Teaching law students in law school before they become 'baby sharks'
The first day of the semester at law school is rapidly approaching for law school in the southern hemisphere. You’ve spent days (or even weeks) compiling your curriculum, your reading list, and writing assessment tasks. You might have also started to (re)write your lectures and lesson plans. But have you thought about your first day …
Continue reading Being excited about your first day of class can improve your students’ marks
Imagine you're standing in a seminar room of 20 students. Or perhaps it's a lecture theatre of 300 students. Looking around, you can see students watching you. Others stare at their screens, at their phones or off into the distance. How many would you say were 'engaged'? And how would you tell? A recent summary …
Continue reading Law student engagement isn’t about bums on seats
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 …
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