Designing Interactive Case-Based Discussions for Administrative Law in a Blended Learning Environment

Abstract

Although blended learning offers temporal and spatial flexibility for case-based discussions in administrative law, such discussions often suffer from the mechanical accumulation of online materials and the dominance of a small number of students in offline classrooms. The underlying problem lies in the failure of instructional design to make students’ reasoning processes in the legal review of administrative actions visible and discussable. To address this issue, this paper focuses on the design of interactive case-based discussions. It defines deep interaction as the externalization of reasoning processes, dialogue among multiple participants, and the restructuring of cognitive frameworks, drawing on constructivist learning theory, problem-based learning theory, and generative teaching theory. Based on this theoretical foundation, the paper constructs a three-stage progressive model consisting of asynchronous pre-class preparation, synchronous in-class debate, and post-class reflection and consolidation. Before class, students complete individual cognitive warm-up through progressive question chains and written case analyses. During class, structured idea exchange is promoted through comparative discussion, role-playing, and adversarial debate, while the teacher serves as a facilitator of legal reasoning by questioning, guiding, and summarizing students’ arguments. After class, structured reflection reports are used to support the internalization and reconstruction of students’ legal cognition. In this process, teachers are expected to shift from knowledge transmitters to facilitators of reasoning and managers of the learning process. Process control is implemented through task segmentation, clarified participation rules, and staged formative feedback. The evaluation system emphasizes process-oriented assessment by examining the quality of argumentation and the development of reasoning from three dimensions: pre-class preparation, in-class participation, and post-class reflection. In doing so, the teaching focus is redirected toward the cultivation of legal reasoning. With the legality review framework as its organizing thread, this design reconstructs blended case teaching as a process in which students actively construct administrative law reasoning, thereby providing a structured path for improving blended case-based teaching and promoting students’ ability to think like lawyers.