Clinical Legal Education Association, “Handbook for New Clinical Teachers”

This handbook was first drafted in 1999 and has been updated many times since. The handbook is aimed at new clinicians in the United States. It contains short explainers of various important topics in clinical legal education, including supervision. The handbook contains useful information for Canadian clinicians, but has a very strong American perspective.

The handbook follows the line of American clinical supervision theory described elsewhere in this annotated bibliography, describing typical supervision styles in clinical legal education as directive vs. nondirective supervision:

“[M]any clinicians aim to give clinic students as much responsibility as possible and to intervene as little as possible in their representation of clients – this is called a nondirective approach. In nondirective supervision, the supervisor uses questions to guide the student and resists telling them what to do or imposing the instructor’s own views on the student. In directive supervision, the supervisor carefully leads the student through the process, employing explicit instructional methods such as modeling the desired performance or giving clear instructions about what to do and why. Directive supervision involves more telling and showing than asking questions” (21).

The handbook also contains more general helpful practices and a bibliography of (mostly American) clinical legal education references.

Clinical Legal Education Association, “Handbook for New Clinical Teachers” (2023).