Author: Rosemary Craig

Page set up Dr Robert N Moles

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Contract Law lectures

On 19 April 1999 James Gruber of The Adelaidean reported: “Drama leads in law reforms”

It said ALL THE WORLD’S a stage—something first year contract and legal skills students have discovered this semester as they have acted out characters such as “Debbie”, “Bob”and “Brian” in drama classes to highlight and learn about real life legal problems.

Dr Bob Moles, a lecturer in contract law and legal skills, said the drama classes were an alternative to students taking notes in law lectures, so they could relate more to the everyday characters in the exercises. “Traditionally, students get a set of law lectures where they laboriously take notes and the issues and problems discussed don’t really sink in,” he said. “But the best way for students to learn in law is to do something—doing practical exercises [in the drama classes] interests them and makes them learn more than taking notes from lectures.”

Sally Haigh, a first year law student, said the drama classes helped to crystallise issues in her mind and to see the impact of legal problems on other people. “It is much more interactive than the traditional methods of teaching law in the [drama] classes we were actively rather than passively learning,” she said.

Nanette Kretschmer, another first year law student, said the drama classes helped her better understand legal problems and absorb the different arguments being presented. The drama classes are just one of the innovative reforms Dr Moles is introducing to change methods of teaching law and make students more interested in legal problems and better skilled to enter the work force.

He said lecture notes for contract law and legal skills were being transferred to a computer system so students could have access to them all year round. “By doing this, lecturers can become inventive and activities such as drama classes may be conducted to engage students in legal issues on a wider scale.”

Dr Moles said students were also organising projects with external legal practitioners to allow themselves to research current issues and build up contacts for future employment.

“The idea is, instead of just learning from lecturers I want students to become involved with projects that relate to their course.” He said students would be involved with a wide range of projects dealing with commercial and social issues.

Professor Michael Detmold, Dean of the Law School, said the reforms Dr Moles was initiating were among many the School was introducing to move away from lectures to more innovative ways of teaching.

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