Clases de Derecho para estudiantes activos

Two purposes of teaching to law students are the retention of information beyond the exams and the development of professional skills. These goals are better achieved when the student is an active learner. However, the traditional divide between massive lectures and small tutorials requires students to be active learners in tutorials but not in the lectures. The aim of this paper is to challenge this common practice. I accomplish it by outlining a teaching technique for lecture delivery that, following Cavanagh (2011), I will call “lectorial”. The lectorial is a mixture between a lecture and a tutorial. It combines presenting background information with some practical activities designed to encourage students to reflect on hypothetical situations, answer concrete questions, and share their opinion with fellow students and the lecturer. In this way, the lectorial encourages interlocution. It is a student-centred approach to lecturing, whose pedagogical foundations are to be found in the principles of constructivism. I present a case for the proposition that the lectorial offers advantages over the traditional dogmatic approach to delivering massive law lectures. Consequently, it should be preferred.