Reviewed by Sandra Simpson, Gonzaga University School of Law
Article: Fifty Ways to Promote Teaching and Learning
Written by Gerry Hess, Michael Hunter Schwartz, & Nancy Levit[1]
As the introduction to Fifty Ways to Promote Teaching and Learning states, “In 1999, The Journal of Legal Education published an important article for law schools seeking to improve the quality and quantity of faculty scholarship output, James Lindgren’s Fifty Ways to Promote Scholarship.” Lindgren’s article reports that at least one law school saw improvement in scholarly output after implementing some of these ideas. The current article reviewed here, addresses the other side of a professor’s job, teaching. It provides fifty ways to promote teaching and learning in your law school. The authors make clear that not all schools will find all the suggestions useful, but implementing some of the ideas should help schools promote good teaching and learning, and creating a culture of teaching and learning. The article is filled with great ideas from administrative and financial support for teaching sabbaticals to requiring learning objectives in every course. “The core idea is creating a culture of learning about teaching and continuous improvement of all faculty members as teachers.” At its core, this article encourages deans and faculty to discuss teaching and learning, adopt some of the ideas, and track the schools progress.
As a side note, our faculty had a round table discussion about the ideas in the article. The article was circulated to all of our faculty at Gonzaga.
[1] This article was published in The Journal of Legal Education, Volume 67, Number 3 (Spring 2018).