Teaching and Learning
We follow the theory that students learn best through action and practice. Therefore, we promote a pedagogy that centers on blending online and face-to-feace learning, where the in-class learning is active and experiential. Flipped or blended learning makes it possible to bring active, competencies-based learning into each law school classroom, even those that are not clinical or skills-focused.
This is new to legal education. But it is also necessary. As the legal academy continues to experiment with new teaching techniques that fully engage students and prepare them to enter the profession with the competencies necessary to practice law, it is a good time to rethink how and what we teach. LegalED was created to assist in that transition.
LegalED responds to the growing critique of legal education by the Carnegie Endowment for the Advancement of Teaching and Best Practices in Legal Education reports. Both reports (and countless others) talk about the gap between traditional teaching (with its historical focus on imparting legal knowledge) and the need for students also to learn practical skills and professional values as part of their legal education.
LegalED reimagines the law school classroom. In addition to traditional Socratic dialogue, LegalED makes it possible to blend online learning with face-to-face instruction and bring more active, problem-based learning and formative assessment and feedback into each classroom. In other words, to flip the law school classroom. When students view videos as homework, the law school classroom can be converted into an active learning laboratory where student learning is reinforced through exercises, projects and discussion and where feedback on a student’s knowledge of legal doctrine, practical lawyering skills and professional values is regular.
LegalED's video series on pedagogy (featuring different ways to bring experiential learning to a large classroom of students) are designed for law professors who want to teach differently and to bring exercises and active learning into their classrooms. Wondering what kinds of exercises you can do in a large classroom? Our collection of problem sets
and exercises were created, tested, and revised by leading professors; seek inspiration here, and feel free to adapt them for your own courses.
LegalED also anticipates the proposed ABA accreditation standards, in particular Chapter 3: Program of Legal Education, that encourage law schools to develop learning outcomes it seeks for its graduates and to incorporate formative assessment methods across the curriculum. Our pedagogy videos address learning outcomes and assessment methods. And our assessment tools can be adapted for each law school course.