By Rory Bahadur, Washburn University School of Law
Teaching Law Students to Teach Themselves: Using Lessons from Educational Psychology to Shape Self-Regulated Learners, 59 Wayne L. Rev. 311
In her article, “Teaching Law Students to Teach Themselves: Using Lessons from Educational Psychology to Shape Self-Regulated Learners,” Elizabeth Bloom sets forth a very user friendly and informative road map for “maximiz[ing] the learning experience” to help a “diverse population of law students become self-regulated learners.”
The article initially defines self-regulated learning and discusses its origins in both the cognitivist and constructivist learning theory movements. She isolates the essential components of self-regulated learning as Schema creation, using prior knowledge to add new knowledge and metacognition. She concludes by precisely describing self-regulated learning as consisting of the following three phases: forethought, performance, and reflection. The unique aspect of this article is that it then describes concretely and tangibly what each of these phases looks like or consists of rather than leaving those terms as isolated amorphous learning buzzwords divorced from the reality of the classroom.
But the article goes even further and provides concrete methodologies to teach self-regulated learning. These methodologies are broken down into strategies to:
- self-regulate motivation,
- self-regulate behavior and resources and,
- self-regulate cognition.
This article is a must read for anyone seeking to bridge the divide between the copious abstract, academic literature on teaching and learning and practical strategies to implement these methodologies without being overwhelmed by terms and buzzwords which seem foreign to may faculty members.