09.06.2007

Professor Ida Bostian leads a workshop in Pristina

University of Pristina law professors and law clinic experts attended an ABA ROLI-sponsored workshop on interactive teaching techniques, held in Pristina on July 30, 2007.  Ida Bostian, Visiting Assistant Professor at Santa Clara University Law School, ran the workshop during which she demonstrated several techniques for teaching complex legal materials. 

With the help of volunteers acting as students, Professor Bostian demonstrated the lecturing technique of the Socratic method. She also illustrated how student presentations and simulations can be incorporated into a lesson.  While Professor Bostian used a human rights case as the source material for her demonstrations, namely, the International Court of Justice’s opinion on Israel’s decision to build a wall along Palestinian territories, she stressed that these techniques could be applied and adapted to any legal subject.  Professor Bostian also discussed how to draft course syllabi to incorporate participation as a portion of a student’s grade.

In the question and answer session which followed, attendees said this had been their first opportunity to see such teaching techniques in practice. They discussed further with Professor Bostian how to incorporate participation into a student’s grade and sought advice on how to best formulate exam questions to test a student’s knowledge on a subject.  

For more information on this story, please contact Fatmir Kutllovci at fkutllovci@ceelikosovo.org.