Posted on July 15, 2008 by dmaranville
Here at the University of Washington Law School, we’re just entering our third year of the Gates Public Service Program. In addition to providing five full–ride scholarships with funding for summer jobs and a range of other support, the program provides public service programming for the entire student body. http://www.law.washington.edu/GatesScholar/ Continue reading →
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Posted on July 10, 2008 by dmaranville
On returning from a women’s retreat in April where we spent some time trying to identify what we long for, I happened to open Parker Palmer’s book, A Hidden Wholeness, looking for a wonderful quote analogizing the soul to a wild animal. (“If we want to see a wild animal, we know that the last thing we should do is go crashing through the woods yelling for it to come out. But if we will walk quietly into the woods, sit patiently at the base of the tree, breathe with the earth, and fade into our surroundings, the wild creature we seek might put in an appearance.”) On the preceding page I happened to see a reference to “formation.” Continue reading →
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Posted on June 25, 2008 by dmaranville
I mentioned in my post on “Curriculum Reform: Best Processes?’ that one of our curriculum committee “accomplishments” this year was initiating conversations.
Our conversation on Profession Identity took place during a very busy week for faculty and at the same time as the Student Bar Association election speeches. So our conversation involved less than thirty people. What it lacked in size, it made up for in content. Continue reading →
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Posted on June 25, 2008 by dmaranville
Sorry it’s taken me longer to post this than expected: The good news: it was my left shoulder and I’m a right-ie. The bad news: I’m clumsy, it was a cement floor and my shoulder’s broken. And all because my internet connection wouldn’t work and I was trying to figure out what was wrong.
You can sign up for the conference and take a look at the preliminary schedule at:
http://www.law.washington.edu/News/Articles/Default.aspx?YR=2008&ID=Crossroads
Registration closes August 22, 2008, but don’t wait to register and make your hotel reservation: The UW’s Husky football team opens their season against BYU on the conference weekend and hotel space in Seattle is going fast.
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Posted on June 17, 2008 by dmaranville
I mentioned in my post on Curriculum Reform: Best Processes? that one of our curriculum committee “accomplishments” this year was initiating conversations.
For one of our conversations, we invited Jan Carline, Ph.D. of the University of Washington Medical School’s Department of Medical Education to talk to the committee about what they do at medical schools. Not a new topic for this blog — use the blog’s search function for “medical school” and you’ll find 6 posts by Antoinette.
The conversation was fascinating. The medical school is so much ahead of us on multiple dimensions. Three that stuck out for me were: Continue reading →
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Posted on June 17, 2008 by Antoinette Sedillo Lopez
The ABA holds an associate deans conference every other year. In the past, as associate dean for clinical affairs, I looked at it, and thought it was not as relevant to my work as the clinical director’s conferences put on by the AALS. So, I had never attended the conference. However, I must say that this conference was marvelous. And, many of the sessions were really applicable to the big picture of running a law school and many issues in which clinical teachers are interested. Continue reading →
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Posted on June 12, 2008 by dmaranville
In reviewing proposals submitted for the University of Washington’s conference Legal Education at the Crossroads: Ideas to Implementation Conference to be held in Seattle on Sept. 5-7, one theme that has surfaced is “process”: Continue reading →
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Posted on June 4, 2008 by dmaranville
I agreed to join the Best Practices Blog author list at the AALS clinical conference in Tucson , but of course it took me awhile to figure out how to actually do it. Anyway, I’m delighted to be joining this exciting effort.
If I had any doubts that legal education is at a crossroads, those doubts wouldn’t have survived reviewing proposals submitted for the University of Washington Law School’s upcoming conference on Legal Education at the Crossroads: Ideas to Implementation to be held in Seattle on Sept 5-7.
We received over 80 responses to our request for proposals, probably double the number we’ll be able to accept. Topics ranged from already implemented major curriculum reforms to novel individual classroom ideas. They encompassed both Showcase station proposals to show-off existing efforts that might be replicated at other schools (I refer to these as “poster sessions on steroids”) and Workshop proposals for discussing not-yet implemented-ideas.
Because there’s been so much interest in this conference, we’ve decided to open it up to folks who aren’t presenting. So much for our vision of a small intimate conference of 40-60! Stay tuned. We hope to have details available by the middle of June. But you can mark your calendars now for spectacular Seattle in September!
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Posted on April 12, 2008 by Antoinette Sedillo Lopez
As I said in my last post, the Best Practices book suggests that a law school’s curriculum should “achieve congruence in its program of instruction”. Congruence requires that law schools harmonize educational programs with mission; curriculum with educational outcomes, and instructional objectives with curriculum (p.93). My last post focused on mission, this one will focus a bit on educational outcomes. At first blush, this can seem a bit intimidating, after all, the range of skills that a lawyer should have can be daunting. However, we do have some guidance in the MacCrate report published by the American Bar Association in 1992, the plethora of literature that as written before that report came out (and the many pieces that have been written since ) our own experiences, and our knowledge about the communities our graduates will serve. Continue reading →
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Posted on March 21, 2008 by Antoinette Sedillo Lopez
Warren Binford, Annette Appel and I are leading a concurrent session at the AALS Clinical Conference in Tucson this May. Our session is entitled “Strategic Planning: Learning From Our Mistakes and Growing From Our Experiments.” We are planning to engage the audience in some strategic planning techniques. In thinking about our upcoming session, I reflected on Best Practices and curricular planning because I think that a law school’s curriculum is foundational to its identity and its aspirations.
The Best Practices book suggests that a law school’s curriculum should “achieve congruence in its program of instruction”. Congruence requires that law schools harmonize educational programs with their mission, their curricula with educational outcomes, and instructional objectives with their curricula (p.93). The ideas derive from educational theory and research, but also make a lot of common sense. It makes sense that a law school should connect its program of instruction to its mission. For example, if a law school has a social justice mission, its curriculum would not make sense it if was primarily a business focused curriculum–and vice versa. If a law school touts its strengths in an area, its program of instruction as well as the research agenda for the institution should reflect that strength. Continue reading →
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Posted on March 7, 2008 by Peter Joy
Washington and Lee University School of Law is dramatically changing its curriculum by creating a new third year curriculum devoted to professional development through simulated and real-client practice experiential learning. Influenced by the Carnegie Report, Educating Lawyers, and Best Practices for Legal Education, the new third year curriculum integrates legal theory, doctrine and the development of professional, ethical judgment necessary to the development of professional identity. This is one of the most comprehensive reforms in legal education undertaken by any law school. Continue reading →
Filed under: Best Practices & Curriculum, Best Practices & Externships, Who is Using the Best Practices Book? | 1 Comment »
Posted on February 27, 2008 by Peter Joy
The International Conference on the Future of Legal Education was held recently, Feb. 20-23, and it was the most comprehensive look to date concerning new initiatives in legal education around the world. The materials from the conference are available at http://law.gsu.edu/FutureOfLegalEducationConference/index.php, and this post will briefly mention just a few of the highlights. Continue reading →
Filed under: Best Practices & Curriculum, Best Practices & Setting Goals, Best Practices, Diversity & Social Justice, Catalysts For Change, First Year Law School Innovations, International Initiatives and Models | Comments Off on International Conference on the Future of Legal Education: Update and Report
Posted on February 20, 2008 by paulmaharg
This posting is a belated answer to a question Mary Lynch posed in her comment on a posting here at http://tinyurl.com/2r7fgo. Mary was asking about examples of ‘successful “in role” learning environments/exercises which work in non-clinical, larger classroom settings’. With regard to in-role learning environments, folk might be interested in what we do with simulation on our Diploma in Legal Practice in the Glasgow Graduate School of Law. Continue reading →
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Posted on February 20, 2008 by michaelhunterschwartz
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS – DEADLINE MAY 15, 2008
Legal Education at the Crossroads
Ideas to Accomplishments: Sharing New Ideas for an Integrated Curriculum
Friday, September 5, 5-9 p.m.
Saturday, September 6, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Sunday, September 7, 9 a.m. – noon
University of Washington School of Law, William H. Gates Hall
Seattle, Washington
The University of Washington School of Law requests proposals to participate in a working conference on transforming legal education based on the suggestions in the Carnegie Report, Sullivan, et al., Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law (2007) and supported by the recent study, Stuckey et al., Best Practices for Legal Education (2007). While we will be championing existing transformative efforts, our principal goal is to help participants develop, expand, and assess projects anywhere along the spectrum between ideas and recently-initiated innovations. Consequently, while participants in the conference will gain a sense of what law schools are already doing to implement the Carnegie and CLEA Reports, participants’ primary benefit will be the opportunity to develop their own ideas as they share and explore those ideas in facilitated groups. Continue reading →
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Posted on February 19, 2008 by Steven Friedland
Imagine taking a piano lesson with a teacher who asks questions, but gives little on-the-spot feedback. Imagine the teacher returning week after week, stating after each lesson, “I will give you feedback after our big, end of the session recital.” Imagine the recital occurring and the teacher taking notes and walking away. One month later, in the mail, you receive your feedback, a single letter grade, B.
That is the way we traditionally do feedback in legal education, including only a single summative final examination as the sole evaluation and feedback mechanism. Is it not time to formally include formative feedback measures within our educational process? Why not include in each course: 1. a single multiple choice question, once a week; 2. an “all-write” after a question, (asking all students to write out brief answers to a question posed in class), so everyone is participating and can evaluate their responses against what the teacher says; 3. a note break during class to allow all students to check with others and see if they are answering correctly; 4. posting a sample old exam question followed by a “model” answer or answers; or 5. a threaded discussion problem to allow students to apply their knowledge. Other academic fora understand the importance of formative feedback. Somehow, we in legal education need to get the message.
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Best Practices for Legal Education 