the pedagogic justications for the incorporation of more
visual aids into a discipline that does not tend to utilise this approach in its teaching and
learning practices.
The reasons for choosing this area of research were mainly instinctive and personal,
rather than academic, or as a result of ndings generated from an empirically grounded
feedback mechanism. Students seem to respond well to lecturers and texts that utilise
more visual aspects in their instruction, whether this is the effective use of PowerPoint,
colour, maps, diagrams, pictures, etc. The subject matter appears to be translated in a
more cogent manner and shows consideration, effort and passion. This is severable from
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1756-1450.htm
IJLBE
8,1
80
Received 17 February 2016
Revised 17 February 2016
Accepted 18 February 2016
InternationalJournal of Law in the
BuiltEnvironment
Vol.8 No. 1, 2016
pp.80-94
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1756-1450
DOI 10.1108/IJLBE-02-2016-0004
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