Teach in context: Responding to diverse student voices helps all students learn

Journal of Legal Education

Volumn 48, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 402-415

  Lustbader, Paula ^a  

^a SEATTLE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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EID: 22444452841     PISSN: 00222208     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (75)

1. For purposes of this article, "diverse" is broadly defined to include not just racial diversity, but also culture, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, disability-in fact, any person who does not come from the white male middle-to upper-middle-class experience that is reflected in the legal system. Because most law school pedagogy tends to teach to a generic student, it does not adequately address ways in which learning is influenced by students' prior background and experience.
2. Laurie Zimet (Hastings) and I produced a videotape-Incorporating Academic Assistance Pedagogy into Our Classrooms and Clinics to Create an Effective Learning Environment-to present at the Diversity in the Law School Curriculum Conference, Society of American Law Teachers, University of Minnesota School of Law (1994). We used it later in other presentations. Even though the technical quality was poor (we edited the tape on two VCRs), the content was extremely powerful. As a result of the overwhelming response, the Institute for Law School Teaching produced Teach to the Whole Class: Barriers and Pathways to Learning, a faculty colloquia kit that contains teaching notes and a higher-quality video. The students we spoke with represented a spectrum of experience from first year to fourth year. Some were at the top of their class; some had to repeat their first year. The nine schools were selected for their geographic and demographic diversity; they included both private and public schools. What was surprising was the universality of the diverse students' experience. To protect the anonymity of the students, their names and the names of the law schools do not appear in this article. We are grateful for their willingness to share their experiences, and for the assistance of several academic support colleagues.
3. See Cathaleen A. Roach, A River Runs Through It: Tapping into the Informational Stream to Move Students from Isolation to Autonomy, 36 Ariz. L. Rev. 667 (1994);
4. Lani Guinier et al., Becoming Gentlemen: Women's Experiences at One Ivy League Law School, 143 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1, 93, 96 (1994);
5. Paul N. Savoy, Toward a New Politics of Legal Education, 79 Yale L. J. 444, 446 (1970);
6. Roger C. Cramton, Professional Education in Medicine and Law: Structural Differences, Common Failings, Possible Opportunities, 34 Clev. St. L. Rev. 349, 354 (1985); Robert V. Stover, Making and Breaking It: The Fate of Public Interest Commitment During Law School, ed. Howard S. Erlanger, 45 (Chicago, 1989).
7. When the values reflected in the core curriculum are not those shared by the student, learning is diminished.
8. See Richard L. Roe, Valuing Student Speech: The Work of the School as Conceptual Development, 79 Cal. L. Rev. 1271, 1295 (1991)
9. (citing James Comer, Educating Poor Minority Children, Sci. Am., Nov. 1988, at 42, 44).
10. Brook K. Baker, Beyond MacCrate: The Role of Context, Experience, Theory, and Reflection in Ecological Learning, 36 Ariz. L. Rev. 287, 295-301 (1994);
11. See also Gary L. Blasi, What Lawyers Know: Lawyering Expertise, Cognitive Science, and the Functions of Theory, 45 J. Legal Educ. 313, 337 (1995).
12. See Baker, supra note 5, at 313-14;
13. Roe, supra note 4, at 1293, 1295;
14. Alexandra Weinbaum & Anne M. Rogers, Contextual Learning: A Critical Aspect of School-to-Work Transition Programs (Washington, 1995);
15. Joseph J. Schwab, Science, Curriculum, and Liberal Education: Selected Essays 242 (Chicago, 1978);
16. Frank S. Bloch, The Andragogical Basis of Clinical Legal Education, 35 Vand. L. Rev. 321, 332-34 (1982).
17. See John B. Mitchell, Current Theories on Expert and Novice Thinking: A Full Faculty Considers the Implications for Legal Education, 39 J. Legal Educ. 275, 283 (1989).
18. Comer, supra note 4, at 44.
19. See John Dewey, How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to the Educative Process (Boston, 1933);
20. See also Jerome S. Brunei, On Knowing: Essays for the Left Hand 120-24 (Cambridge, Mass., 1979).
21. See Albert J. Moore, Trial by Schema: Cognitive Filters in the Courtroom, 37 UCLA L. Rev. 273, 279-83 (1989);
22. See also Blasi, supra note 5, at 337.
23. Moore, supra note 10, at 279-83;
24. See also Blasi, supra note 5, at 337.
25. See Richard C. Anderson, The Notion of Schemata and the Educational Enterprise: General Discussion of the Conference, in Schooling and the Acquisition of Knowledge, eds. Richard C Anderson et al., 415 ((Hillsdale, N. J., 1977);
26. See also Samuel S. Wineburg, Historical Problem Solving: A Study of the Cognitive Processes Used in the Evaluation of Documentary and Pictorial Evidence, 83 J. Educ. Psychol. 73 (1991).
27. See Charles R. Calleros, Training a Diverse Student Body for a Multicultural Society, 8 La Raza L. J. 140, 144-50 (1995).
28. See Kimberlé Crenshaw, Foreword: Toward a Race-Conscious Pedagogy in Legal Education, 11 Nat'l Black L. J. 1 (1989);
29. See also Calleros, supra note 13, at 159-60.
30. A 1986 study found that students entering law school did not differ significantly from the general population in a variety of psychological attributes, but that after the first year they exhibited elevated levels of psychological symptoms, such as depression and hostility. Other symptoms included obsessive-compulsive behavior, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and social alienation and isolation. The study revealed that these symptoms became progressively worse during law school and did not decrease until the first two years after law school. The authors concluded that it was the law school experience itself that exacerbated these symptoms rather than law students' predilection to suffer from them. The study found that before entering law school, 10.3 percent of the prospective law students were clinically depressed, a level equal to that of the general population. By the end of the first year, the percentage increased to 17.9 percent. By the end of the third year, it increased to 33.6 percent. At the time of the study, employment prospects for law students were considerably better than they are today.
31. See Andrew H. Benjamin et al., The Role of Legal Education in Producing Psychological Distress Among Law Students and Lawyers, 1986 Am. B. Found. Res. J. 225;
32. See also Michael E. Carney, Narcissistic Concerns in the Educational Experience of Law Students, 18 J. Psychiatry & L. 9 (1990);
33. James Taylor, Law School Stress and the "Déformation Professionelle," 27 J. Legal Educ. 251 (1975);
34. Robert Stevens, Law Schools and Law Students, 59 Va. L. Rev. 551 (1973);
35. Thomas A. Dye, Law School's Contribution to Civility and Character, Law Prac. Mgmt, Oct. 1996, at 40, 42.
36. See Michael A. Bloom & Carol L. Wallinger, Lawyers and Alcoholism: Is It Time for a New Approach? 61 Temp. L. Rev. 1409 (1988).
37. See Peter Toll Hoffman, Clinical Scholarship and Skills Training, 1 Clinical L. Rev. 93, 94 (1994).
38. Crenshaw, supra note 14, at 1;
39. See also Frances Lee Ansley, Race and the Core Curriculum in Legal Education, 79 Cal. L. Rev. 1511 (1991).
40. Calleros, supra note 13, at 159-60.
41. Mitchell, supra note 7, at 283;
42. See also Blasi, supra note 5, at 337 (citing P. Reiman & M. Chi, Human Expertise in Human and Machine Problem Solving, ed. K. J. Gilhooly, 161 (New York, 1989)).
43. The A answer presumes a level of knowledge and judgment that struggling students have not yet acquired. When the struggling students try to model the A, either they will feel defeated or, worse, they will skip important steps of analysis because they have not yet internalized enough of the discourse. Paula Lustbader, Construction Sites, Building Types, and Bridging Gaps: A Cognitive Theory of the Learning Progression of Law Students, 33 Willamette L. Rev. 315, 345 (1997).
44. See, e.g., Corinne Cooper, Getting Graphic 2: Visual Tools for Teaching and Learning Law (n. p., 1994).
45. Barbara Gross Davis, Tools for Teaching 31-38, 39-59 (San Francisco, 1993).
46. Because people have different learning styles, teachers can be more effective by using different teaching techniques and explicitly teaching different learning techniques. See Don Peters & Martha M. Peters, Maybe That's Why I Do That: Psychological Type Theory, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and Learning Legal Interviewing, 35 N. Y. L. Sch. L. Rev. 169 (1990);
47. Vernellia R. Randall, The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, First Year Law Students and Performance, 26 Cumb. L. Rev. 63 (1995).
48. See Davis, supra note 23, at 315-44;
49. Jennifer L. Rosato, All I Ever Needed to Know About Teaching Law School I Learned Teaching Kindergarten: Introducing Gaming Techniques into the Law School Classroom, 45 J. Legal Educ. 568 (1995).
50. See Cooper, supra note 22.
51. Davis, supra note 23, at 209-12.
52. See Gary S. Laser, Educating for Professional Competence in the Twenty-first Century: Educational Reform at Chicago-Kent College of Law, 68 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 243, 256, 271 (1992).
53. See. Id. at 271;
54. See also Joseph M. Williams, On the Maturing of Legal Writers: Two Models of Growth and Development, 1 Legal Writing 9 (1991).
55. See Bloch, supra note 6, at 332-34;
56. James E. Molitemo, Legal Education, Experiential Education, and Professional Responsibility, 38 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 71, 86 (1996);
57. See also Paul T. Wangerin, Skills Training in 'Legal Analysis': A Systematic Approach, 40 U. Miami L. Rev. 409, 477-84 (1986).
58. See Michelle S. Simon, Teaching Writing Through Substance: The Integration of Legal Writing with All Deliberate Speed, 42 DePaul L. Rev. 619 (1992);
59. See also Davis, supra note 23 at 205-29.
60. See Mary Levin & Joel Levin, A Critical Examination of Academic Retention Programs for At-Risk Minority College Students, 32 J. C. Student Dev. 328 (1991);
61. See also James D. Gordon III, How Not to Succeed in Law School, 100 Yale L. J. 1679, 1692 (1991);
62. Randall, supra note 24, at 63.
63. See Roe, supra note 4, at 1299 (citing Richard S. Prawat, Promoting Access to Knowledge, Strategy, and Disposition in Students: A Research Synthesis, 59 Rev. Educ. Res. 1, 14-15 (1989)).
64. See, e.g., Davis, supra note 23, at 206.
65. See Id. at 218.
66. See Deborah L. Rhode, Missing Questions: Feminist Perspectives on Legal Education, 45 Stan. Rev. 1547 (1993);
67. See also Susan H. Williams, Legal Education, Feminist Epistemology, and the Socratic Method, 45 Stan. L. Rev. 1571, 1573-76 (1993).
68. David W. Johnson et al., Active Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom (Edina, 1991).
69. David W. Johnson & Roger T. Johnson, Learning: Cooperation in the College Classroom, (Edina, 1991);
70. See also James L. Cooper et al., Cooperative Learning in the Classroom, in Changing College Classrooms: New Teaching and Learning Strategies for an Increasingly Complex World, eds. Diane F. Halpem et al., 74 (San Francisco, 1994).
71. See David W. Johnson et al., Cooperative Learning: Increasing College Faculty Instructional Productivity (Washington, 1991);
72. See also Cooper et al., supra note 38, at 74-91.
73. See Lev S. Vygotsky, Thought and Language: The Development of Scientific Concepts in Childhood 174-90 (Cambridge, Mass., 1956).
74. See Paula Lustbader, Some Tips on Using Collaborative Exercises, Law Tchr., Spring 1994, at 9;
75. See also Randall, supra note 24, at 81.