Presentation Transcript

1. To Give and Receive: Using Student Feedback to Enhance ScholarshipSecond Annual Western Regional Legal Writing Conference University of Oregon School of Law August 11, 2012 Sarah J. Morath morath@uakron.edu
2. Feedback in Legal Writing
3. Overview Different Categories of Legal Writing Scholarship Different Ways to Use Student Feedback Examples of Student Feedback in Existing Scholarship Personal Examples
4. Different Categories of Legal Writing Scholarship
5. Using Student Feedback Two different ways: Student feedback IS the article Student feedback ADDS to the article
6. Using Student Feedback 1. Student feedback IS the article: A large or small number of students Complex or simple Qualitative or quantitative 2. Student feedback ADDS to the article: Provides a narrative Provides an illustration or example Provides a testimonial
7. Student feedback IS the article Question: Devise a question involving students Most of these articles address teaching methodology or student learning Study: Conduct a study during which student feedback is collected Results: Analyze student feedback
8. Example One: The “traditional” study Emily Zimmerman, What Do Law Students Want?: The Missing Piece of the Assessment Puzzle, 42 Rutgers L.J. 1 (2010) Question: What are law students’ assessment preferences? Study: Students: 120 1L (‘07-‘08) & 143 1L (‘08-‘09) Feedback Method: Author designed survey (Likert-type items, circle responses, free response) Results: “Although a majority of responding law students indicate that they want multiple graded assignments, law students’ preference for multiple graded and ungraded assignments may actually decline from the beginning to the end of the first year of law school.”
9. Example Two: Using an existing survey Robin Boyle, Jeffrey Minneti & Andrea Honigsfield, Law Students Are Different from the General Population: Empirical Findings Regarding Learning Styles, 17(3) Persps. 153 (2009) Question: Do law students have the same learning styles as other young adults? Study: Students: Law School Population (1000 plus students from two law schools, spanning several years) and General Student Population (95 students) Feedback Method: Building Excellence (BE) survey measuring 26 variables Results: “[T]he learning styles of the students in the law schools differed significantly from those in college and graduate schools for 14 different elements of the 26 elements studied” including Verbal Kinesthetic, Analytic, and Single-Task Preferenced.
10. Example Three: Polling a class Jeffrey Minneti & Catherine Cameron, Teaching Every Student: A Demonstration Lesson That Adapts Instruction to Students’ Learning Style, 17(3) Persps. 161 (2009) Question: What teaching methods work best for different learning styles? Study: Students: A LRW class Feedback Method: Polling Results: “The students’ responses to the lesson confirmed what the authors learned about the students from the BE survey. Students preferred learning on their own or in pairs, as opposed to learning in small or large groups. Most students needed ample opportunity to verbalize what they were learning, and many students preferred tactual and Kinesthetic learning opportunities.”
11. Example Four: The “in progress” study Mary-Beth Moylan & Stephanie Thompson, Enduring Hope? A Study of Looping in Law School, 48 Duq. L. Rev. 455 (2010) Question: Does looping engender hope in law students? Study: Students: Thirteen sections of GLS I divided into three groups (stay, change, choice) (~260 ?) Feedback Method: Assessments from the beginning, middle, and end of two academic years. Results: In progress. Data inconclusive at this point, but “[r]esponses suggest that many students would like to stay with their GLS professor, but they recognize that, in general, students like choice.”
12. Example Five: Confirming the “conventional wisdom” Anne Enquist, Critiquing Law Students’ Writing: What the Students Say is Effective, 2 Leg. Writing 145 (1996) Question: What comments from legal writing professors do students find the most useful? Study: Students: Four 2L students Feedback Method: Evaluation Sheet (circling ratings, check marking points, and free response to questions) Results: “What emerged from the students’ reactions to the critiques were seven points about effective critiquing, several of which confirm what experienced legal writing faculty have long believed.”
13. Example Six: The case study Leah Christensen, Law Students Who Learn Differently: A Narrative Case Study of Three Law Students with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), 21 J.L. & Health 45 (2008) Question: What are the learning and studying strategies of law students with ADD? Study: Students: Three law students followed for two years. Feedback Method: Individual in-depth interviews. Result: “The study yielded four themes relating to the social, learning and achievement domains of the students.”
14. You can do it! The study does not have to be complicated or involve statistical analysis Large or small number of students Variety of ways to collect feedback (interviews, surveys, polls) Qualitative or quantitative The study does not have address a new idea or be finished The format is straight forward The articles appear in a variety of journals
15. Room for growth There is a need for student centered articles. “Legal education lags behind other disciplines in the development of scholarship, and particularly empirical scholarship, about teaching, assessment and student learning.” Eric A. DeGroff, Training Tomorrow’s Lawyers: What Empirical Research Can Tell Us About the Effect of Law School Pedagogy on Law Student Learning Styles, 36 S. Ill. U. L.J. 251, 255 (2011)
16. “How To” resources for empirical research Stetson Law School Virtual Legal Writing Conference Webinars, Empirical and Statistical Studies http://www.law.stetson.edu/academics/lrw/webinars.php Robin A. Boyle & Joanne Ingham, Suggestions on How to Conduct Empirical Research: A Behind-the-Scenes View, 15(3) Persps. 150 (2007) AALS Annual Meeting 2013 Quantitative and Qualitative Empirical Training Workshops
17. A word of caution Check with IRB or otherwise obtain student consent (and make sure to note that you did so in your article) Make sure students are given a choice Respect anonymity, confidentiality and privacy “When we combine lack of oversight, the caste structure of law school, and the otherness of students, faculty run the risk of studying students without due regard for students’ humanity and the ethics of human research.” Scott Devito, Experimenting on Law Students: Why Imposing No Ethical Constraints on Educational Research Using Law Students Is a Bad Idea and Proposed Ethical Guidelines, 40 Sw. L. Rev. 285, 288-89 (2010)
18. Student feedback ADDS to the article Provides a narrative Provides an illustration or example Provides a testimonial
19. Because of this law, there are Americans – sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers – who will not have to hang their fortunes on chance. These are Americans for whom we passed this law.
20. The everyday narrative “There’s a framed letter that hangs in my office right now. It was sent to me during the health care debate by a woman named NatomaCanfield. For years and years, Natoma did everything right. She bought health insurance. She paid her premiums on time. But 18 years ago, Natoma was diagnosed with cancer. And even though she’d been cancer-free for more than a decade, her insurance company kept jacking up her rates, year after year. And despite her desire to keep her coverage -- despite her fears that she would get sick again -- she had to surrender her health insurance, and was forced to hang her fortunes on chance. I carried Natoma’s story with me every day of the fight to pass this law. It reminded me of all the Americans, all across the country, who have had to worry not only about getting sick, but about the cost of getting well. Natomais well today. And because of this law, there are other Americans -- other sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers -- who will not have to hang their fortunes on chance. These are the Americans for whom we passed this law.” President Barak Obama
21. Many common pizza ingredients thrive under the same sunny, well watered conditions.
22. The everyday example or illustration Many common pizza ingredients thrive under the same sunny, well watered conditions.Some examples include tomatoes, red and green peppers, onions, jalapenos, basil, oregano, thyme and parsley. http://ezinearticles.com/?Cool-Themed-Gardens&id=2251431
23. The ceremony seemed to reflect that view, too, suggesting that the thing that is most British about the British is their anarchic spirit and their ability to laugh at themselves.
24. The everyday example or illustration “The ceremony seemed to reflect that view, too, suggesting that the thing that is most British about the British is their anarchic spirit and their ability to laugh at themselves. It is hard to imagine, for instance, the Chinese including, as the British did, a clip of Rowan Atkinson inserted into the opening scene from “Chariots of Fire,” shoving the other runners out of the way (and ending with a rude noise paying tribute to British lavatorial humor).” Sarah Lyall, A Five-Ring Opening Circs, Weirdly and Unabashedly British, N.Y. Times A1 (July 28, 2012)
25. Backpacks as tough as the guarantee they carry.
26. The everyday testimonial Backpacks as tough as the guarantee they carry. “Best backpacks. You can’t beat the quality and the guarantee.” L.L. Bean Customer, San Antonio, TX.
27. The narrative, example, illustration, and testimonial all: Supplement general propositions Further understanding of facts Prove your point Build credibility Make the writing more memorable
28. “Many students are capable of producing high quality work, but are hamstrung by their inability to figure out the process of managing both time and the material.”
29. Providing a narrative Several years ago, a very bright student who had recently made law review came to my office to discuss her grade. She was unhappy that she had received “only” a B+ in my class. When she arrived, she looked very tired, and I asked her how she was feeling. She told me that she was a research assistant for a torts professor and had been up all night finishing an assignment for him. She said that she could not ask him for an extension, because he had already given her several. I asked her if she had run into these kinds of time management problems in preparing her assignments for legal writing, and she sheepishly admitted that she had. Rather than discussing her grade, we ended up speaking for over an hour about specific steps that she could take to organize herself and manage her time more effectively. This meeting was an epiphany for me because it made me realize that many students are capable of producing high quality work, but are hamstrung by their inability to figure out the process of managing both time and the material. I have subsequently made it a priority to integrate organizational tips into my class, along with the substantive material. Amy R. Stein, Helping Students Understand That Effective Organization Is a Prerequisite to Effective Legal Writing, 15(1) Persps. 36 (2006)
30. “One common indicator that many students are not consciously using metacognition in early legal writing is their constant and fervent pleas for examples of successful legal memoranda and briefs.”
31. Providing an example or illustration “One common indicator that many students are not consciously using metacognition in early legal writing is their constant and fervent pleas for examples of successful legal memoranda and briefs.” One student wrote, “I wish that we had some real-world examples of what our writing should look like that had been vetted by the professor to be sure that they adhered to the standards that she sets.” Miriam E. Felsenburg & Laura P. Graham, A Better Beginning: Why and How to Help Novice Legal Writers Build a Solid Foundation by Shifting Their Focus from Product to Process, 24 Regent U. L. Rev. 83, 97 (2011)
32. “Moreover, by offering feedback and making edits on their peers’ papers, students improve their ability to edit, revise, and proofread their own work.”
33. Providing a testimonial “Moreover, by offering feedback and making edits on their peers’ papers, students improve their ability to edit, revise, and proofread their own work. In the survey, one student stated that ‘[l]ooking at [her] peer’s paper improved [her] editing skills since it gave [her] a better understanding’ as to how she should edit her own paper. Another student explained that the exercise made him ‘focus on what [he] need to do in [his] own writing.’ Peer editing helps students become better legal writers.” Cassandra L. Hill, Peer Editing: A Comprehensive Pedagogical Approach to Maximize Assessment, 11 Nev. L.J. 667, 673 (2011)
34. Tips for adding student feedback to scholarship Use direct quotes Integrate into text of article Provide more than one example or testimonial Indicate how feedback was solicited Include survey or explain that survey is on file with the author Indicate that student participation was voluntary and anonymous
35. Personal Examples Student feedback that is the article You Write Like a Girl: Do Gender Difference Exist in Persuasive Legal Writing Student feedback that adds to the article Motions in Motion The Mini Email Memo
36. Final Thoughts Student feedback: It’s a good thing!
37. Time for your feedback Questions/Comments?