Legal education for college students should be oriented to nurture individual civic consciousness. According to Dr. Weizhong Cai, an associate professor from Shandong University, China, cultivation of civic consciousness must be the goal of every legal education. Such goals need to be translated into appropriate and relevant teaching contents and methods.
In his presentation at the IISE Symposium Series last November 14, 2019, Dr. Cai discussed problems in teaching content and teaching methods in legal education for college students in China. The teaching contents tend to over-emphasize on legal obligations and responsibilities, and less on issues of rights. Meanwhile, the teaching methods lacks diversification, interactive discussions, and practices.
Dr. Cai continued with some recommendations to improve the practice. He suggests college students in the legal education program being taught and exposed to awareness of rights, procedural law as well as belief education. Being an educator in this field for years, Dr. Cai believes that legal education programs would be more effective if the teaching methods were enhanced with case studies, discussions and practical experiences in legal sectors. In his presentation, Dr. Cai also did a historical overview of legal education in China, from early 1900’s up to 2000’s. The historical overview identified key events and policies in legal education in China.
Dr. Weizhong Cai is an associate professor from Shandong University, China. Dr. Cai obtained his master’s degree in civil law and Ph.D. degree in ideology and politics education at Shandong University. He’s been teaching courses such as Morality and Law and Politics and Law. His research interest focuses on the civic education, legal education, rule of law and government, and MOOC.He can be reached at weizhongcai.sdu@gmail.com.
He is currently serving as a visiting scholar at the Institute for International Studies in Education (IISE), University of Pittsburgh.
His faculty counterpart at the University of Pittsburgh is Prof. Maureen McClure and his current research project is “The Civic Education Between U.S. and China: What Can We Learn from A Cross-Culture Perspective?”
IISE Visiting Scholar Program has been oriented to assist scholars conducting their research and projects, as well as to invite collaboration among scholars from various universities and countries. For more info, contact us at iise@pitt.edu.
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