‘Ratio! A Game of Judgment: Roundtable Playtest

Research output: Contribution to conferenceOther

Abstract

We are developing a table-top card game, provisionally titled ‘Ratio! A Game of Judgment’, to be used with students to help to introduce them to, and to engage them in critical reflection upon, legal reasoning. The use of gaming in the classroom can help increase student engagement, and offers alternative pathways and formats for student thinking and learning in relation to complex conceptual objects, such as processes and structures of legal judgment and the nature of judicial reasoning. The game proceeds in small student groups, with players building a judgment from the cards available in the game, and scoring points for the complexity of their judicial construction. The dynamic process of judgment construction via the medium of card play can then be capitalised upon by educators to solidify learning of key legal concepts, as well as providing an object around which to undertake and guide critical questioning about these concepts.

Legal reasoning – in particular the ability to grasp and manipulate the structure and logic of a judgment – is a core legal literacy that represents one of the discipline’s threshold concepts. Our interest in using a boardgame to teach basic legal reasoning is partly inspired by the literature on gamification, which catalogues how games can boost student engagement and create an instinctive understanding of new concepts (Whitton 2011; Eisenack 2012), and partly reflects the current boom in social boardgaming.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 27 Apr 2018
EventAssociation of Law Teachers Annual Conference 2018 - Keele University
Duration: 26 Apr 201827 Apr 2018

Conference

ConferenceAssociation of Law Teachers Annual Conference 2018
Period26/04/1827/04/18

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