Teaching Law By Design For Adjuncts

This book provides concrete suggestions for adjunct professors about how to design and conduct all aspects of teaching law students, based on the enormous body of research on teaching and learning to legal education. New and experienced adjuncts can apply the book's principles from sequencing a course to grading an exam. Updated and revised chapters provide a legal education-focused overview of the research on teaching and learning, students' perspective on law teaching and learning, course design, class design, student motivation, teaching methods, assessment, and professional development as teachers. New chapters focus on experiential learning, lasting learning, and troubleshooting.

Professors Sophie Sparrow, Gerry Hess, and Michael Hunter Schwartz, three leaders in the teaching and learning movement in legal education, have collaborated to offer a new book designed to synthesize the latest research on teaching and learning for adjunct law professors. The book begins with basic principles of teaching and learning theory, provides insights into how law students experience traditional law teaching, and then guides law teachers through the entire process of teaching a course. The topics addressed include: how to plan a course; how to design a syllabus and select a text; how to plan individual class sessions; how to engage and motivate students, even those tough-to-crack second- and third-year students; how to use a wide variety of teaching techniques; how to evaluate student learning, both for the purposes of assigning grades and of improving student learning; and how to be a lifelong learner as a teacher.

Professors Michael Hunter Schwartz, Sophie Sparrow, and Gerry Hess, leaders in legal education, have collaborated to offer a second edition of their book. Applying the research on teaching and learning, this book guides new and experienced law teachers through the process of designing and teaching a course. The book addresses how to plan a course, design a syllabus, plan individual class sessions, engage and motivate students, use a variety of teaching techniques, assess student learning, and how to be a life-long learner as a teacher. New chapters focus on creating lasting learning, experiential learning, and troubleshooting common teaching challenges.

This pioneering book is the first to identify the methods, strategies, and personal traits of law professors whose students achieve exceptional learning. Modeling good behavior through clear, exacting standards and meticulous preparation, these instructors know that little things also count--starting on time, learning names, responding to emails.

In today’s volatile law school environment, curriculum reform has emerged as a significant focus. It is commonly understood that law schools effectively teach certain analytical skills, but are less successful in other areas, and often scramble to adapt to evolving aims. This book demonstrates how law schools are successfully reforming their curriculum - and lays the framework to show how all schools of law can engage in a continuous reform model that proactively shapes our profession. It is expected that faculty and professional staff engaged in legal education will utilize this book as a primary resource to guide their respective reform efforts. Each contributed chapter presents a case study of a data-driven curriculum reform effort. The initial chapters set the conceptual context for the book, while the final chapter offers summative recommendations for considering legal education reform as derived from the earlier case study chapters. This book adds significantly to the literature in legal education, as we gain first hand insight into evidence based reform for the legal education community.

The Law Professor's Handbook is designed as a guide for those who are transitioning to, engaged in, or contemplating a law school faculty position. Simply because an attorney mastered a substantive area of the law, refined his advocacy or negotiation skills, and has extensive experience in analytical thought, writing, and other scholarly pursuits, doesn't necessarily mean that he's prepared to educate others. Schachter offers information about the application process and factors to take into account in choosing amongst offers of faculty appointment. There's information about designing a course, crafting a syllabus, and choosing textual materials. In an effort to facilitate review of matters of particular interest, headings, a table of contents, and a detailed index have been included. Cross-references have also been incorporated to enable additional textual review. "I was impressed with the practical advice that The Law Professor's Handbook offered for a variety of situations. As Academic Dean, I had it distributed to many of our most involved adjuncts... They were grateful for the information, and their feedback was overwhelmingly positive. We plan to continue distributing it to adjuncts and new faculty in the future." -- Gregory Sergienko, Associate Dean of Academics and Professor of Law at Western State University

"At last a guidebook exists that discusses the issues, technologies, and tools related to teaching law online. / Whether you are a new instructor or tenured professor, Teaching Law Online will help you understand the "ABC's" of how to develop an online law course. This guidebook introduces law professors to distance education and then explains how to design, instruct, and manage an online course in an effective manner without sacrificing quality and the student experience. / Teaching Law Online is a necessary resource for any law professor interested in transitioning from the classroom into cyberspace."--Back cover.

Techniques for Teaching Law is an exciting new book designed to assist law teachers with the learning and teaching processes. It utilizes two primary tools: explanations of teaching and learning theories and practical ideas for implementing those theories in the classroom.The first chapter explores models of teaching and learning, which have been studied extensively in other arenas of higher education. Each of the succeeding chapters, from Questioning and Discussion Techniques to Visual Tools to Evaluation of Students, begins with a description of the pedagogical underpinnings of each subject. These introductions are followed by innovative teaching strategies from more than 100 veteran teachers, along with the name and school of each author, for follow-up questions.These strategies have been fashioned from experience by their authors and thus are classroom-tested techniques. The content of this book and the strategies suggested make this an interesting and useful book for all teachers -- even those outside of the law school setting.