Wallace J Mlyniec, “Where to Begin – Training New Teachers in the Art of Clinical Pedagogy”

This article describes the clinical program at the Georgetown Law Centre and sets out a clinical training program for new supervisors. The program and the article suggest six fundamental beliefs, including:

1. Clinical teaching is different from and more expansive than doctrinal teaching or professional legal practice;
2. Clinical teaching is goal driven and based on backward design;
3. Faculty intervention must be intentional and based on making choices that further a student’s education;
4. Clinical education should be based on an expansive theory of justice;
5. Client and student needs are equally important in a clinical program and neither need be sacrificed for the other; and
6. Clinical teaching is personal and designed to accept students where they are and to maximize their learning potential.

Notably, teaching as a clinical teacher or supervisor is exceptionally difficult as it requires an understanding of teaching techniques, students’ prior knowledge, attention to the welfare of the clients, and an understanding of the power dynamics at play. Clinical teaching functions in an environment of increased freedom alongside resource constraints. Despite these complexities, clinicians are often not trained or ill-trained when they begin their supervisory role.

Intervention by clinic supervisors, whether directive or non-directive intervention or another intervention technique, is an important aspect of clinic experiences. Intervention can look like giving feedback which suggests considering different approaches and does not have to fall succinctly on the directive or non-directive dichotomy. Not only does intervention move the case toward the client’s goals, but it also helps the students understand the process they used to arrive, their decisions, and how it can be used in other situations. Intervention must be intentional; that is planned in light of particular outcomes and should be specific to the context in which it occurs.

Contemporary supervision does not cleanly fall into the classic directive/non-directive dichotomy. Instead, it encompasses aspects of both. Supervisors need to name the activities and techniques they discuss with students so that students can grow their vocabulary and utilize it as they develop in the profession.  Supervisors must understand the appropriate techniques to be used in particular circumstances and understand that their roles change in different contexts.

The article outlines three ways new supervisors may respond to difficult supervision situations. First, they may assume the fault is on the student without considering their own role, thus focusing entirely on the student’s conduct. Second, the supervisor may believe their teaching ability is inadequate or too inexperienced to resolve the issue. Third, supervisors may assume that the event is an outlier that cannot be resolved by the nature of the sound clinic structure and appropriate supervision. The authors set out the adaptive supervision model to try to resolve difficult supervision situations. This model requires looking at several categories such as productivity, interpersonal relations, emotion, and cognition. In the adaptive supervision model, supervisors should focus on the behaviour creating the difficulty rather than the student’s character. This requires considering the type of direction the supervisor provides, the workload, the complexity of the client’s needs, and the student’s mood or personality. Once the supervisor considers these contributing factors, they can consider potential responses, which may involve adjusting their approach or altering the student’s role in the case. Further consideration of the clinic structure, i.e., the complexity of clinic cases, clinic curriculum, and student screening practices, may require adjustment upon reflection with respect to clinic difficulties.

Wallace J Mlyniec, “Where to Begin – Training New Teachers in the Art of Clinical Pedagogy” (2012) 18:2 Clinical L Rev 505.