Applying Learning-Styles Theory in the Workplace: How to Maximize Learning-Styles Strengths to Improve Work Performance in Law Practice

(Excerpt) Part I of this Article explains how the individual benefits from effective use of a complex web of business relationships. In Part II, the Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Model is summarized. Part III applies the Dunn and Dunn Model to a law practice from the perspectives of both the associate and the manager

Didn’t I Cover That in Class? Low-Stakes Technique of Quizzing to the Rescue

(Excerpt) We all have had those moments when students’ papers do not reflect an important lesson covered in class. For instance, if teaching persuasive writing, you have likely instructed your students to use a full sentence for their point headings in their briefs, only to find phrases where sentences should have been used. Consequently, you find yourself making the same written comments on papers or verbal comments in conferences with students, beginning with, “As I had instructed in class…” In his groundbreaking book, Experiential Learning, researcher and theorist David Kolb introduced the concept of “deep learning,” which can remedy this problem. To help students master fundamental skills, professors can incorporate in their classes deep learning methods, allowing time for professors to focus on more nuanced substantive material. Consider incorporating one time-efficient, yet impactful, deep learning method by providing a short quiz at the start or end of class. Quizzes can be designed as low stakes, meaning they do not affect a student’s grade in the course, or if they count at all, their impact is insignificant. These exercises can “strengthen[] . . . memory and deepen[] . . . learning.” While the quizzes may take up a few minutes in each class, in the long-run, they will save you time from making the same repeated comments on multiple papers or student conferences. Your patience will remain intact

Women, the Law, and Cults: Three Avenues of Legal Recourse: New Rape Laws, Violence Against Women Act, and Antistalking Laws

The author examines three avenues of legal recourse that are available to society at large, but may not be well-known to women in cults, their families, and their potential mental health providers. These avenues for recourse are improved rape laws now available in every state; recently-enacted federal legislation -- the 1994 Violence Against Women Act; and recently-enacted state and federal antistalking laws. The author developed this article from her speech delivered at the annual American Family Foundation conference on May 30, 1997, in Philadelphia, PA

How Children In Cults May Use Emancipation Laws To Free Themselves

The author examines how children who are born into cults or brought into them at a young age can use state emancipation laws to gain independence when they are in their mid-teens, so long as they can demonstrate criteria that their states have established. Commonly, states require a showing that the minor has achieved some level of economic self-sufficiency and can live emotionally and physically independently from his or her parents. There are some difficulties for cultic children in demonstrating these criteria, but the obstacles are not insurmountable

Applying Learning-Styles Theory in the Workplace: How to Maximize Learning-Styles Strengths to Improve Work Performance in Law Practice

(Excerpt) Part I of this Article explains how the individual benefits from effective use of a complex web of business relationships. In Part II, the Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Model is summarized. Part III applies the Dunn and Dunn Model to a law practice from the perspectives of both the associate and the manager

Law Students With Attention Deficit Disorder: How to Reach Them, How to Teach Them

(Excerpt) Most law school classes are likely to include students with Attention Deficit Disorder ( ADD ) or its related disorder - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. ADD is a neurological disorder, and many people with it additionally have learning disabilities. Law students with ADD that manifests itself in learning disabilities are the focus of this Article. There has been a growth of services for those with ADD, such as counseling, but unfortunately, less attention is paid to the thousands of teachers who have been charged with instructing ADD students. It is imperative for teachers to be equipped for teaching ADD students. To be effective in reaching those students, law professors should understand the common learning-style traits of ADD students. In order to open the cognitive pathways to learning, professors should help ADD students manipulate materials in ways that best help them learn. That effort will pay added dividends because these nontraditional teaching strategies also will help the non-ADD students with diverse learning styles

Employing Active-Learning Techniques and Metacognition in Law School: Shifting Energy from Professor to Student

(Excerpt) Teaching a law school class, whether it is doctrinal or skills-based, can be a tiring experience. At the conclusion of class, law professors often experience fatigue, partly from coming to a calm after being on-stage and partly from expending excessive energy lecturing or engaging students with the Socratic method. Law professors who are exhausted after a sixty or ninety-minute class, while their students sit passively except for random one-on-one questioning, are overworking. Chances are the majority of the students are under-performing because they are probably similar in their learning-style to students at other law schools, who do not learn best by either lecture or the Socratic method. In addition to St. John\u27s University School of Law, New York Law School and Albany Law School have assessed the learning styles of their students by using the same instrument, the Productivity Environmental Preference Survey (PEPS). (The PEPS is discussed infra Section II B.) The results of the PEPS administered at all three law schools indicate that law students are diverse in their learning styles

Providing Structure to Law Students — Introducing the Programmed Learning Sequence as an Instructional Tool

(Excerpt) In the past few decades, legal academics have spawned writings about changing law school teaching methods from the traditional Socratic and case method to alternative approaches. Some of these authors encourage law professors to be aware of individual differences among students. Yet there has been little empirical research conducted in law schools concerning the effectiveness of teaching students according to their individual learning styles. Learning styles refers to the ways in which individuals begin [ ] to concentrate on, process, [internalize,] and [remember] new and difficult [academic] information or skills. The absence of learning-styles research in law schools spurred us to conduct an empirical study to determine whether the application of learning-styles theory actually improved student learning. As a legal writing professor and a doctoral student in education, we collaborated on an empirical study that assessed the learning-styles preferences of a first-year law student population and measured the effectiveness of a particular type of instructional tool - the Programmed Learning Sequence (PLS). The details and the results of that study are the subject of this Article

Teaching Law Students Through Individual Learning Styles

(Excerpt) Teaching can be rewarding, but it can also be frustrating when some students fail to grasp the material. Professor Robin A. Boyle of St. John’s University School of Law has been teaching Legal Research and Writing in small sections of approximately twenty to thirty students for four years. She, like many of her similarly exasperated colleagues, has repeated the same course content by using either lecture or collaborative learning, and has observed some students doing well, whereas others continued to perform poorly. Then, Dr. Rita Dunn was introduced to the law school faculty and suggested that law professors incorporate learning-styles theory into their lesson plans to accommodate students with diverse learning styles. Suddenly, there was light in the tunnel