In search of new legal education paradigms. Several insights into the use of mind maps in higher education (including the teaching of the history of political-legal doctrines) Cover Image

W poszukiwaniu nowych paradygmatów prawniczej edukacji. Kilka spostrzeżeń o wykorzystaniu map myśli w szkolnictwie wyższym (w tym w dydaktyce historii doktryn polityczno-prawnych)
In search of new legal education paradigms. Several insights into the use of mind maps in higher education (including the teaching of the history of political-legal doctrines)

Author(s): Marcin Niemczyk
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence
Published by: Uniwersytet Opolski
Keywords: higher education; didactics; mind maps; history of political-legal doctrines

Summary/Abstract: The model of educating lawyers, just as the model of university itself, undergoes constant changes. The search of new lawyer teaching paradigms seems to be a necessity on the one hand, but on the other one – it may be an opportunity to give a satisfying answer to all expectations from both higher education system as well as students. Exploitation of the potential of human creativity based on knowledge, because of the amount of external stimuli, requires the use of tools which allow its arranging. One of the techniques which may be of use here is mindmapping, since its basic purposes are: selection, arranging and remembering information, as well as supporting creative skills. Taking above into consideration, the aim of this article is both to make an attempt to show the mindmapping itself as well as to draw the reader’s attention to the opportunities given by using this technique in the teaching of law as well as the history of political-legal doctrines in particular. The article’s main part deals with the hypothesis based on the assumption that one of the elements of new legal education paradigms may be application of mind maps which allow not only increasing the attractiveness but, what is even more important – raise the effectiveness of teaching of law. Moreover, the ability to create and then to use mind maps can be a favourable factor in education of the so-called “soft skills”, such as: creativity, choice and selection of information, managing oneself at work or team work. To illustrate the contents, the author presents examples of his mind maps created with the use of specialized licensed software iMindMap.

  • Issue Year: XV/2017
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 247-266
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: Polish