Did students forget lessons? The acquisition of Law knowledge at the Mohamed 1st University as a case study

Khalid Chiat: Professor of International Relations, Mohamed first University; Morocco. (First copy)

Introduction:
The most pedagogical problem which has infected the educative system at the majority of Moroccan universities is the separation between education and knowledge: studies is not accumulate information but using it in the real life and giving answers about many realistic phenomena, whether in human or applied sciences, but, unfortunately, the main goal for most students, nowadays, is to get degrees.
What is mentioned before is not a general rule. But, in order to transfer suppositions to practice and applications I had studied a sample of students wondering and asking about their points of view concerning most problems that they confronted when they study at the university. And, if they have a trouble about linking memory and knowledge, why did it happen?
I- Search mechanism:
The study is based on the results of a questionnaire which covers a sample selected from students from the first year at the law faculty in Mohamed first University in Oujda, Morocco.
Defining a specific fact or global facts about a specific phenomenon at the university is not linked with a specific member of students, but it is possible that it will be the same at the other university, especially all faculties of law in Morocco.
According to the above, there are facts and theories; the research envisages to link theory with the facts at Mohamed first university: concerning facts, the problem is the dominant phenomenon related to lack of interest leading to a result that we are experiencing; forget courses.
Research is based on the hypothesis that the students’ forgetfulness happens by two factors:

• Self factor; that means there are psychological problems leading to this result.
• Educational factors; that means there are some imperfection in the whole system before and during being a studentship at the university.
  Method of research is based on the research questions of three stages:

1. Post problem
2. Shaping the problem into a testable hypothesis
3. Reporting the results of the tested hypothesis

A- Identify the phenomenon and its effects
In my ten years as a law teacher at Mohamed first university I have concluded that the levels of students knew a decline. There are four appearances which confirm the previous remark:

• The level and the degree of language used by the students,
• Their levels in the general knowledge,
• Analytical difficulties; There are more and more requests to put question on direct way, without analysis.
• Short answers.
  Furthermore, the effects are multiple; some of them have impact on the educational system at universities, moreover the most negative impact concerns the public administrative system; because the dissatisfaction with the level of formation at the Moroccan universities had become something usual.
  At Mohamed first university, which has as vocation to train students in domains of research which are highly varied: sciences, law, humanities, history, geography, languages, management, economics, technology, engineering sciences and the medical sciences. The access is open for all students at the three faculties; Sciences, Humanities and Law. So the most delicate problem is how to manage the growing number of students every year?
  For example, the first semester at the faculty of law (first year at the faculty), I have taught International Relations for three consecutive years (2014 – 2015 – 2016):

• 2014 the number of students was almost 1000.
• 2015, almost 1300 students.
• 2016, almost 1600 students.
  The problem was how to select the survey sample size?
  At first, I taught to put the questionnaire at the same time of my classroom and then the students will return the answers during the next lessons. This may distrust the result because only the enthusiastic students will be interested by the survey and the non enthusiastic students will not.
  Taking into account that survey can only be truly valuable when it’s reliable and representative for all students. However, determining the ideal survey sample size and population can prove tricky in this search if it doesn’t include the most students’ categories.
  I choose eighty (80) students (1/20) taking into account:
• Marks;
• Age;
• Gender.
  The students did not have to put their names or to bring the paper directly to me.
  B- The questionnaire result:
  The survey was composed of four parts of questions:

• General information including: age, gender, the baccalaureate’s specialty and why law was choosing as a subject in the faculty.
• The difficulties facing student when studying law.
• Particular difficulties.
• Difficulties about studying International Relation.
  Form detail:
  a) General information:

• Gender:
  Males (40); Females (40)
• Age:
  Less than 18 years old (7) (6 females and 1 male)
  From 18 to 22 years old (54) (31 females and 23 males)
  More than 22 years old (06) (6 males)
  Thirteen students (13) did not restore the paper.
• Baccalaureate’s specialty:
  Sciences: 12 (8 females and 4 males)
  Arts: 55 (32 males and 23 females)
• How did you choose the legal sciences (Law):
  For being a judge or defendant: 8 (7 females 1 males)
  Access to administrations: 19 (15 males 4 females)
  Personalized attention: 2 (2 males; satisfy the personnel cognitive)
  Don’t know: 38 (23 males and 15 females)
  b) General difficulties in studying Law:
• Plenty and length of courses 36 (19 males and 17 females)
• Difficulty of methodologies 21 (17 males 6 females)
• don’t understand courses 8 (6 males 2 females)
• Teachers do not explain well 2 (2 males)
  c) Particular difficulties; More Than one answer is allowed:
• Bad formation before university’s studying 22 (12 males and 10 females)
  +Hardness of using cognitive skills 18 (10 males and 8 females)
• retract and declining level of the language 25 (14 males and 11 females)
• Trustless on educational system 44 (29 males and 15 females)
• Lack of value of university graduates 56 (35 males and 21 females)
  d) About International Relations as a Module of studies in the first year on the faculty
• It is hard to understand 23 (13 males and 10 females)
• It is easy to understand 44 (27 females and 17 males)
• Do you remember the question of the first semester exam and its answer? Write it pleas:

• Yes 5 (3 females and 2 males)
• No 62

C- Questionnaire analysis:
Is it possible to detect the problem related to the problematic above?
The main conclusion is there no relation between lack of interest and courses at Mohamed first University.
On the one hand, the answer is relative because maybe one module is not enough for having a whale vision about the real problems in all Moroccans’ university.
On the other hand, we could have some conclusions considering the answers of students on the questionnaires:

• There are two big problems concerning the relationship between Law studies and students:

• The first one is that a lot of students aren’t sure why they are at university; when answering a question: “How did you choose the legal sciences”, the response was that the majority hasn’t a clearly idea about their future.
  It is a big problem if students haven’t goals trough their study because study is not possible without goals.
• The second is that a lot of students haven’t also any trust in the educative system; majority has not trust on the value of the universities diplomas. 56 students of 67 have the same contentment. So study is not possible without hope.

There is a teachers and system responsibility; at the Mohamed first university the way and the content on studying must be changed and more communication with students is a necessity:

• The goal of the Department of Law Studies is in general to educate students of diverse backgrounds to become effective, ethical and professional paralegals who are employable in a variety of legal settings. So teaching is not a mechanical process but a deep procedure of communication.
• The International Relation as a module does not differ from other modules because lack of interest is general referring to marks and teachers evaluations.
  D- Recommendations:

• Reducing member of students on each level; crowded classes means that there are no interest by administration overlooked to students.
• Proper guidance at every beginning of university year.
• Modifying of teaching ways and exams questions, focalizing on the deep meaning of modules not on the form.
• Finding a mechanism of communication between teachers and students in two ways; bilateral and multilateral.