Teaching law students in law school before they become 'baby sharks'
I recently came across a post on Education Week - 'The Secret to Student Engagement' - written by Chip and Dan Heath. The editors identified it as one of their '10 Big Ideas in Education'. It's a short summary of their book 'The Power of Moments'. Their argument is simple - 'meaningful experiences ... stand …
Continue reading Creating law school ‘moments’
Imagine for a minute that you are running your own law school. Got it? Now imagine a wealthy philanthropist gifted you $80 million to improve your law students' performance. But there's a condition. You have to spend the money on individual law teachers' salaries and development. No-brainer right? You'd think that student achievement would improve. …
Continue reading Could collaborative planning improve law students’ performance?
Do a quick search of 'impostor syndrome'. What did you find? What about 'impostor syndrome in law school'? That produces some worrying results. There is a mountain of advice about how self-professed 'impostors' - law students, lawyers and academics - can heal themselves. A lot of it is good advice about talking to other people. …
Continue reading Law school ‘impostors’ need allies not accomplices
This is the second in a series of posts on theories of learning and teaching – specifically the concepts of formal or explicit curricula and informal, implicit or ‘hidden’ curriculum.
Spacing and interleaving might sound like unusual pedagogical practices, but they might just be worth employing with your law students. In Want to Make Learning Stick? Make it Harder over on Age of Awareness at Medium, Nick Soderstrom argues for the adoption of some different techniques to improve learning outcomes. Spaced out... Cramming and long periods …
Continue reading Want to Make Learning Stick? Make it Harder