1. Flipping the classroom: revolutionising legal research training
at the University of Salford
Nicola Sales, University of Salford, n.sales@salford.ac.uk
At the University of Salford it is difficult to find sufficient space in the academic
timetable to deliver legal research training to new first year law students. Although
legal research skills is embedded in the law teaching programme, the timetable
space allocated to research training is too short to equip students with all the
information skills they need at the start of their degree. Training delivered at Salford
has often alienated law students by overloading them with information.
Timetable pressures and the volume of topics covered have resulted in sessions
being librarian led with little student engagement. Students feel overwhelmed,
becoming nervous of using the library and performing research. As a result, some
law students are resorting to using Google as their only research tool.
To combat timetable pressures, information overload and using passive teaching
methods, the University of Salford Academic Support Librarian for Law trialed the
innovative training concept of ‘flipping the classroom’ .
In September 2012, rather than using teaching time to demonstrate ‘how to’ perform
research, the classroom was flipped so students studied online demonstrations
before arriving at the classroom. Teaching time was then spent consolidating
learning and building student confidence through active learning, practical tasks and
discussion.
As a trainer it is daunting to move away from traditional teaching methods and give
students responsibility for their own learning. This paper will look at how the ‘flipping
the classroom’ concept has been implemented with Salford Law School Students. It
will examine the benefits and drawbacks as a training method and evaluate the
experiences of the project.