Creating Light bulb Moments: Developing Higher-Order Thinking in Family Law Classrooms Through Court Observations

This Article fills a critical gap in family law literature by arguing that teaching doctrinal family law in conjunction with the application of established learning theory and pedagogy yields a deeper engagement with the subject matter and leads to more practice-ready lawyers. ABA Standards 301, 303...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of law & education 2022-04, Vol.51 (1), p.13-72
Main Author: Rankin, Sonia M Gipson
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child Custody
Children & youth
Classrooms
Court hearings & proceedings
Education reform
Educational Change
Educational Environment
Experiential learning
Families & family life
Family law
Learning activities
Learning Theories
Pedagogy
Student Experience
Students
Teaching
Teaching Methods
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Summary:This Article fills a critical gap in family law literature by arguing that teaching doctrinal family law in conjunction with the application of established learning theory and pedagogy yields a deeper engagement with the subject matter and leads to more practice-ready lawyers. ABA Standards 301, 303, and 304 do not clearly articulate the distinction between experiential education and experiential learning; doctrinal law classrooms are often bereft of experiential learning activities. By incorporating active learning and inclusive pedagogy in the doctrinal classroom and following recommendations from the MacCrate Report and Family Law Education Reform Project, students will be better prepared to address issues of professionalism and equity in their future practice. In particular, this .Article reports on an experiential learning assignment in my Family Law class in which students visited domestic relation court settings to "marry" theory and doctrine with the practice of family law. I describe how incorporating a courtroom observation activity in Family Law stimulates higher-order thinking as categorized by Bloom's Taxonomy. I discuss trends in learning theory, share the questions students answered in the assignment, and explore some of the students' observations of and reflections on the family law courtroom. I conclude that courtroom observations and written reflections can better prepare students for their future experiences in legal clinics and initial law practice and can be implemented in other doctrinal courses as well. Providing law students with an opportunity to observe court settings helps them integrate theory and practice in doctrinal classes, supports robust learning outcomes, is relatively easy to implement, and is highly rewarding for the student and legal education as a whole.
ISSN:0275-6072