Object- and Problem-Based Learning (OBL & PBL): A Fruitful Amalgamation for the Development of Legal Education

The Object

Education has benefited from observing objects and using them as a teaching resource. Legal education is no exception, and in recent decades the use of objects has increased significantly at universities across the globe. That increase is accompanied by the activation of other sensorial educational experiences, such as those triggered by images (ia, film, photographs), sound (ia, music, voices, noises), smells (ia, odours, fragrances), and emotions (ia, discovery, happiness, solitude). Every experience adds to the educational process–if adequately presented–to convey knowledge and to facilitate the learning path. The use of objects has motivated the development of Object-Based Learning (OBL) techniques, and copious literature is being produced on those techniques, aiming to explain the strengths and challenges of that way of learning.

The Problem

Looking at a problem as a means to attain legal knowledge has gained ground at multiple universities, with Maastricht University offering a fertile laboratory for this active way of learning. Students are faced with problematised situations that need to be addressed in order to better understand how law operates in the texture of society. Copious literature has been developed on Problem-Based Learning (PBL) during the past decades and best practices are being shared amongst those who cultivate this active way of learning, triggering an up spiral of positive developments in the existing techniques. The traditional approach to PBL (ie, the seven steps) has been surpassed and innovation is out there, for example, aiming to experiences that enrol in CCCS educational principles (ie, Constructive, Contextual, Collaborative, Self-directed). Passive means of legal education are giving way to active experiences, and the attention to a problem is amongst the most recurrent approaches when implementing active pedagogical tools.

The Amalgamation

Intercultural barriers in a PBL environment can be bridged by the study of an object. There are universal messages embedded in objects and they go beyond words and terminologies. Further, objects can trigger prior relations to the problem that is being studied. Gathering around an object in a PBL environment can activate new ideas and perspectives. For example, during a brainstorming phase students can build experiences around an object, such as translating an object into a mind map or as a visualisation of a problem in a different way, be it more realistic or challenging previous visualisations. Interacting with an object during the brainstorming phase can further assist in the learning experience by enabling paths to reach consensus or by eliminating common misunderstandings. Objects can ultimately serve to triangulate data and to provide a more comprehensive understanding of a problematised situation.

The Actors

The PBL environment benefits from assigning different roles to students in the learning experience. The discussion leader plays an important role, for example. When introducing an object one of the students could be assigned as object guardian or object facilitator. That role can help in providing a suitable interaction with the object. A prop of an artifact encountered at a criminal scene, in a criminology problem, can benefit from an object guardian, who can interact with the object, for example, holding the prop of the artifact in the hand, to see how a criminal might have used it. Students can at that point reflect on what expertise is needed to investigate a criminal case. Instructors and students, alike, should introduce objects into the PBL classroom. This claim is not new! Already in 1928, John H. Wigmore, noted in A Panorama of the World’s Legal Systems, that the pictorial method could be of value in the teaching of comparative law. At that time he asked: “Who would have thought that the dry history of Law could be enlivened with pictures?” Wigmore then added that, in his volume, “the pictures present the edifices in which Law and Justice were dispensed (whether temples, palaces, tents, courthouses, or city-gates); the principal men of law (whether kings, priests, legislators, judges, jurists, or advocates); and the chief types of legal records (whether codes, statutes, deeds, contracts, treatises, or judicial decisions). By these aids, the narrative attempts to reconstruct some realistic impressions of the legal life of these peoples. Subsequent study of the book-learning about the details of these [legal] systems can thus be made more attractive and intelligible.”

The Corollary

PBL and OBL should be amalgamated in the classroom as a means to further develop legal education. Together they offer an additional dimension to active learning and therefore can enhance the legal education experience for everyone in the classroom. In addition, that amalgamation can be fun!