“So Teacher, What is the Right Answer?” Incorporating Critical Thinking into the Mexican Legal Education: The Application of the US Model

University of Miami Law School

University of Miami School of Law Institutional Repository

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

5-9-2018

“So Teacher, What is the Right Answer?”

Incorporating Critical (inking into the Mexican

Legal Education: (e Application of the US Model

Dr. Ying Chen

University of New England, New South Wales

Follow this and additional works at: h7ps://repository.law.miami.edu/umialr

Part of the Law and Society Commons, Legal Education Commons, and the Legal Profession

Commons

6is Article is brought to you for free and open access by University of Miami School of Law Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion

in University of Miami Inter-American Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Miami School of Law Institutional Repository. For more

information, please contact library@law.miami.edu.

Recommended Citation

Dr. Ying Chen, “So Teacher, What is the Right Answer?” Incorporating Critical (inking into the Mexican Legal Education: (e Application

of the US Model, 49 U. Miami Inter-Am. L. Rev. 1 (2018)

Available at: h7ps://repository.law.miami.edu/umialr/vol49/iss2/3

“So Teacher, What is the Right Answer?”

Incorporating Critical Thinking into the

Mexican Legal Education: The

Application of the US Model

Dr. Ying Chen *

I. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................2

A. The Challenges of Justice Reform in Mexico and the

Power of Legal Education ...................................................2

B. Inspiration of this Research and Issues to be Explored........4

C. Structure of the Research .....................................................6

II. METHODOLOGY AND CONSTRAINTS AND CONSIDERATIONS

IN THIS

RESEARCH ......................................................................7

A. Methodology .........................................................................7

B. Constraints and Considerations in this Research ................8

III. FACTORS THAT CAUSE THE LACK OF CRITICAL THINKING

IN THE

MEXICAN LEGAL EDUCATION .........................................9

A. Transmission of Legal Knowledge Only .............................10

1. Curriculum: Encyclopedic Legal Education .................10

2. Course Materials ...........................................................11

3. Teaching Methods ........................................................11

B. An Imbalance between Full-time and Part-time Faculty

Members .............................................................................12

1. Why Mexican Law Schools’ Employ a High

Percentage of Part-time Professors ...............................12

2. The Mexican Model of Law Faculty Appointment:

Advantages, Disadvantages, and the Difficulty of

Incorporating Critical Thinking Skills into the

Curriculum ....................................................................15

3. Academic Exchange and Visiting Professorship

Programs .......................................................................17

IV. INCORPORATING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS ACROSS THE

2 INTER-AMERICAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49:1

CURRICULUM: THE APPLICATION OF THE U.S. MODEL ............18

A. Class Participation: Discussion as a Way of Learning .....20

1. Before the Class – Reading Assignments .....................20

2. During the Class – Participation ...................................22

B. Alternative Assessments: Individual Projects and

Group Projects ...................................................................26

C. The Use of Social Media for Educational Purposes ..........28

V. CONCLUSION ..............................................................................30

I. I

NTRODUCTION

A. The Challenges of Justice Reform in Mexico and the Power of

Legal Education

Over the past few decades, the Mexican government has made

some commitments to improving the rule of law.

Meanwhile, many

foreign government agencies, non-governmental organizations

(NGOs), and private donors, mainly from the United States (U.S.),

have also provided tremendous support to help Mexico reform its

justice system.

Despite these efforts, corruption, injustice, and im-

punity are still the everyday realities and fixing Mexico’s broken

* Dr. Ying Chen, Lecturer in Law, University of New England (UNE) School of

Law, Armidale, NSW2351, Australia. Email: y[email protected]. The author

would like to thank Professor Lillian Corbin (UNE Head of Law School, UNE

Head of Business School) for her exceptional comments on the earlier draft of this

article. The author is also grateful to the law staff and law students from Tec De

Monterrey School of Law (Chihuahua, Mexico) who offered valuable insights

into the Mexican legal education. The responsibility for any oversights or mis-

takes remains mine alone.

See generally David A. Shirk, Justice Reform in Mexico: Change and Challenges

in the Judicial Sector, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Chap-

ter%207-%20Justice%20Reform%20in%20Mex-

ico,%20Change%20and%20Challenges%20in%20the%20Judicial%20Sec-

tor.pdf.

Clare Ribando Seelke, Supporting Criminal Justice System Reform in Mex-

ico: The U.S. Role, Congressional Research Service, (Mar.18, 2013),

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R43001.pdf (Noting that the US Congress “has pro-

vided significant support to help Mexico reform its justice system.”)

2018] SO TEACHER, WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER? 3

rule of law remains an uphill battle.

From a technical perspective,

it is not easy to develop a comprehensive package of “ambitious leg-

islative changes and constitutional amendments”

as well as an ef-

fective implementation mechanism. From a financial perspective,

adhering to the rule of law does not come cheap; it is inevitable that

a substantial budget for reform-associated costs is needed. In addi-

tion, there are major obstacles. For instance, one major obstacle to

building the rule of law in Mexico is the ruling class’ resistance to

being ruled by the law for fear of losing their power and privileges.

A strong political will to implement change is crucial to driving any

meaningful reforms in the justice sector. Numerous studies have

been conducted with respect to the approaches that Mexico could

take to overcome the technical and financial challenges. However,

the political will to reform appears to be a less-discussed topic.

This article argues that legal education has a great deal of poten-

tial to create a strong political will to reshape Mexico’s justice sys-

tem. According to a survey involving about 22,000 Mexican law

students across the country, the public’s lack of legal knowledge is

perceived as one of the main factors that contributes to injustices

and violations of human rights in Mexico.

It is also one of the top

factors that motivate Mexican students to study law.

In a narrow

sense, legal education, especially offered within the university set-

ting, equips students with a body of legal knowledge as well as a set

of practical skills that enable them to competently practice law after

Luis Fernando Pérez Hurtado, Transnationalizing Mexican Legal Educa-

tion: But, What about Students’ Expectations? 10

GERMAN L. J. 767, 768 (2009).

(Noting that “one of five Mexican law students chose to study law because they

or their relatives had been victims of violations to their rights, or as a result of

perceiving their en study law because they or their relatives had been victims of

violations to their rights, or as a result of perceiving their environment as marked

by injustice, corruption, and impunity.”)

Shirk, supra note 1.

Thomas Carothers, Rule of Law Revival, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT (Mar. 1,

1998), http://carnegieendowment.org/1998/03/01/rule-of-law-revival-pub-165.

(Noting that the ruling class are often afraid to “create competing centers of au-

thority beyond their control.

”

)

Pérez Hurtado, supra note 3, at 776.

Id. at 768.

4 INTER-AMERICAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49:1

graduation.

Its influence extends far beyond producing skilled legal

professionals for the society. Legal education also plays a critical

role in shaping the mindset of future legislators and policy makers,

creating a will from within to promote justice reform.

In a broad

sense, legal education fosters a healthy rule of law culture by raising

the public’s awareness of their rights, which ultimately drives the

ruling class to make changes.

Without doubt, legal education is an

essential element in repairing the broken justice system in Mexico,

and deserves more attention than ever before.

B. Inspiration of this Research and Issues to be Explored

Despite its importance, there is a paucity of information about

legal education in Mexico. Having reviewed the existing literature,

there are only a few articles that have been written on this subject,

predominantly by Dr. Luis Fernando Pérez Hurtado, Director of the

Center for the Study of Teaching and Learning the Law (Centro de

Estudios sobre la Enseñanza y el Aprendizaje del Derecho, A.C.) in

Mexico.

The great value of his research lies in the fact that he has

provided the English-speaking world with the most comprehensive

overview of Mexican legal education to date. This research is

largely inspired by Dr. Luis Fernando Pérez Hurtado’s previous

work on Mexican legal education.

Matthew J. Wilson, U.S., Legal Education Methods and Ideals: Applica-

tion to the Japanese and Korean Systems, 18

CARDOZO J. INT’L & COMP. L. 295,

297 (2010).

Id.

Elizabeth Andersen, Back to School Special: Legal Education as a Key

Component of Rule of Law Development, STAFF AND EVENT NEWS (Aug. 2015),

http://www.americanbar.org/advocacy/rule_of_law/newsroom_events/gen-

eral_news/news-staff-director-message-legal-education-key-component-of-rule-

of-law-0815.html.

Dr. Luis Fernando Pérez Hurtado has published a number of articles (in

English) regarding Mexican legal education. For example, An Overview of Mex-

ico’s System of Legal Education, 1 M

EX. L. REV. 2, 53-89 (2008); Content, Struc-

ture, and Growth of Mexican Legal Education, 59 J.

OF LEGAL. EDUC. 567, 567-

597

(2010); Transnationalizing Mexican Legal Education: But, What about Stu-

dents’ Expectations? CLPE

RESEARCH PAPER 27/2009 VOLUME 05 NO 04 (2009).

Dr. Luis Fernando Pérez Hurtado also led an American Bar Association (ABA)

research project Legal Education Reform Index for Mexico (2011) assessing the

status of legal education reform in Mexico.

2018] SO TEACHER, WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER? 5

The Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education

(Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, here-

inafter “Tec”) has scholarships that seek to address the gap around

legal education material. I have personally been a recipient of a one-

year visiting professorship that has allowed me to gain knowledge

of both Mexico’s legal system and how legal education is offered,

for which I thank them. This opportunity afforded me the privilege

of working with Mexican colleagues and students, to share infor-

mation, experiences, and the chance to develop a vision of how a

legal education can influence change.

At Tec, I was assigned to teach a wide range of courses, includ-

ing Public International Law, Private International Law, Introduc-

tion to the U.S. Legal System, Intellectual Property, Alternative Dis-

pute Resolution, Legal English and Legal Writing, and Human

Rights Law. Most of these courses are offered to the senior law stu-

dents, while some of them are offered to the first- or second-year

law students. Thus, I have had the opportunity to interact with stu-

dents in their different years. In my classroom, alternative perspec-

tives were introduced so that students could learn how to approach

a problem from different angles. However, the feedback received

from different groups of students was surprisingly unanimous. They

responded with the question, “so teacher, what is the right answer?”

That is a thought-provoking comment, making me question why

Mexican students always look for right answers.

Having discussed this question with some of my Mexican col-

leagues, it is clear that Mexican students are often required to mem-

orize the laws and related theoretical concepts, and they are tested

in both the midterm and final exams. Some professors are very strict

about “the right answer.” If a student’s answer is not identical to

what is in the textbook, then it is a wrong answer. This is completely

opposite to the educational culture of American law schools where

students are trained to think like lawyers, to recognize that there are

often competing legal principles and that the legal answer depends

on the facts of the case. For Mexican students, law appears to be “a

closed system of knowledge in which there are right answers.”

They generally lack the ability to identify the problems and to think

MARGARET THORNTON, PRIVATIZING THE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY: THE CASE

LAW 93 (2012).

6 INTER-AMERICAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49:1

about the goals, the alternative solutions, and the potential obstruc-

tions to solve the problems.

Inculcating students with the idea that there is a “right answer,”

in a sense, is a form of “dictatorship” in education. In the short term,

it directly restricts students’ ability to engage in critical thinking. In

the long term, it produces legal professionals, including legislators

and policy makers, who only accept the law as it is. People’s critical

engagement with justice reform is constrained, which further hin-

ders the development of political wills to support the rule of law.

People would only passively follow instructions that they perceive

as “right answers.” It is an issue that needs to be addressed urgently.

Additionally, a literature review has also revealed that teaching crit-

ical thinking to Mexican law students appears to be an unexplored

subject in academia. Therefore, built on my experience at Tec, this

research focuses on a discussion of incorporating critical thinking

into the Mexican curriculum, although it is acknowledged that legal

education reform in Mexico is a large-scale comprehensive project

requiring more than training students to think critically.

C. Structure of the Research

Section II introduces the methodology adopted, and explains the

constraints and considerations in this research. A profile of the

groups being interviewed is also provided in Section II. Section III

identifies and analyzes the factors contributing to the lack of critical

thinking skills in Mexican law students. In Mexico, the existing le-

gal pedagogies emphasize the transmission of legal knowledge only.

Students are denied the opportunity to engage in critical thinking.

Moreover, this research argues that Mexican legal education has ex-

cessively relied on adjunct faculty members in teaching. The imbal-

ance between full-time and part-time faculty members has created

an additional challenge for the implementation of critical pedagogy.

Therefore, adjustments in faculty recruitment are recommended.

Further, in order to remedy the deficiency in the Mexican legal ed-

ucation, Section IV proposes approaches to create a teaching and

learning environment that fosters critical thinking. This research

highlights three strategies, that is, class discussion, individual and

Kristen Holmquist, Challenging Carnegie, 61 J. OF LEGAL EDUC. 353, 357

(2012).

2018] SO TEACHER, WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER? 7

group projects, and the use of social media for educational purposes,

though undoubtedly there are many other options one could poten-

tially explore. Section V concludes the research by re-emphasizing

the importance of critical thinking, not only in improving legal edu-

cation, but also in promoting the rule of law in Mexico. This re-

search encourages Mexican law schools to integrate critical thinking

across the curriculum.

II.

METHODOLOGY AND CONSTRAINTS AND CONSIDERATIONS IN

THIS

RESEARCH

A. Methodology

This research is mainly built on my teaching experience at Tec.

While at Tec, I developed a number of locally adaptive teaching

strategies and applied them to my own classroom in an effort to en-

hance my students’ critical thinking skills. These strategies were

largely based upon the U.S. legal pedagogy of training students to

think like lawyers. However, the United States and Mexico have dif-

ferent legal systems: common law and civil law, respectively. These

two countries obviously have different focuses in their legal educa-

tion. I had taken that into consideration while designing teaching

strategies for my courses.

To get a better understanding of Mexican legal pedagogies and

to assess my experiment of teaching critical thinking in the class-

room, I conducted interviews with several groups of people. My in-

terview questions mainly focused on two aspects of legal teaching:

(1) teaching approaches adopted by professors (including both Mex-

ican and non-Mexican professors), and their views on Mexican legal

education; (2) student reflections on legal instruction, and their feed-

back on my critical pedagogy. The interviewees were divided into

three groups.

The first group consisted of law students. Unlike in the United

States, the first law degree in Mexico, Licenciatura en Derecho

(hereinafter “LED”), is not acquired through professional education

but undergraduate education.

Students involved in my interviews

were full-time LED students only. The purpose of interviewing LED

Luis Fernando Pérez Hurtado, An Overview of Mexico’s System of Legal

Education, 1 M

EX. L. REV. 53, 57 (2009).

8 INTER-AMERICAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49:1

students was to assess how Mexican students view their classes (in-

cluding those delivered by me) and their preparation for a career in

the legal profession. Interviews with LED students formed the basis

of my data collection.

The second group was comprised of Mexican colleagues, in-

cluding full-time legal academics and adjunct professors who were

legal practitioners, such as local judges and attorneys. This was to

understand, firstly, their teaching approaches and the rationales; and

secondly, their perspectives on Mexican legal education in a broader

sense. This group of interviewees graduated from various law

schools across Mexico, including both public and private law

schools. They had diverse teaching and learning experiences.

The third group that I interviewed was made up of Tec visiting

professors in law and other disciplines. For visiting professors in

other disciplines, some of them taught law students subjects such as

Ethics and Philosophy. These professors were included to add a

comparative perspective to the study i.e., their opinion on whether

they experienced any differences between teaching Mexican law

students as opposed to those of their home country.

B. Constraints and Considerations in this Research

As mentioned above, this research was primarily based upon a

case study of Tec. It did not investigate teaching pedagogies and

student reflections on legal instruction at other law schools in Mex-

ico. Generalizing from the single case study may have its limita-

tions. However, Tec’s case is fairly representative for the reasons

below.

Tec is the largest and most prestigious private university in Mex-

ico with 31 campuses across the country.

According to the QS

World University Rankings (2017-2018), Tec is ranked as one of the

top 2 in Mexico, after Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

(National Autonomous University of Mexico, “UNAM”).

Alt-

Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campuses, http://www.itesm.mx/wps/wcm/

connect/ITESM/Tecnologico+de+Monterrey/English/Campuses (last visited

Mar. 13, 2017).

Quacquarelli Symonds Limited, QS World University Rankings 2017-

2018, https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/latin-american-uni-

versity-rankings/2018 (last visited Jan. 26, 2018).

2018] SO TEACHER, WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER? 9

hough Tec is well-known as a multidisciplinary polytechnic univer-

sity with an emphasis on science and engineering, its law schools

across the country are also on the progressive end of the spectrum

of Mexican legal education. Tec is generally considered a pioneer in

areas such as curriculum design, teaching methods, and overseas

partnerships. It is suggested that if Tec, as an educational “pioneer”

struggles to enhance a student’s critical thinking skills, most likely,

other law schools face the same issue. In fact, interviews conducted

with Mexican colleagues reveal that Tec’s model of legal pedagogy

has much in common with those in other Mexican law schools. It is

fair to say that we can safely draw some general inferences that re-

late to Mexican law schools from the case study of Tec.

III. F

ACTORS THAT CAUSE THE LACK OF CRITICAL THINKING IN

THE

MEXICAN LEGAL EDUCATION

At Tec, I was encouraged by the Law Dean to introduce the U.S.

style of instruction to Mexican students and colleagues. The Dean

views American legal pedagogies as a pathway to their pedagogical

reform, expecting more skills training to be integrated into the cur-

riculum. In fact, according to the interview results, Tec professors

and students also rated practical skills training as important as gain-

ing the required knowledge of the substantive law.

They acknowl-

edged, however, that some skills have been largely overlooked in

the curriculum, and critical thinking is one of those. They also

agreed that critical thinking is particularly important to the improve-

ment of the rule of law in Mexico. Being able to challenge the law

and its implementation is a critical step for any meaningful justice

reform.

This research argues that two major factors contribute to the lack

of critical thinking in the Mexican legal education. On the one hand,

A nationwide survey conducted by Dr. Luis Fernando Pérez Hurtado also

confirmed my interview results, stating that Mexican law students have “recog-

nized the absence of practical skills instruction.” According to the survey, most

law students would prefer a more practical approach that develops their practical

skills for future professional practice. See American Bar Association, Legal Edu-

cation Reform Index for Mexico 27 (Jun. 2011), http://www.americanbar.org/con-

tent/dam/aba/directories/roli/mexico/mexico_legal_education_reform_in-

dex_2011_en.authcheckdam.pdf.

10 INTER-AMERICAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49:1

legal education in Mexico focuses heavily on “teaching students the

black letter law.”

The questioning voice has been replaced by the

known knowledge, and a clear distinction exists between a right and

wrong answer.

Mexican students’ poor skills in critical thinking

can be directly traced to a lack of proper training. On the other hand,

the imbalance between full-time and part-time faculty members has

impaired the overall integrity of teaching and learning, making it

difficult to implement a critical pedagogical approach into the class-

room.

A. Transmission of Legal Knowledge Only

1. Curriculum: Encyclopedic Legal Education

In Mexico, law schools have the freedom to design their own

curricula, including deciding the basic courses that students must

take in order to fulfill the graduation requirements.

In general,

Mexican law students are required to complete between 40 and 70

compulsory courses covering different areas of law.

In addition to

these core courses, they can also choose a number of electives to

complete their degree.

Compared to the Juris Doctor (JD) pro-

grams in the United States, Mexican law schools offer their students

encyclopedic education. The perception is that the more students

know, the better they are prepared for their future career in the legal

profession. Despite its comprehensiveness, the Mexican law curric-

ula is heavily “oriented towards conveying a solid theoretical edu-

cation,”

as opposed to developing students’ practical skills.

See generally Wilson, supra note 8.

Gabrielle Appleby, Peter Burdon & Alexander Reilly, Critical Thinking in

Legal Education: Our Journey, 23 LEGAL EDUC. R. 345, 345 (2013).

American Bar Association, supra note 17, at 24.

Id. at 1. Noting that “[t]he standard curriculum includes between 40 and 70

mandatory theoretical courses that cover various areas of domestic and interna-

tional law, optional and clinical courses, and a number of other classes that re-

spond to new social, political, economic, and legal developments in Mexico.”

Pérez Hurtado, supra note 14, at 72.

American Bar Association, supra note 17, at 3.

2018] SO TEACHER, WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER? 11

2. Course Materials

Mexican law textbooks are used to teach the curricula. These

textbooks are “theoretical compilations based on concepts, classifi-

cations, theories, and comparisons.”

Unlike law texts in the United

States, most Mexican texts do not have hypotheticals, case studies,

or simulations. In other words, Mexican texts not designed to engage

students in the learning process.

Additionally, students are not re-

quired to read any materials other than textbooks. On rare occasions,

some professors may recommend a few books to expand students’

knowledge in certain areas of law.

But there is a lack of resources

in most libraries, including in Tec’s library, which traditionally is

known as one of the most important research institutes in Mexico.

Libraries in most universities only have very basic collections of

books and access to electronic databases is also limited.

Students

themselves are not willing to purchase additional books and journals

if they are not required. As a result, students’ view of the law is con-

fined to the content of a single textbook that overemphasizes sub-

stantive knowledge, and their independent learning and critical

thinking skills are left undeveloped.

3. Teaching Methods

The interview results have revealed that teacher-centered lec-

tures are the most common method adopted by Mexican law profes-

sors.

Student-centered approaches, such as discussion or individ-

ual and group projects are rarely used in the classroom.

Mexican

law professors almost exclusively focus on teaching students sub-

stantive knowledge to the exclusion of developing their critical

thinking skills.

Professors are often considered the only source of

all relevant information for law students.

Their role is to passively

Id. at 30.

See id.

See generally Luis Alfonso Navarrete Aldaco, What can Mexican Law

Schools Learn from the American Legal Realists?, 7 Mex. L. R. 83 (2014).

See generally id.

American Bar Association, supra note 17, at 3.

Id. at 29.

See id.

Id. at 27.

Id. at 29.

12 INTER-AMERICAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49:1

deliver substantive knowledge.

Students are rarely given opportu-

nities to engage in active learning. The routine of a law class starts

with the professor introducing and explaining concepts, for exam-

ple, definitions, elements, and exceptions of a legal principle;

cases are then used to deepen the students’ understanding of the

principle; and the class usually ends with the professor answering

students’ questions, if there are any.

Although case examples are provided and explained by profes-

sors, hypotheticals are rarely used to test students’ understanding of

the rules and their ability to apply the rules to the facts. While dis-

cussing cases, Mexican law professors tend to place a strong empha-

sis on one party’s argument, to be more specific, the “right” argu-

ment, i.e., the argument that persuaded the court’s decision. Rather

than approach a problem from different perspectives and expose stu-

dents to the broad range of lawyers’ roles in litigation, they focus on

the judge’s point of view. Often, there are several steps to follow

when they explain a case: facts, plaintiff’s claim or grounds of ap-

peal, and judge’s decision. Arguments on behalf of the opposing

parties and the rationales they make to argue for the losing party’s

view are largely overlooked. An adoption of this case method inev-

itably leads to students looking for “right answers.”

Admittedly, passive lectures do effectively transfer a large

amount of substantive legal knowledge to students within a short

period of time.

But using the lecture as the sole instructional strat-

egy largely undermines students’ healthy skepticism, creativity, and

intellectual curiosity.

B. An Imbalance between Full-time and Part-time Faculty

Members

1. Why Mexican Law Schools’ Employ a High Percentage of

Part-time Professors

At Tec, the majority of law faculty members are employed part-

time. In my view, such a faculty appointment system is quite unu-

sual. It also runs counter to the practice adopted in the United States.

See id.

American Bar Association, supra note 17, at 29.

Id.

Holmquist, supra note 13, at 358-359.

2018] SO TEACHER, WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER? 13

Surprisingly, interview results have revealed that most law schools

in Mexico either do not have full-time professors or have very few.

Part-time professors teach most of the law courses.

They are usu-

ally local legal practitioners

dedicating only a few hours a week to

teaching one or two courses each semester.

Mexican law schools’

heavy reliance on part-time professors is the result of a combination

of factors. On the one hand, differently from the U.S. system, there

is no requirement for Mexican law schools to maintain a certain

number of full-time professors. On the other hand, from an eco-

nomic point of view, hiring part-time faculty is less costly.

In the United States, the American Bar Association (“ABA”)

and some State Bar associations have established detailed require-

ments covering every aspect of law school management, including

the size of a full-time faculty. For example, according to Standard

402 of the 2016-2017 ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for

Approval of Law Schools, “[a] law school shall have a sufficient

number of full-time faculty to fulfill the requirements of the Stand-

ards and meet the goals of its educational program.”

Also different

from the United States is the fact that there is no federal or state

requirement for Mexican law schools to maintain a certain amount

of full-time faculty members. Instead, the Mexican government con-

siders legal education as a practical exercise that legal practitioners

are qualified to undertake, and thus it is not necessary to have full-

time academics.

See American Bar Association, supra note 17, at 39. Similarly, the ABA

report also shows that “approximately 90% of law professors in Mexico are ad-

junct practitioners.”

Id. (Noting that law faculties in Mexico are “overwhelmingly comprised

of practicing lawyers who spend only a few hours a week at the school teaching

one or two courses.”).

Id. (Noting that these local legal practitioners usually “work in law firms,

notary offices, government offices, or in the judiciary.”).

Pérez Hurtado, supra note 14, at 77-78.

American Bar Association, ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for Ap-

proval of Law Schools 2016-2017, http://www.americanbar.org/con-

tent/dam/aba/migrated/legaled/standards/20072008StandardsWebContent/Chap-

ter_4.authcheckdam.pdf (last visited Jul. 2017).

American Bar Association, supra note 17, at 39.

14 INTER-AMERICAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49:1

Further, a law professor’s salary varies considerably in Mexico,

depending on the type of institution (public or private) and an indi-

vidual professor’s qualification.

According to a study conducted

by the ABA, public law schools in Mexico usually offer a full-time

professor a salary of “between MXN 15,000 (USD 1,200) and MXN

24,000 (USD 1,920) per month” with extra bonuses and benefits.

Meanwhile, a part-time professor is paid “between MXN 40 (USD

3.2) and MXN 100 (USD 8) per hour of teaching.”

Given that part-

time professors only dedicate a few hours a week to teach, they do

not get paid much. Private law schools’ offers are more generous. A

full-time professor working at a private law school makes “between

MXN 18,000 (USD 1,440) and MXN 30,000 (USD 2,400) per

month” with additional bonuses and benefits.

A part-time profes-

sor working at a private law school is paid “between MXN 120

(USD 9.6) and MXN 250 (USD 20) per hour of teaching.”

experience at Tec is similar, although the pay for both full-time and

part-time professors is much higher than the average listed above.

This is because Tec is the top private university in Mexico and has

more financial resources. Compared to part-time professors, full-

time professors at Tec are offered generous bonuses and benefits,

including an extra month’s salary as a Christmas bonus, a vacation

premium, grocery card, and savings fund. Tec is also able to offer

full-time foreign visiting professors salaries similar to the American

standard. Despite the pay differences between public and private law

schools, it is obvious that the compensation for part-time professors

is much lower in general. Undoubtedly, hiring part-time professors

to teach is an economic way to run a law school, especially when

the Mexican government does not regulate the amount of full-time

faculty members. The two factors discussed above clearly explain

why Mexican law schools overwhelmingly rely on part-time faculty

members to teach.

Id. at 42. (Noting that public universities usually offer a much lower salary

than their private counterparts in Mexico).

Id.

Id. According to my experience in Mexico, the compensation for full-time

professors in both public and private law schools does not make them rich, but

enables them to live a fairly decent life.

2018] SO TEACHER, WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER? 15

2. The Mexican Model of Law Faculty Appointment:

Advantages, Disadvantages, and the Difficulty of Incorporating

Critical Thinking Skills into the Curriculum

The Mexican model of law faculty appointment has both ad-

vantages and disadvantages. There are two main advantages. Firstly,

part-time law professors, as full-time legal practitioners, often bring

real world experience into the classroom. They may also be able to

“synthesize the information well and to illustrate [. . . ] concepts by

drawing on examples from their own law practice.”

In particular,

some of them have years of professional experience, and they are

recognized as experts in specific areas of law.

However, it is also

true that despite the extensive practical experience that legal practi-

tioners have, they may not know how to incorporate their practical

experience into classroom teaching. Secondly, legal practitioners

may also bring networking opportunities to their students. Often,

they assist students in finding their first jobs after graduation.

To be fair, inviting full-time legal practitioners to teach a few

classes is beneficial to the students. However, over-reliance on part-

time professors in teaching is detrimental, affecting the overall qual-

ity of legal education in Mexico. Contrary to the approach of full-

time academics, part-time professors are often not as enthusiastic

about learning and implementing diverse teaching methods, and

they generally do not strive to develop a student’s critical thinking

skills.

As discussed above, the compensation for part-time professors

in Mexico is very low. Teaching classes at law schools is indeed one

source of income, but it is “an insignificant income” when compared

with their other professional activities.

As a result, part-time pro-

fessors prioritize legal practice over teaching.

They do not dedicate

much time to thinking about introducing innovative ways to teach

courses.

Given that the part-time professors are accustomed to the

American Bar Association, supra note 17, at 3.

Id. at 39.

Id. (Noting that these part-time law professors “act as a gateway to the la-

bor market.” Also, “many law students reportedly find their first job either work-

ing directly for one of their former professors or with the professor’s help”).

Pérez Hurtado, supra note 14, at 77-78.

American Bar Association, supra note 17, at 3.

Pérez Hurtado, supra note 14, at 68.

16 INTER-AMERICAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49:1

traditional method of passive lecturing adopted by their law profes-

sors when they were students, they often choose to teach their stu-

dents in the same way.

Part-time professors lack incentives to im-

plement new teaching methods that they are not familiar with, or to

develop courses that require additional work.

Additionally, a lack of training for part-time professors further

reduces their ability to implement diverse teaching methods. Most

part-time professors are not exposed to alternative teaching methods

and they do not know how to incorporate critical thinking skills into

the curriculum. Unfortunately, most law schools do not offer train-

ing to develop the teaching skills for part-time professors.

Mexican law schools, in my view, want to promote and support

the enhancement of teaching and learning. However, the problem is

that they do not seem to know how, which explains why there is

very little or no training available on teaching and learning. As a

matter of fact, the lack of knowledge and appropriate resources to

implement an alternative methodology is a direct result of poor re-

search performance. In Mexico, very little emphasis is placed on re-

search. The ABA Legal Education Reform Index for Mexico provides

a good indication of research performance in Mexico. It states, “less

than 20% of law schools have faculty who perform any kind of

scholarly research.”

This statement relates not only to legal educa-

tion, but also to research in general. Research efforts in general are

considered to be inadequate in Mexico. To be fair, most law profes-

sors are full-time legal practitioners, so it is understandable that they

only focus on teaching rather than doing research or participating in

any administrative activities.

As for full-time professors, although

research is expected to be performed, they often have very little time

to dedicate to research because of an overwhelmingly heavy teach-

ing load. For example, all the full-time professors at Tec are as-

signed to teach four to five, or even six courses per semester, leaving

no time for research.

Id.

American Bar Association, supra note 17, at 29-30 (Noting that it is diffi-

cult for part-time professors to “commit to the time necessary for leading a work-

shop, which may require the professor to monitor and evaluate each student and

to provide ongoing feedback on the students’ performance.”).

See generally Navarrete Aldaco, supra note 26.

American Bar Association, supra note 17, at 40.

Id.

2018] SO TEACHER, WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER? 17

To change the situation, Mexican law schools are encouraged to

place more of an emphasis on redefining the profiles of members of

the law faculty. To be more specific, Mexican law schools should

urgently increase the number of highly qualified full-time academ-

ics who have “a capacity to engage in rigorous, insightful scholar-

ship” as well as “a capacity to serve as innovators in the class-

room.”

The experience of teaching could potentially inspire an ac-

ademic’s research endeavors. Meanwhile, research promotes and

provides major improvements and advancements in teaching and

learning. Teaching and research are complementary and indispensa-

ble. Redefining the profiles of members of the law faculty in Mexico

will fundamentally modify the structure of law schools, and improve

the overall quality of legal education in Mexico. However, the high

cost involved would present a major challenge to Mexican law

schools.

3. Academic Exchange and Visiting Professorship Programs

Many law schools in Mexico, especially those private law

schools that have access to abundant financial resources, often invite

professors from overseas to teach week-long intensive courses or to

be part of their year-long full-time visiting professorship programs.

These programs are beneficial to both Mexican law schools and stu-

dents. For law schools, it is a shortcut to globalizing the curriculum

as visiting professors introduce diverse legal pedagogies from over-

seas. For students, they are exposed to legal study from a compara-

tive perspective and certainly to different teaching styles and cul-

tures. However, visiting professors, either short-term or long-term,

leave lasting marks on Mexico’s legal education system after they

return home. Thus, Mexico cannot entirely rely on foreign visiting

professors to accelerate or deepen its legal education reform. Rather,

as noted above, it is important to make fundamental change to the

profiles of its own law faculty.

R. Michael Cassidy, Beyond Practical Skills: Nine Steps for Improving Le-

gal Education Now, Boston College Law School Faculty Papers (Jan. 1, 2012),

http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1396&con-

text=lsfp.

18 INTER-AMERICAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49:1

IV. INCORPORATING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS ACROSS THE

CURRICULUM: THE APPLICATION OF THE U.S. MODEL

A major weakness in the teaching methods of Mexican law

schools, as mentioned previously, is the overreliance on the trans-

mission of legal knowledge through passive lecturing. Critical

thinking, as one of the key elements of legal education, is largely

overlooked. To improve the overall quality of legal education in

Mexico, it is imperative that law schools go beyond simply teaching

students substantive knowledge.

Rather, Mexican law schools

should move towards teaching students doctrine from a critical per-

spective.

Faculty members in Mexico have the academic freedom to de-

termine how their classes are delivered as well as the level of inter-

action they would like to have with their students.

Individual law

staff can certainly play a major role in pushing forward the reform

if they are committed to applying critical pedagogy in their class-

room.

While teaching at Tec, I strived to provide my students with an

experience of critical engagement with the law. A series of ap-

proaches were developed to foster an interactive and inclusive learn-

ing environment.

These approaches were initially a replica of U.S.

legal pedagogy. However, various issues arose as I applied them to

my classroom. Adjustments were constantly made to achieve the

best learning outcomes for the students. Two particular factors were

taken into account in the process of adjustment.

The first factor was the adaptability of the U.S. legal pedagogy

in Mexican law schools was the first consideration. U.S. law schools

have been using the Socratic Method and other interactive teaching

methods for decades as a common instruction style to direct case

Appleby, Burdon & Reilly, supra note 19, at 347.

Id. at 360. (noting that “[t]here is growing evidence that the legal profes-

sion, the students, the community, the regulators and the law schools themselves

also expect legal education to provide more than just the transfer of knowledge of

legal rules.”).

American Bar Association, supra note 17, at 43. Factor 19 is about aca-

demic freedom and freedom of association for law faculty. It states that “[a]ca-

demic freedom of association of law faculty members in Mexico is protected by

law. The vast majority of institutions protect academic freedom with regard to

course content and teaching methods.”

Appleby, Burdon & Reilly, supra note 19, at 359.

2018] SO TEACHER, WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER? 19

discussion as well as class discussion in general. Mexican law

schools can certainly benefit from this well-established participatory

learning approach in order to develop students’ critical thinking

skills. However, American law students understand that the Socratic

Method and other interactive teaching methods are what they expect

in class even before they start law school. As for Mexican law pro-

fessors and students who have not been exposed to this teaching

style, they would find this quite confronting. Thus, the approach

should be an innovative adaption of traditional U.S. legal pedagogy

to the Mexican context.

The second factor was how to modify the U.S. approach to the

Mexican context. The average class size at Tec was between twenty

to fifty students. The small cohort provided me a lot of flexibility to

be able to diversify the teaching techniques to stimulate critical

thinking and to engage students in the learning process. As a matter

of fact, most Mexican law schools “have an adequate student-to-

teacher ratio”

and class sizes are quite small,

offering great op-

portunities for Mexican law professors to apply a variety of teaching

strategies.

Keeping these considerations in mind, a number of interactive

teaching approaches were introduced to engage students in critical

thinking. First, I used discussion as a way of learning; second, I di-

versified assessment formats to include individual projects and

group projects; and finally, I used social media for educational pur-

poses. The implementation of these strategies and the corresponding

student learning outcomes will be discussed in more detail subse-

quently.

Undoubtedly, there are numerous other innovative teaching

methods which can be used to improve students’ critical thinking

skills and the overall quality of the Mexican legal education. Ideally,

these experimental approaches provide some practical insight to

Mexican law professors and other educators who endeavor to reform

the Mexican legal education, and further inspire them to support the

teaching of critical thinking in legal education.

American Bar Association, supra note 17, at 2.

Id. (Noting that “smaller class sizes in many Mexican universities allow

students to receive personalized attention from professors. While several public

universities have very large classes, this is beginning to change under the influ-

ence of the voluntary diagnostic evaluation and accreditation process.”).

20 INTER-AMERICAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49:1

A. Class Participation: Discussion as a Way of Learning

The goal of class participation was to expose students to the

thinking process and the lawyer’s role, recognizing that they need to

consider the views of opposing parties. Because the majority of my

students had been used to passive lecturing and been given what

were considered “the right answers,” I adjusted the traditional So-

cratic Method to make class participation a two-step process. This

two-step process included a view of a positive and supportive learn-

ing environment to make students feel comfortable and then to grad-

ually adapt to the new approach of interactive learning. Therefore,

the first step was to encourage students to engage in the learning

process and get them to talk. Surprisingly, it was not as challenging

as I expected. This could be explained by the fact that culturally,

Mexican students are generally extroverts with an outgoing and so-

ciable approach to life. Interview results have also confirmed that

students love to be given the opportunity to have their voices heard

in class. In my experience, the first step usually took about one to

two sessions, mostly depending on the year level of the degree. For

example, senior students were more confident than junior level stu-

dents. The second step was to make it clear to the students that par-

ticipation is not just how much you speak, but it is about the quality

of a student’s participation. The student’s quality of participation is

important to their final grades, and the level of contribution that was

expected and was worth 10% of their total assessment. Achieving

this understanding was prioritized, changing students’ pre-existing

impression of how law lectures should be delivered, disrupting the

assumption that there were actually right answers, and further help-

ing the students to step out of their comfort zone so that they could

critically engage in their law study.

1. Before the Class – Reading Assignments

It has been a common practice that law students in the United

States are expected to complete reading assignments before they at-

tend class. If one goes to class unprepared, it can be a real struggle

to follow or participate in class discussion. However, Mexican law

students go to class without any form of preparation and they are not

used to doing reading assignments before class, a direct result of

passive lecturing. In Mexico, students only need to listen to the lec-

tures and understand what they are taught in class, the right answers.

2018] SO TEACHER, WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER? 21

Mexican students are not given the opportunity to participate in the

learning process, and they generally lack the skills to solve prob-

lems. My students at Tec had very little or no prior knowledge of

how to identify issues in a case or how to approach questions from

different perspectives, nor did they know the process behind the de-

cision.

When I first started teaching in Mexico, I had little understand-

ing of these issues, and I failed to design appropriate questions to

facilitate student learning. The general questions originally listed in

the syllabi were too broad for students to follow. To solve this prob-

lem, I refined the discussion questions to guide students’ reading,

assisting them in the understanding of the materials. For example,

in statutory interpretation, rather than asking students to analyze if

Party A’s conduct contravened a specific section of an Act, I broke

this question into several smaller questions, including: (1) What is

the specific section about? How can you break down the section into

several elements, including, who, what, when, and exception(s)? (2)

What are the facts of the case?; (3) What are the issue(s) to be ex-

amined after comparing the elements of the specific section with the

corresponding facts? The first three questions together assisted stu-

dents in identifying the issues of the case. Then, I continued to ask:

(4) How to analyze the issue(s) and apply the law to the facts? (5)

What are the possible arguments from the opposing parties? Which

argument is likely stronger than the other, and why? (6) What are

the court’s decisions, and the rationale for the court to reach the de-

cisions? These questions offered an effective guideline for students

to identify the issues and articulate their arguments. These questions

also provided an opportunity for students to consider the views of

opposing parties.

Guided by detailed questions similar to those above, I hoped that

students would learn how to read cases, statutes, and other legal ma-

terials to further analyze and synthesize the information for class

discussion. As for students’ feedback with respect to reading assign-

ments, some were quite excited about this new approach. They were

eager to read the cases and materials, and they actively participated

in class discussions. However, the majority of the students were in-

itially resistant to read before class. They were not willing to put

extra time and effort into class preparation.

22 INTER-AMERICAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49:1

Aggressively pushing students to read does not achieve the best

learning outcomes. Ideally, students need to have the intrinsic moti-

vation to engage in their own studies. Peer pressure, if used properly,

can be powerful, and can result in positive impacts on student learn-

ing. Peer pressure works particularly well for young people. Given

that all of my students were aged between 17 and 23, I decided to

give it a try. I continued to stimulate and expand classroom discus-

sions, ensuring that “quiet” students were not made to feel stressed

or embarrassed. In the meantime, active students were encouraged

to share their opinions and participate in the discussion. Most im-

portantly, students were gradually guided to move from simple “par-

ticipation” to actual “contribution.” In other words, quality was val-

ued over quantity. When students saw that their fellow students’

opinions were valued, more of them felt motivated to share their

views with others. To make thoughtful contributions, the students

would have to not only finish their reading assignments, but also

attempt to understand the materials before they attended class.

According to the interview results, students were pleased to

learn how to read and think critically, and they agreed that reading

assignments had better prepared them for classroom discussion.

Also, the stated reason why the students became active in classroom

discussions was because “they did not want to be left behind,” – an

example of positive peer pressure. The approach discussed above

may not be universally applicable, but it has the advantage of en-

gaging a small group of young students in participatory learning and

discussion.

2. During the Class – Participation

In an interactive classroom, instructors often serve as facilitators

to ignite discussions that help students find solutions to the questions

presented while students are the main contributors to the discus-

sions. The purpose of an interactive lecture is to encourage active

learning. However, this approach, without any adaptation, proved to

be a failure at Tec. During my teaching at Tec, I tried to encourage

students to lead the classroom discussion while I acted as the facili-

tator. However, the outcome left me in doubt. A few gifted students

quickly learned how to engage in the conversations to support their

learning, while most students were still anxious, struggling to reset

their minds for this new teaching style. The majority of students

2018] SO TEACHER, WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER? 23

were quite confused initially. Having observed the struggle and as-

sessed the outcomes, I decided to adopt a hybrid approach combin-

ing passive lecturing and interactive discussions.

Rather than moving directly into interactive discussion, I began

my class with a lecture, which took about one third of the session,

depending on the topic. The lecture, specifically a brief introduction

of the course materials, was designed to provide students with an

overview of the legal principles and to highlight the key points of

the class. It also modelled the tools that were later used to analyze

questions and apply legal principles. Alternative perspectives were

also introduced to the students. This exposed students to different

thinking processes and the rationales behind them. For example, in

my Human Rights Law class, one topic was about the right to food.

Two opposing views were examined. Some scholars argue that the

right to food is not a universal human right for two reasons. At the

international level, there are only a few treaties. For instance, only

the University Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the Inter-

national Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

(ICESCR), have mentioned the right to food and none of the treaties

have binding effect on its Member States.

At the national level,

only 28 of 198 Constitutions in the world have explicitly established

the right to food.

However, other scholars argue that a right to food

exists. Although there is no solid requirement that States must en-

sure their people’s sustainable and adequate access to food, through-

out history States have made it “a general and consistent practice.”

Further, States have also accepted this “general and consistent prac-

tice as law” (“opinio juris”).

Therefore, the right to food has been

established as a norm of customary international law which has a

binding effect on all States.

Initially, students found it confronting

and confusing to see contradictory views, and they responded by

asking what the right answer is. Despite this initial response, they

See YING CHEN, TRADE, FOOD SECURITY, AND HUMAN RIGHTS – THE

RULES FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS AND THE

EVOLVING WORLD FOOD CRISIS 12-32 (2014) (for more discussion regarding the

right to food).

Id. at 29.

Id. at 25-26.

Id. at 26-29.

Id. at 29.

24 INTER-AMERICAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49:1

started thinking and realized that both arguments made sense, alt-

hough each individual student might prefer one over the other.

The right to food discussion also inspired students to re-assess

the effectiveness of Mexican laws in the area of indigenous rights

protection. Most of the students previously believed that the govern-

ment policies support the development of indigenous areas in Mex-

ico, which is true in a sense. However, they began to think from the

indigenous people’s point of view, realizing the implementation of

these policies may impose undesirable consequences on the indige-

nous people. For example, some of the economic development plans

may violate indigenous people’s right to their lands, and the right to

practice and revitalize their own cultural traditions and customs. It

was impressive that students started challenging the law rather than

accepting it as it is.

The right to food was only one example out of many. Feedback

from the students was quite positive. According to the interview re-

sults, students believed that a brief introduction at the beginning of

the class reinforced their understanding of substantive law. In par-

ticular, 90 percent of the students found that they were inspired to

think critically after being exposed to the alternative arguments.

A classroom discussion followed, which was about two-thirds

of the session. Classroom discussion was a dominant method to en-

gage students in the learning process. Given that students were still

gradually adapting to the new teaching style, the Socratic Method

was used to assist student learning. Specifically, the Socratic

Method stimulates and expands discussion, facilitating critical

thinking. Discussions were centered around cases on specific topics.

The questions provided before the class also helped ensure that the

discussion was connected. Students were assigned to different roles,

including opposing parties and judges. They were then asked to

identify the issues and applicable laws and to develop further argu-

ments and explain the reasoning according to their assigned roles.

The first few sessions were reasonably challenging because students

had no prior experience of exploring legal issues in such an open

way. Students did not know much about case law study given that

Mexico is a civil law country. They did not know where to start and

how to proceed. Students were initially lost. In the meantime, they

also found it exciting to be given the opportunity to think, develop

arguments, and persuade others as if they were a real attorney or

2018] SO TEACHER, WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER? 25

judge. Rather than resisting the new teaching style, students worked

through the questions diligently. Without being spoon-fed, students

were able to approach legal issues from different perspectives. They

were even impressed by the fact that they could actually generate

responses and recognized that there was no “right answer.” This ap-

proach assisted students in understanding the law from many points

of view. Students were “obliged to think through and debate the is-

sues themselves to disabuse them of the idea that law provided

‘right’ answer.”

Their knowledge and skills were significantly en-

hanced. Interview results have confirmed that students enjoyed “the

ability to interact in class”

and they were motivated to actively and

critically engage in the learning process. Meanwhile, the interviews

with other foreign visiting professors also suggested that interactive

teaching methods had motivated their students to engage in critical

thinking and largely improved their students’ practical skills.

Every class concluded with a recap and a series of further ques-

tions. The recap emphasized the important principles and their rele-

vant applications and reviewed the concepts that students struggled

to understand. Interview results have revealed that the recap clari-

fied confusion, if there was any left unsolved during class discus-

sion. Most importantly, the recap reinforced student understanding

of the course materials. A series of further questions were also raised

to encourage students to continue the thinking process outside the

classroom. Students found that these questions “[h]ad enhanced

their learning experience” and “assisted them in achieving academic

success.”

In summary, my experiment at Tec suggests that interactive

teaching was “very helpful with understanding the skills required to

develop throughout the law degree and a career in law;”

maximiz-

ing student engagement in the learning process. Students’ critical

thinking skills were effectively improved through participatory

learning and discussion. In particular, the introduction of alternative

perspectives and the approach that exposed students to different

roles ultimately broke the spell of expecting a “right answer.” Stu-

dents developed a questioning approach to law within a short period

THORNTON, supra note 12, at 85.

Tec law students interview feedback (on file with author).

26 INTER-AMERICAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49:1

of time. Mexican law professors are strongly encouraged to imple-

ment critical pedagogy in their classes, imparting critical thinking

skills to their students.

With their extensive local knowledge and

practical experience, Mexican professors surely can play a major

role in developing their own techniques to strengthen students’ crit-

ical engagement with the study of law.

B. Alternative Assessments: Individual Projects and Group

Projects

In addition to the traditional examination-style assessment,

other forms of assessment were adopted to supplement interactive

teaching and to improve learning outcomes. As discussed above,

participation-based assessment (10%) in class discussion was used

to encourage students to explore a diverse range of perspectives and

to question their own assumptions. Moreover, small research pro-

jects that contained three elements of assessment were also designed

to help strengthen students’ critical thinking skills. In classes that

had less than twenty-five students this was an individual research

project. For classes with more than twenty-five students, this was a

group research project. In each case, students were given the oppor-

tunity to choose a topic at the beginning of the semester. Topics that

focussed on contemporary local, national or international legal is-

sues were encouraged, although their topic had to be within the con-

text of a related field so students could apply their understanding of

the law to the project they chose to work on. In the middle of the

semester, students were required to do a ten-minute research presen-

tation in class. Just prior to the final exam, students had to submit a

research paper. While each of these elements formed part of the re-

search project assessment task, they were each marked individually.

The inclusion of a research project as part of the assessment in a

course is not common in the United States. It is generally not man-

ageable in courses that have a large cohort. However, some re-

Mao Ling, Clinical Legal Education and the Reform of the Higher Legal

Education System in China, 30 Fordham Int’l L.J. 421, 427 (2007).

Appleby, Burdon & Reilly, supra note 19, at 346. (Noting that examina-

tion-style assessment is “naturally suited to assessment of doctrinal knowledge

and application.” As a result, “[s]tudents are achieving surface level learning out-

comes.”).

2018] SO TEACHER, WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER? 27

search-related courses in the United States do adopt a research pro-

ject as a form of assessment, providing good examples for Mexican

law schools in the area of improving student critical thinking skills.

Research projects worked well at Tec because there are small classes

and the small number of students allows for all of them to be able to

present their research findings in class, either as a group or individ-

ually. Students received immediate feedback from both their fellow

classmates and myself as the instructor. This was given in the form

of constructive feedback, with the objective being that students use

their feedback to craft an improved version of their final research

papers. In constructing their presentations and their papers, students

actively engaged in critical thinking. This skill was particularly a

factor when students had to respond to their fellow classmates’ as-

sumptions or comments on their findings during their presentations.

These projects exposed students to a world that does not always

produce a “right answer.” Critical engagement was imperative for

students to complete the project. Students engaged in critical analy-

sis throughout the project. Students identified legal issues, re-

searched information, evaluated and analyzed available resources,

and developed their own arguments and legal reasoning. Students

had to examine alternative perspectives in order to make their own

arguments, and particularly their conclusions, more persuasive. As

a result of direct engagement with the process of critical thinking, a

significant improvement was seen in students’ final research papers.

It was evident that the majority of students were able to demonstrate

enhanced skills in their critical thinking. For example, a student

from the Introduction to the U.S. Legal System class chose to work

on a topic about drug legalization. This student first introduced drug

problems in Mexico, including the government’s struggle in win-

ning the drug war. He then examined the Mexican drug laws and

policies. Rather than passively following “the right answer”, i.e.,

accepting the existing laws and policies on drug control, this student

identified some of the issues with the law itself and its implementa-

tion. He then introduced the American drug laws, specifically drug

legalization (marijuana) in some U.S. states. He analyzed the pros

and cons of drug liberalization, concluding that Mexico should re-

assess its laws and consider some degree of drug liberalization. Ac-

cording to this student, a certain degree of drug liberalization may

28 INTER-AMERICAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49:1

ultimately destroy the illegal drug businesses in Mexico. This stu-

dent’s research idea might not be that creative, but for someone who

had not been exposed to critical thinking, it was a remarkable im-

provement.

These research projects also increased students’ extrinsic and in-

trinsic motivations to study law because they were given the free-

dom to choose a topic and broaden their knowledge in a topic that

interested them. Throughout the semester, students assessed a broad

range of legal issues. They were satisfied that they could “extend

their knowledge beyond the textbook.”

Meanwhile, in the process

of completing the project, a set of critical skills requisite to their

further law study and career in law was gradually developed. In ad-

dition to critical thinking skills, students’ research skills, problem-

solving skills, analytical skills, presentation skills, critical writing

skills, and many other skills also greatly improved.

In summary, the research project, as an alternative assessment,

proved to be an effective strategy to develop students’ practical

skills. It provided a valuable experience for Mexican students given

the small class sizes.

Mexican professors are urged to consider

moving towards diversified assessment formats to achieve better

learning outcomes.

C. The Use of Social Media for Educational Purposes

Outside of the classroom, social media, specifically Facebook,

was used to improve students’ critical engagement with the course

materials. Tec provides an online platform called Blackboard that

facilitates student learning. However, a significant number of stu-

dents tend not to log in to Blackboard regularly. On the contrary,

almost all the students check their Facebook pages more often than

they should. Meanwhile, it is also common that Mexican professors,

not only law professors, have two Facebook accounts: a private ac-

count for their friends and family, and a public account for students.

Mexican professors often use their public Facebook accounts to

Tec law students interview feedback (on file with author).

American Bar Association, supra note 17, at 2. (Noting that “smaller class

sizes in many Mexican universities allow students to receive personalized atten-

tion from professors. While several public universities have very large classes,

this is beginning to change under the influence of the voluntary diagnostic evalu-

ation and accreditation process.”).

2018] SO TEACHER, WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER? 29

communicate with their students regarding course-related an-

nouncements. According to the interview results, this is a common

practice across the country. To some extent, Facebook has replaced

official university online platforms as a communication tool be-

tween professors and their students.

This practice was foreign to me because American law schools

use their university’s online platform to communicate with students

and to engage students in the learning process. Despite the differ-

ences, education is all about being locally adaptive. To better sup-

port student learning, an individual Facebook group was created for

each course. Moving beyond using Facebook exclusively for com-

munication purposes, I used it as a tool to achieve educational pur-

poses. Additional questions were posted to provide ongoing inspira-

tion and support to improve students’ critical engagement with the

course materials. Links to useful resources were also frequently

posted to broaden and deepen students’ understanding of the law.

For example, when discussing the Second Amendment to the U.S.

Constitution,

which is about the right of the people to keep and

bear arms, a series of questions relating to the gun control debate

were raised. Students quickly engaged in the conversations on Fa-

cebook, establishing their positions, raising further questions, and

challenging others’ assumptions. Their discussions were primarily

around what the United States, specifically American legislators and

policy-makers, could do to reduce the gun violence. Students also

expanded the discussions to the gun violence in Mexico, including

the implementation issues with the existing gun control laws in

Mexico and what they would do if they were the legislators or poli-

cymakers.

In the case of Mexico, Facebook seems to be preferred over

other social media tools, at least at the moment. Nevertheless, Face-

book and other popular social media tools can play an important role

in engaging students in independent learning and critical thinking.

Mexican professors are encouraged to take full advantage of modern

technology to maximize students’ learning experience.

U.S. CONST. amend II.

30 INTER-AMERICAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49:1

V. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the quality of legal education affects not only the

quality of the professional services legal practitioners offer to the

society, but also the improvement of the rule of law and the effi-

ciency of the legal system as a whole. Mexican legal education

needs significant improvement in various areas. Among many other

issues, there is clearly a lack of knowledge and understanding of the

ways in which students can develop critical thinking skills and apply

these skills within and across the legal contexts. The traditional legal

pedagogy that has long emphasized the transmission of substantive

knowledge denies students’ opportunity to participate in the think-

ing process.

Mexican law schools’ over-reliance on part-time professors also

makes it difficult to incorporate critical thinking skills into the cur-

riculum. However, critical thinking is one of the key skills that law

students must have. It enables students, the country’s future legisla-

tors and policymakers, to challenge the law rather than passively ac-

cepting it. In the long term, it plays a crucial role in creating a strong

political will to repair the broken justice system and to promote the

rule of law in Mexico. Also, effective critical thinkers are more

likely to be able to design and implement meaningful reforms. Mex-

ican law schools must make an effort to improve students’ critical

thinking skills and strengthen their critical engagement with the

study of law.

Despite some struggles and failures, my experiments at Tec, i.e.,

interactive teaching, alternative assessments and the use of social

media for educational purposes, received positive feedback. In par-

ticular, students have successfully developed a questioning ap-

proach to the law. The innovative adaptions of traditional U.S. legal

pedagogy to the Mexican context have proven to be effective in im-

proving students’ critical thinking skills. Although each of the strat-

egies may seem modest when viewed in isolation, collectively they

could make a meaningful impact on Mexican legal education and

the Mexican justice reform in the long term. Thus, it is fair to say

that individual faculty members can play a vital role in strengthening

students’ capacity for independent thought and encouraging them to

critically engage in their study.

Mexico faces many challenges in promoting the teaching of crit-

ical thinking within the legal context. In addition to the effort that

2018] SO TEACHER, WHAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER? 31

needs to be made by individual faculty members, major changes

should be made to the traditional methods of law school teaching

and learning. The structure of law programs needs to be reviewed,

curricula needs to be adjusted, and teaching responsibilities need to

be realigned.

These changes all require additional assessment,

commitment of a significant amount of financial, technical, and in-

tellectual resources, and “consensus building among faculty mem-

bers with diverse perspectives and incentives.”

This article sug-

gests some tentative methods to begin this process, but obviously

there is quite a long journey ahead. How these goals will be achieved

is uncertain, but I suggest that the effort will be worth it for the stu-

dents, legal education, and ultimately the country of Mexico.

See generally Cassidy, supra note 59.

Id. at 1517.