Explicit Instruction in Legal Education: Boon or Spoon?

While legal education unquestionably hones students’ critical thinking skills, it also privileges students who are faster readers and have prior background knowledge or larger working memories. According to the prevailing mythology of law school pedagogy, students learn by struggling to find their way out of chaos. Only then is their learning deep enough to permit them to engage in critical thinking and legal reasoning. Learning theory and research suggest this type of “inquiry” learning is not an effective way to introduce novice learners to a subject. Lacking basic substantive and procedural knowledge, students’ struggles are often unproductive and dispiriting. Initial explicit instruction early in a student’s learning more predictably creates stable, accurate knowledge. Because higher-order thinking depends on having some knowledge, ensuring students have a strong foundation of substantive and procedural knowledge increases the likelihood that they will develop critical thinking skills. However, legal education uniformly dismisses anything that looks like “spoon-feeding.” If the academy is going to incorporate learning theory into its pedagogy, it must understand and articulate the differences between spoon-feeding and explicit instruction. This Article examines explicit instruction as a pedagogical tool for legal educators. Part I examines cognitive psychological theories of thinking and learning to understand the differences between spoon-feeding and explicit instruction and explain why initial explicit instruction is useful. Part II delves into the cognitive differences between novices and experts that support initial explicit instruction. Part III examines experts’ cognitive barriers to effective teaching. Part IV provides examples of how explicit instruction can be used in the law school classroom. The Article concludes that the time is ripe for the academy to bring explicit instruction out of the shadows, and to incorporate initial explicit instruction into legal educatio

Exploring A Complex Model Of Student Engagement In Middle School: Academic Self-Efficacy Beliefs And Achievement

A significant body of research and literature supports that student engagement in school is critical to academic outcomes. Research also finds that students’ beliefs about their ability to be successful at academic tasks will significantly influence their achievement also. The aim of this study is to explore the impact of academic self-efficacy on achievement in school, as mediated by levels of student engagement. The sample size was approximately 400 students enrolled in the 7th and 8th grade at one middle school building. In order to assess the extent of academic self-efficacy, the Academic Efficacy scale was utilized. In order to measure cognitive, behavioral and affective engagement, the Student Engagement Instrument (SEI) and The Engagement vs. Disaffection with Learning questionnaire were administered. Levels of previous and current student achievement were collected from the CORE reading Curriculum-Based Measures, English Language Arts and Math grades (converted to GPA) as well as NWEA Measures of Academic Progress. Results of the study did not support the hypothesized model. However, academic-self efficacy was found to be related to student engagement and previous and current achievement. Further, previous achievement was a significant predictor of current achievement

A Fall from Grace: United States v. W. R. Grace and the Need for Criminal Discovery Reform

This article examines several 2009 cases involving prosecutorial misconduct arising from the federal government\u27s failure to live up to its criminal discovery obligations. The article focuses specifically on U.S. v. W.R. Grace, a Clean Air Act criminal case in Montana. The authors\u27 analysis of Grace and other cases suggests that the absence of a clear, enforceable rule jeopardizes the government\u27s ability to fairly prosecute its cases and supports amending Rule 16 to eliminate the gap between prosecutors\u27 legal and ethical duties, and to require the pretrial disclosure of evidence favorable to the defendant

Power domination with random sensor failure

The power domination problem seeks to determine the minimum number of phasor measurement units (PMUs) needed to monitor an electric power network. We introduce random sensor failure before the power domination process occurs and call this the fragile power domination process. For a given graph, PMU placement, and probability of PMU failure $q$, we study the expected number of observed vertices at the termination of the fragile power domination process. This expected value is a polynomial in $q$, which we relate to fault-tolerant and PMU-defect-robust power domination. We also study the probability of that the entire graph becomes observed and give results for some graph families.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figure

Development of a measure of barriers to laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) aftercare attendance

Background: Regular aftercare attendance following laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) is associated with greater weight loss and fewer post-surgical complications. Despite high reported rates of attrition from LAGB aftercare, the reasons for non-attendance have not been thoroughly explored. The aim of the current study was to describe the scale development, explore the factor structure and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Gastric Banding Aftercare Attendance Questionnaire (GBAAQ)—a tool that measures barriers to aftercare attendance in LAGB patients. Methods: One hundred and eighty-three participants completed the GBAAQ; 107 regular attendees and 76 non-attendees. Results: A factor analysis identified four factors (Treatment Approach, Time Constraints, Stress and Pressures, Uncomfortable Participating) that demonstrated good known-groups validity and internal consistency. Conclusions: Although further validation is needed, the results of the present study provide preliminary support for the validity of the GBAAQ. Knowledge about the barriers to LAGB aftercare attendance can be used to identify those most at risk of non-attendance and can inform strategies aimed at reducing non-attendance

Analytic approaches to clinical validation of results from preclinical models of glioblastoma:A systematic review

INTRODUCTION: Analytic approaches to clinical validation of results from preclinical models are important in assessment of their relevance to human disease. This systematic review examined consistency in reporting of glioblastoma cohorts from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) or Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) and assessed whether studies included patient characteristics in their survival analyses. METHODS: We searched Embase and Medline on 02Feb21 for studies using preclinical models of glioblastoma published after Jan2008 that used data from TCGA or CGGA to validate the association between at least one molecular marker and overall survival in adult patients with glioblastoma. Main data items included cohort characteristics, statistical significance of the survival analysis, and model covariates. RESULTS: There were 58 eligible studies from 1,751 non-duplicate records investigating 126 individual molecular markers. In 14 studies published between 2017 and 2020 using TCGA RNA microarray data that should have the same cohort, the median number of patients was 464.5 (interquartile range 220.5–525). Of the 15 molecular markers that underwent more than one univariable or multivariable survival analyses, five had discrepancies between studies. Covariates used in the 17 studies that used multivariable survival analyses were age (76.5%), pre-operative functional status (35.3%), sex (29.4%) MGMT promoter methylation (29.4%), radiotherapy (23.5%), chemotherapy (17.6%), IDH mutation (17.6%) and extent of resection (5.9%). CONCLUSION: Preclinical glioblastoma studies that used TCGA for validation did not provide sufficient information about their cohort selection and there were inconsistent results. Transparency in reporting and the use of analytic approaches that adjust for clinical variables can improve the reproducibility between studies