Enhancing Learning Objectives in Legal Education: Comparing Smart and ABCD Strategies
Enhancing Learning Objectives in Legal Education: Comparing Smart and ABCD Strategies

Author(s): Olga Dorul, Andrei Nastas
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Education, Higher Education , Pedagogy
Published by: Weik Press SRL
Keywords: strategy for formulating learning objectives; SMART model; ABCD model; training of future lawyers; teaching traditions;
Summary/Abstract: The process of training future specialists of legal professions in higher education institutions of any country, today is subject to teaching traditions that have been strongly imprinted by the culture of that geographical space. The culture of teaching legal subjects is dictated by the particularities of the great legal systems. Although national legal systems differ significantly—even within the "major legal families"—we find it appropriate, within the present investigation, to identify the "ideology" of an effective and efficient methodology for training law students. In essence, the "legal education architecture" will strictly respect learning objectives. By analyzing teaching traditions, curriculum frameworks, perspectives of labor market representatives, and the views of legal education beneficiaries, this paper evaluates the effectiveness of the SMART methodology—defined by its focus on specificity, measurability, achievability, relevance, and time-boundedness—and the ABCD model, which emphasizes audience, behavior, condition, and degree, in defining the learning objectives within the field of legal sciences. The analysis aims to demonstrate how the pedagogical principles advanced by Malcolm Knowles and Benjamin Bloom can be implemented in a harmonious way and integrative manner, enabling universities not only to impart knowledge and develop professional competencies, but also to foster and reinforce fundamental human values among future legal professionals. However, in this research, based on the role of the jurist in contemporary society, we intend to formulate strategies for defining learning objectives in the context of new challenges to legal education: artificial intelligence, pandemic, economic security, migration, armed conflicts, environmental protection giving rise, already at university level, to scenarios that future legal professionals must not only reflect upon, but also address and respond to promptly. In the paper, in order to demonstrate the theses formulated at the outset, we have employed theoretical research methods: analysis and synthesis. We employed deductive reasoning whenever necessary, as it is central to legal argumentation and, by extension, to legal activity. This emphasis on deduction does not diminish the importance of its counterpart, induction, nor does it reduce the relevance of combining analysis with synthesis and applying other complementary methods. Certainly, in order to substantiate the research results, we resorted to empirical methods such as observation, verification, and testing. Empirical methods specifically allowed us to identify qualitative indicators of learning objectives formulation strategies. Learning from experience and through experience is the key to the success of training valuable professionals in the field of legal sciences. In this regard, contemporary methodologies abound in methods and techniques of experiential learning. Therefore, in the proposed study, we will identify to what extent experiential learning fits into the strategies for formulating SMART and ABCD learning objectives. In the ideal version, a curricular standard at the law faculties will be thoroughly thought out by calibrating the learning objectives with the teaching techniques and methods that allow the most successful achievement of the training goals.

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