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81 U. Det. Mercy L. Rev. 1 (2003-2004)
Employing Active-Learning Techniques and Metacognition in Law School: Shifting Energy from Professor to Student

handle is hein.journals/udetmr81 and id is 43 raw text is: ARTICLE Employing Active-Learning Techniques and Metacognition in Law School: Shifting Energy from Professor to Student ROBIN A. BOYLE* 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's 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 * Robin A. Boyle, J.D., Assistant Legal Writing Professor, St. John's University School of Law since 1994 and certified as a learning-styles trainer, welcomes comments and questions about active learning: boyler@stjohns.edu. Teaching Assistants Peter Le Piane, Nicole Mastropieri, Teri Ann Puliafico and Luciana Reali were particularly helpful in creating some of the active learning techniques described in Part III, as well as in finding sources and in proofreading the manuscript. Professor Boyle's module colleagues, Professors Ettie Ward and Akilah Folami, were generous with their time and supportive of the active learning techniques in the Introduction to Law and the Legal Profession course. Paul Skip Laisure, Esq., her husband, and Dr. Rita Dunn provided helpful editorial assistance and encouragement. Reference Librarian Barbara Traub was particularly helpful by responding to her inter-library loan requests with thoroughness and speed. 1. Joanne Ingham, Ed.D., Institutional Research Specialist, Address at Faculty Scholarship Luncheon, A Meeting of the Minds? Learning Styles of Law School Faculty and First Year Law Students (Dec. 3, 2002) (copy of materials on file with New York Law School). For information regarding the diversity of Albany Law School students, contact Elaine Mills, Assoc. Lawyering Prof.

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