Answering Legal Problem Questions in a Grid Format

Abstract

The development of legal reasoning skills is a fundamental aspect of legal education. What has sometimes been called “learning to think like a lawyer” is a threshold competency that students must acquire before they can progress to more complex analyses of broader legal issues. This chapter discusses the use of problem-based scenarios to both engage students and to develop legal analysis. It outlines the threshold difficulties students must overcome in order to read texts as lawyers and explains how use of a grid format answer – rather than an essay format – can both assist students to overcome these difficulties more easily and also provide a more efficient form of marking. The chapter describes the advantages of a grid format answer both for beginning students and also for later year and postgraduate students. It also suggests ways the format can be used to require students to consider broader issues than merely legal analysis.

Keywords: legal education, assessment, thinking like a lawyer, legal analysis, threshold competencies

JEL Classification: I21, K10