By Michael Hunter Schwartz from Washburn University School of Law
Robin Boyle and Rita Dunn, Teaching Law Students Through Individual Learning Styles, 62Albany Law Review 213 (1998) [Read fulltext (469 KB PDF)] (Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Albany Law Review, © 1985)
As teachers, we all feel frustrated when our students don’t learn, and it’s tempting to blame the students: “They can’t deal with ambiguity.” “They don’t work hard enough.” “They aren’t able to think abstractly.” In this excellent article, Professor Robin Boyle of St. John’s, and her collaborator, Dr. Rita Dunn, also of St. John’s, offer alternative explanations for students’ failures to learn based on the research on learning styles. They studied the learning styles of students attending St. John’s and found what learning style experts would expect– the students varied greatly in their learning styles. They advocate that law professors assess their own students and adapt their teaching to better reach a broad spectrum of students.