The Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research held sessions that touched upon topics relevant to Academic Support and to legal education as a whole. On the first full day of the AALS Meeting, the LWRR section held a session entitled “Pedagogy for New Law School Teachers: What every Law Professor Should Know About How Law Students Learn.” Panelists included Carrie Sperling (University of Wisconsin Law School), who spoke on mindset in the context of legal education. Professor Sperling has written on the application of Carol Dweck’s work on mindset in the law school context. Anne Mullins (University of North Dakota School of Law) spoke on the use of team-based learning in the law school context. Professor Mullins addressed how team-based learning can both assist student learning in the academic setting and prepare law students for the inevitable – working as part of a team in the legal profession. Additionally working and learning in teams reinforce the idea that it is good to struggle in the learning process and that this struggle can help create a growth mindset. Lastly, Terrill Pollman (University of Nevada Law School) spoke about cognitive load theory and teaching through worked examples in the legal writing classroom.
If you missed this session, you might want to listen to the podcast!
(MGO)
