When should you think of GCJV?
A student who is struggling or wants to further develop their skills? Think of GCJV!
A student struggling to formulate a good research question. A thesis student who does not know where to start. Someone who keeps making the same writing mistakes. A student who would like to improve their presentation skills or get more out of their research skills. Does this sound familiar? Then think of the GCJV!
Four years ago, the Groningen Centre for Legal Skills (GCJV) was established to provide additional support at precisely these kinds of moments, complementing the skills courses already offered. Since then, we have developed a wide range of resources that both students and lecturers can make use of.
Resources you can refer students to
The GCJV’s Brightspace Community offers students an extensive skills toolbox. It includes checklists for legal writing, guidance on structuring texts, explanations of common writing and style mistakes, step-by-step guides to the thesis process, information on argumentation and reasoning, tips on giving and receiving peer feedback, and tools to support effective presentations.
For students who prefer visual learning, we have also created twelve short explainer videos. These cover topics such as formulating main and sub-questions, choosing a research method, using legal sources, structuring texts, and qualitative and quantitative case law analysis. Together, these clips have already been viewed more than 20.000 times!
The GCJV also runs workshops throughout the year. Students can get additional support with every stage of the thesis process through our four thesis workshops: from idea to topic; from topic to research question; from research question to conducting the research; and from conducting the research to writing. We also offer workshops on peer feedback and developing a writing plan, as well as a workshop on academic research for pre-master’s students. For students on our English-taught Master’s programmes, we also offer thesis workshops and English-language support materials.
Sometimes a student’s support needs go beyond legal skills. Our Student Support Decision Tree helps students and lecturers quickly find out what support is available elsewhere at the University of Groningen, for example through the University Library, the Language Centre, All Ears or the Student Service Centre.
We are continuously developing
GCJV is never ‘finished’. Much of what we develop starts with lecturers telling us about the challenges their students encounter. So, if you come across a recurring problem in your teaching, are missing resources on a particular skill, or find yourself thinking, ‘Our students could really benefit from this’, please let us know (gcjv rug.nl). We would love to hear from you; all input is welcome!