Implementing Best Practices and Educating Lawyers
Session 1 Workshops

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Tuesday, June 23, 2009 – 9:00-10:15 a.m.

[A] Best Practices and Positive Psychology: Teaching Law and Legal Practice with Justice in Mind

Colin James, University of Newcastle Legal Centre

Positive psychology focuses on positive emotions, positive character and positive institutions, and connects notionally with therapeutic jurisprudence, collaborative law, restorative justice and transformative mediation.

In education, positive psychology programs already help school children and trauma patients.

This presentation will introduce legal educators to some insights of positive psychology that may inform curriculum decisions, teaching methodology and attitudes towards students that encourage optimism, self-care and respect, as well as a sense of professionalism that includes law-as-justice. We will discuss strategies on encouraging students to transition into practice with a grounded optimism and a realistic expectation of what lies ahead.

[B] Enriching Your Course with a Case File

Gretchen Viney, University of Wisconsin Law School

In this workshop, we explore how to create and use a case file as a class resource. This workshop is not about developing a course around a semester-long problem, but rather addresses how to put together a basic case file and integrate it into the structure of a more traditional law school class. Participants will learn two ways to create a case file, discover–through demonstration and participation–how to comfortably incorporate the case file into their classroom teaching, and leave with the motivation to give this a try.

[C] Learning is Social

Mary Patricia Byrn, William Mitchell College of Law and Morgan L. Holcomb, Hamline University School of Law

This workshop will begin with a short summary of Vygotsky's educational theory regarding the social aspect of learning followed by information on and participation in ten interactive instructional strategies. Attendees will participate in several interactive instructional strategies while learning about using interactive instructional strategies. The interactive instructional strategies used in the workshop will include graphic organizers; think-pair-squares; jigsaws; carousels; structured controversies; defining features matrixes; self-assessments; and cooperative assessments. The presenters use these strategies in their classrooms regularly and will provide each attendee with the information and modeling necessary to implement these strategies in his or her own classrooms.

[D] Alternative Teaching Methods: Using Simulations to Enhance Substantive Courses

Deborah Young, Cumberland School of Law, Samford University

This workshop will enable teachers to efficiently and easily incorporate skills activities and simulations into their courses. All teaching materials will be provided for advocacy simulations on authentication, hearsay, and impeachment in Evidence; a writing simulation on sentencing in Criminal Law; and writing and role-playing simulations on probable cause in Criminal Procedure.

I will demonstrate the simulations to show how they are effective for teaching substantive material, assessing student knowledge, and raising ethical issues in the context of substantive learning. Principles of designing simulations for other courses will also be discussed.

[E] Thinking Critically about Teaching Goals Through Designing Effective Assessment Rubrics

Sandra Simpson, Gonzaga University School of Law

This workshop encourages professors to think critically about their teaching goals by focusing on designing effective assessment rubrics for use in assessing students' performance in legal writing courses or other doctrinal courses. To effectively assess students, professors need to articulate their teaching goals which will be reflected on their assessment rubrics. It is, therefore, important to build assessment rubrics which accurately reflect the professors' goals and the skills the students have learned.

This workshop will present the attendees with the tools necessary to build their own assessment rubrics which reflect their individual teaching styles and their individual teaching goals.