This is how I teach
This month we spoke with Dr Mark Giancaspro, Senior Lecturer, Adelaide Law School, Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics. Mark has been teaching at the university for over ten years delivering a wide range of courses. Here Mark shares what he likes most about teaching law to our students and how he has taken his own experiences as a practising commercial lawyer into the classroom.
How would you describe your approach to teaching/your teaching philosophy?
My teaching philosophy is all about engagement and realism. I want my students to not only learn about the law but want to learn, and to enjoy as realistic a learning experience as possible. My goal is to help them develop confidence in themselves to be inquisitive, to strategise, to question, and to advocate. To achieve this, my teaching focusses strongly upon practical application of legal theory. As a practising lawyer, you know how the legal system works in the 'real world' and I endeavour to bring this into the classroom so our students can hit the ground running when they graduate. As such, I embed practical legal skills, including soft skills, into my courses to give life to the academic content being taught. My lecture theatres and classrooms are fun spaces where students can feel relaxed and welcome, and where they can foster a passion for the law.
What do you like most about teaching in your discipline?
Honestly? I love teaching law because it is a discipline which compels you to think logically and creatively. Our goal as lawyers is to find solutions to a client's legal problems, and this sometimes involves delving into centuries of precedents, negotiating with people, innovatively strategising, and presenting sound arguments.
I am always blown away by the creativity and intellect of my law students. They often challenge me to consider my own views and they frequently come up with unique answers and solutions to important questions and scenarios.Mark Giancaspro
It keeps me thinking as a scholar, and it genuinely motivates me to continue my own learning journey. Knowing that I am training future legal professionals with the capacity to help people in profound ways and to reform the legal system is truly inspiring.
How does your teaching help prepare students for their future?
I have taken my own experience as a practising commercial lawyer and incorporated it into my core courses. My commercial law course teaches topics which are not widely taught in Australian law schools (or not taught at all!) but which are critical areas in practice. Examples include secured transactions, consumer law, commercial leasing, insurance law, and sale of goods. You will struggle to find another law degree that covers all of these topics in the compulsory core program. Teaching this content therefore gives our graduates an advantage over others competing for the same jobs. I've had at least four past students contact me to tell me that they were successful in their job interviews specifically because they mentioned their knowledge of core topics in my course. This tells me that I'm on the right track when it comes to preparing students for their future careers.
What is your favourite way to use technology to enhance learning?
For me, I use technology to support student learning in a variety of ways. When we learn about business structuring in commercial law, I show my students how to use the State Government's online business structure selection tool. Many entrepreneurs use this tool and it is really helpful for informing the choice of model for business ventures. I also embed videos into my course extracting scenes from films, court cases, advertisements and other media to provide a visual element to my lecture content. My assignment problems require students to email a fictional 'client' and subsequently engage with them via video and audio message. This reflects real world practice as a lawyer and breaks the usual (and unrealistic) 'here's a task sheet with every single piece of relevant information on it' mould. Clients are never that organised! Rummaging around and gathering information is how it works in reality, which is why I approach assessment this way. Technology is an enormous part of contemporary legal practice, and so it makes logical sense for it to form part of legal education.