Week 3: Learning Theories and Motivation

After watching the videos and skimming the readings, think about how each theory interacts with your instructional activity for your final project and address the following two points in your blog:

Building upon previous posts, I’m going to consider the current in class exercises we use teaching students about legal encyclopedias and legal treatises discussed in Week 2.

a. Discuss which theory/ies might be most applicable to your instruction and outline a specific activity/assignment/exercise that would facilitate learning according to that theory.

I tend to think our exercises could be construed to apply pretty much all the theories in some way or form, and I think the course could be characterized as one where we start off with applying some techniques behind behaviorism, move into cognitivism, especially the concept of active learning which is heavily stressed, and throw in a healthy dose of constructivism for good measure.  However, I think this has happened over time, and has actually become more apparent and richer when we switched to a flipped classroom approach for our course.

To back up a bit: When we previously had a year long course, students were expected to 1) sit through the informational lectures in class 2) then outside of class do a drill having them apply what they learned (some years graded, some years not) and 3) work towards a final paper where they had to pull together a research process and legal analysis reflecting all the material they learned. The model worked, and it worked well…for most students. Due to the way legal information and resources are structured, it was a very labor intensive model for both us and the students – in order to make sure we were getting to the same place, we had drills that had a “definite” answer (which is needed if you’re going to grade 20  - 40 weekly and return them), and as explained in previous posts, depending on the topic, the class and the situation, sometime I was leading small groups of students through the same material the entire week. And again, it worked, for most students. But the ones who were lost were often really lost, and unless they took the initiative, or it was clear to me that they were struggling, it could become difficult for me to determine who was in trouble until it was too late in the semester.

Several years ago, when we instituted a multiple choice midterm exam, that helped a bit, because students who don’t score well on the exam are encouraged to come see me (and often do) because we try to write the questions to mimic the types of questions that would be on the bar exam. So for students who do well, it’s a confidence booster of sorts, and for those who don’t, I emphasize it’s a way of realizing they need to improve their testing technique for the future. (It’s rare that students who choose wrong answers get a really wrong answer – the way that bar exam questions are written, there’s usually 2 “right” answers – the key is picking the specific one that’s correct based on the fact pattern/what is exactly asked in the question, and it often comes down to very careful reading).

For a very long time, we chose from a legal research textbook that was on the market, and supplemented it with our own lectures, because we often felt that the texts either went too far in explaining things, or didn’t go far enough. Finally, a few years ago, we finally got sick that and published our own custom textbook using our lectures notes as a basis, and distilling it into the information and concepts we thought that were most critical to students that could be used throughout law school and after our course.

Finally, with a book in hand we were sure had the basics we covered in the textbook, we went with the flipped classroom model and created videos that both reviewed and expanded a wee bit on the materials in the textbook. We made these required readings/viewings before class so that we could actually do the drills in class.

While we continually revise the materials each year, I think it’s worked really well on helping us touch many of the learning theories in a much more meaningful way, and engages the students as well.

So going back to the legal encyclopedia/legal treatise example mentioned in Week 2, students get immediate feedback and work in small groups on exercises, having read/viewed material beforehand. They are motivated not only by the small quizzes we give at the beginning of each class or the video, but by the fact I pretty much stress in every class how this connects to the work they need to do as an attorney, as well as what they’ll need to do to help them in their other classes in their first year. Another thing that helps is that we try to use the same fact pattern for many of the exercises throughout the semester, building upon things they’ve already learned through other weeks and recalling what they learned so they can see a bigger picture and how it all connects together. To me, this isn’t necessarily “one” theory, but instead, tries to get at all three of them in some way, and which I personally believe works for a much larger variety of learners.

When I have a smaller group, it’s also very easy for me to determine who’s going to have trouble with the course, usually by the second week, and I can move forward with that knowledge in how we move through the rest of the course (hitting material review harder, keeping a closer eye on them, pairing them with a stronger student, having them report back in class in low stakes manner, etc.). And again, I realize it’s a luxury to have a semester long class.

b. Next, consider what you learned from Small's article on motivation and address how you are going to motivate your learners/students

In some ways, this is easy, given they are self selected graduate students in a law program. Generally speaking, the students are driven to succeed in the program, and are ready to learn how to “become lawyers.”

But, as I often joke, the world of legal research may seem “boring” to them, and over the years, my colleagues and I have used many techniques to help motivate their learning. In terms of Small’s article, I think the majority of us try to implement the ARCS technique in some way to help students get motivated.

In a very confusing first semester of law school, many of us take the approach that our class should be the one they need to be the most comfortable in to learn, and comfortable in feeling free to make mistakes, and while think we each do this different ways, some themes run through.

One colleague of mine tends to call his class “Team” from the first class, telling them that for the semester, they’re working for the same law firm and he’s pretty much their cheerleader. Several of us consistently remind students they’re smart cookies, and that they are capable of doing the work, and that their work matters to future clients they’ll serve.

Many of us also emphasize that it’s a matter of professional malpractice if they don’t do competent legal research. We also try to tie all the exercises to work they’ve done previously in the course when applicable.  In most instances, the exercises are based on real life scenarios a teacher has experienced, or researched for a faculty member, and we let them know that. At the end of the semester, when we are having them go through an extensive fact pattern and apply a research process for practice, many of us either use scenarios we researched in real life at some point, or assigned as past final assignments that were interesting to us, and usually that enthusiasm shows.

Finally, many of us allow time for discussions that have nothing to do with the course. In the first class, I let them know if they have a question about anything in law school, to ask me, and if I don’t know the answer, will point them to someone who does…because it’s part of my librarian gig. I also point out if what they have an issue with is another teacher, I’m willing to act as an anonymous go-between or tell them whom they can talk to about it.

Every once in awhile, depending on what I hear in the hallways, or if I know they’re having a particularly rough week with an assignment due in another class, or if I can tell their focus just isn’t there, I pretty much end class a few minutes earlier than intended and ask them how they’re doing, or if they have any questions in general. If it’s really bad, I just have them stop what they’re doing mid class and ask the question. Many times, it ends up being stress, or something that ALL first years will experience (including me) and I tell them that, often including my own experience of freaking out in law school.

In the end, I think motivation of students is very much tied into how a teacher presents how they feel about a course. If a teacher seems engaged with both the course material and the students, it seems to me to be a natural consequence of many students to want to do well. Even in one shot sessions, I try to communicate that what I want to do is help them succeed in helping them become great attorneys, and that often has a positive result.