Legal master’s students’ academic writing level falls short of expectations. Therefore, the Legal Skills Academy (LSA) introduced the Legal Writing Support Program (LWSP) containing interventions (workshops, one-on-one writing support and journalling activities) to improve writing skills and legal writing self-efficacy perceptions. This project investigates what effect these interventions have on students’ self-efficacy perceptions regarding legal academic writing.

Background information

Self-efficacy is the belief in one’s abilities to exercise control over goal achievement and is a predictor of performance. Moreover, self-efficacy supports motivation and promotes learning, for instance in the case of academic writing. According to Bandura, self-efficacy has four sources: 1. mastery experiences, that is, what you gain when you are successful at a new challenge, 2. vicarious experiences, that is, seeing people like oneself succeed at similar tasks, and 3. social persuasion and 4. emotional states. By aligning the interventions in this project with these four sources of self-efficacy, legal writing self-efficacy perceptions, motivation and writing performance could improve. 

Aims

This project aims to answer the following research question:

• What effect do focused interventions (based on the four sources of self-efficacy: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion and emotional states) during workshops, one-on-one sessions with a thesis supervisor and journalling have on legal master’s students perceived academic legal writing self-efficacy?

Project description

The project involved a selected group of LWSP students. Data were collected through surveys at three points in time, alongside reflective journal entries, three workshops and supervisor guidance. This made it possible to reveal changes in students’ self-efficacy perceptions. The results of the journalling activities – student reflections on the interventions – were incorporated into the results as well. 

Results and conclusions

Results indicated that students’ academic legal writing self-efficacy increased considerably between the first and third measurement moments. This improvement was highly significant, demonstrating that the focused interventions had a clear positive effect on students’ self-belief and writing competence. Moreover, the student feedback provided more evidence to support the interventions’ impact. For instance, students reported feeling more confident and better equipped to write their theses after the interventions. The student reflections showed that the workshops helped students not only develop skills, but also recognize their progress, thereby reinforcing their self-efficacy. In summary, the evidence from both quantitative and qualitative data suggests that when students believe they can succeed in academic legal writing, supported by well-designed interventions, they indeed become more capable and confident writers.

References

• Bandura, A. (2006). Guide for constructing self-efficacy scales. In F. Pajares & T. Urdan (Eds.), Self-efficacy beliefs of adolescents (pp. 307–337). Information Age Publishing.
• Bruning, R., Dempsey, M., Kauffman, D. F., McKim, C., & Zumbrunn, S. (2013). Examining dimensions of self-efficacy for writing. Journal of Educational Psychology, 105(1), 25–38.
• Christiansen, L. M. (2009). Enhancing law school success: A study of goal orientations, academic achievement and the declining self-efficacy of our law students. Law & Psychology Review, 33, 57–82.
• Schwartz, M. H. (2003). Teaching law students to be self-regulated learners. Michigan State DCL Law Review, 2003(2), 447–497.
• Stage, F. K., Muller, P. A., Kinzie, J., & Simmons, A. (1998). Creating learning centered classrooms: What does learning theory have to say? (ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report, Volume 26, No. 4). The George Washington University, Graduate School of Education and Human Development.