For this entry, I’ve got just questions for you, hoping they prompt a conversation among us about one, several, or ALL of them. The questions concern your experiences incorporating the principles of Best Practices in your non-clinical classes.
At the beginning of the course, did you explain to your students what you were going to do and why? If so, what did you say? Did you also offer a written explanation? Does your experience indicate that your explanations were effective?
Have you noticed differences in your students’ ease in learning the curriculum? If so, can you attribute it to these methods? Can you tell us about it?
Are there certain types of class activities preferred by students more than others? What are they?
What about your students’ responses to these changes in the classroom – have they been receptive (or not)? In any event, how have you learned of their reactions? Verbally? In writing?
Have you formulated a specific evaluation form to gather feedback? If so, could you share it?
Have you’ve used these methods in multiple law schools, so that you’re able to compare responses when you’ve been relatively singular in doing it, compared with when you’ve been one among many? Can you tell us about these experiences?
Let’s hear from you out there!
[For those interested in reading more about the process of transforming the law school classroom, take a look at Introduction: Teaching in a Transformative Age: The Law School of the Future (Seattle Journal for Social Justice, Vol. 10, p. 1, 2011), an introduction to the papers published from the 2010 Conference of the Society of American Law Teachers, Teaching in a Transformative Age: The Law School of the Future.]
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