Author: Meris Bray
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Patrick C Brayer, “A Law Clinic Systems Theory and the Pedagogy of Interaction: Creating a Legal Learning System”
This article explores several techniques to maximize student experience based on professional interactions in the law school clinic. It further sets out a pedagogical approach to clinic design and teaching by advancing a clinical systems theory, explaining how law students develop and grow by interacting with their learning system environment, including teaching students how to…
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Neil Kibble, “Reflection and Supervision in Clinical Legal Education: Do Work Placements Have a Role in Undergraduate Legal Education”
This article sets out a number of theories and criticisms of supervision in clinical legal education. The author suggests that supervision requires encouraging the learner to enter the zone of proximal development. The zone of proximal development (originally developed for childhood learning) refers to the gap between what children can accomplish independently and what they…
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Minna J Kotkin, “Reconsidering Role Assumption in Clinical Education”
This article examines the proposition that clinical methodology, which emphasizes individualized instruction, requires adherence to the role assumption norm. Role assumption by students involves taking on the role of a legal professional while assisting clients, the general experiential framework of clinical legal education. Positive norm assumers will be successful in replicating the norms of the…
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Leah Wortham et al, Learning from Practice: A Text for Experiential Legal Education
This book examines learning from lawyering experience, whether that be through externships, clinics, or simulation courses. Chapter 3: Learning from Supervision outlines the framework for an effective supervisory relationship. The effective supervisory relationship is threefold; it involves macro planning/ goal setting, micro-planning/ assignment clarification, and effective feedback. Macro planning requires establishing long-term goals in relation…
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Leah Wortham, Catherine F Klein & Beryl Blaustone, “Autonomy-Mastery Purpose: Structuring Clinical Courses to Enhance These Critical Educational Goals”
This article examines how clinical law teachers can use intrinsic motivation and theories to improve the quality of law student’s learning. The underlying theory assumes that people interact constantly and dynamically with their surroundings rather than predictably. However, other theories, including the self-determination continuum, as replicated below, provide insight into how a law student might…
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Laurel E Fletcher & Harvey M Weinstein, “When Students Lose Perspective: Clinical Supervision and the Management of Empathy”
This article examines how law students and lawyers manage the emotional content of their work. Clinical supervisors can enhance the supervisory process by helping law students recognize, discuss, and interpret the emotional experiences of working with clients. Skilled supervision regarding emotions is essential in training law students to manage empathy and identification with a client,…
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Kylie Fletcher, “Law Clinics Educating for Complexity Through Integrative Learning”
This paper argues that the legal education system is complex; clinical legal education allows for integrative learning experiences from a law-and-society perspective. Levy describes a complex system as: “[O]ne whose component parts interact with sufficient intricacy that they cannot be predicted by standard linear equations; so many variables are at work in the system that…
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Kenneth R Kreiling, “Clinical Education and Lawyer Competency: The Process of Learning to Learn from Experience Through Properly Structured Clinical Supervision”
This paper argues that clinical education should teach students a method which includes: how to develop theories of problem-solving by utilizing established lawyering theory and experience, how to apply these theories in practice, and how to analyze oneself to improve performance. The paper examines the nuance associated with the aforementioned teaching method, such as awareness…
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Justine A Dunlap & Peter A Joy, “Reflection-in-Action: Designing New Clinical Teacher Training by Using Lessons Learned from New Clinicians”
This article examines training programs for new clinical faculty based on data collected and lessons learned through the authors experiences working with new clinical faculty. It provides a series of recommendation for clinical faculty in-house training programs. Clinical faculty should join professional organizations for clinical faculty, attend clinical conferences, and sign up for clinic listservs…
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Jeff Giddings, Reciprocal Professional Development: Enhancing Law Student Supervision in Practice-based Contexts
This report examines the Effective Law Student Supervision (ELSS) Project which is concerned with issues related to professionalism and legal education with focus on enhancing the experiences of law students and supervisors involved in clinical programs in law schools as well as externship arrangements. Central to the project is effective supervision, focused on achieving articulated…