New ways of learning, at the Faculty of Law
Report
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Innovation
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Teaching
(09/01/2025)
This year, the Faculty of Law of the University of Barcelona has launched a strategic project, known as Ciceró, to innovate teaching on the bachelor’s degree in Law. A group of forty students coursing its third year are taking four subjects differently: they acquire their knowledge by solving the particular legal problems of a wealthy family from Girona. They have to answer questions that have to do with the family’s businesses and properties, the taxes they have to pay or their relationship with the Administration. Although it is a fictional family, the legal issues raised are based on the reality that legal professionals have to deal with every day.
Report
|
Innovation
|
Teaching
09/01/2025
This year, the Faculty of Law of the University of Barcelona has launched a strategic project, known as Ciceró, to innovate teaching on the bachelor’s degree in Law. A group of forty students coursing its third year are taking four subjects differently: they acquire their knowledge by solving the particular legal problems of a wealthy family from Girona. They have to answer questions that have to do with the family’s businesses and properties, the taxes they have to pay or their relationship with the Administration. Although it is a fictional family, the legal issues raised are based on the reality that legal professionals have to deal with every day.
“What we do on trial simulation is spectacular”, says Cristina Roy, head of studies of the bachelor’s degree in Law and teacher of the Ciceró programme. “Students go on an adventure to defend their ideas. They improvise and display a whole series of skills that normally cannot be seen in ordinary classes or in the traditional system”, she continues.
Marc, a student of this degree, explains the differences he finds as a student in the new learning system: “There is a more active position. I think the contents are retained better and in the long term. Although we are given basic concepts, we are then the ones who have to check the manuals, legislation, jurisprudence, etc., to solve the practical cases that the lecturers present”.
Professor Roy points out that participating in the Ciceró project as a teacher “means losing sight of the subject focus itself and it means focusing on the students. In other words, I don’t plan the lessons thinking so much about what I’m going to explain, but about how the students can integrate my subject into their knowledge”.
Marc, a student of this degree, explains the differences he finds as a student in the new learning system: “There is a more active position. I think the contents are retained better and in the long term. Although we are given basic concepts, we are then the ones who have to check the manuals, legislation, jurisprudence, etc., to solve the practical cases that the lecturers present”.
Professor Roy points out that participating in the Ciceró project as a teacher “means losing sight of the subject focus itself and it means focusing on the students. In other words, I don’t plan the lessons thinking so much about what I’m going to explain, but about how the students can integrate my subject into their knowledge”.
Forty students solve the specific legal problems of a well-to-do family from Girona.
An essential feature of the Ciceró project is that it involves not just one teacher and the group of students, but four different subjects, which must be coordinated. Each of the cases that the students have to solve has aspects from the different subjects. This has entailed an important coordination task for the teaching staff. Marta Bueno, Vice-Dean for Teaching and Academic Planning, points out that “the ultimate aim of the Ciceró project is to introduce a line of teaching innovation in the Law degree, from the first to the fourth year”.
As a strategic initiative of the centre, the Ciceró project is supported by the UB’s Research, Innovation and Improvement in Teaching and Learning Programme (RIMDA). Concepció Amat, Vice-Rector for Teaching Policy, says that there are currently several RIMDA-supported strategic projects at the UB’s faculties. “Often, these strategic projects are in line with the main lines of the academic and teaching model of the UB, which the Governing Council recently approved. In the case of Ciceró, it would be one of the strategic projects aligned with the first bloc, which is based on promoting teaching focused on active student learning”, she says.
As a strategic initiative of the centre, the Ciceró project is supported by the UB’s Research, Innovation and Improvement in Teaching and Learning Programme (RIMDA). Concepció Amat, Vice-Rector for Teaching Policy, says that there are currently several RIMDA-supported strategic projects at the UB’s faculties. “Often, these strategic projects are in line with the main lines of the academic and teaching model of the UB, which the Governing Council recently approved. In the case of Ciceró, it would be one of the strategic projects aligned with the first bloc, which is based on promoting teaching focused on active student learning”, she says.