About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

11 Law Tchr. 1 (2003-2004)

handle is hein.journals/lawteaer11 and id is 1 raw text is: GONZAGA UNIVERSITY Institute for Law School Teaching Try peer teaching By Louis Sirico Sometimes a teacher cannot get an idea across to his or her students. And sometimes a teacher cannot understand what is preventing students from catching on. Thinking back to my law school days, I remember instances when a teacher tried to explain some legal rule or application of a doctrine and then faced a sea of perplexed faces. The students might ask questions and, despite the teacher's best efforts, remain confused. Sometimes one student would understand what the other students were missing and come to the rescue. I wish I could say that, as a teacher, I have never faced this problem. However, I suspect every teacher has. The problem seems to arise most acutely when a course is reaching a particularly difficult concept. Every course seems to have certain hard knots. For Torts students, the hard knot may be proximate cause; for Evidence students, it may be the hearsay rule. My Property students, however, face a number of these knots, principally estates and future interests, covenants running with the land, and land recording acts -in other words, nearly one-quarter of the course. Over the years I have improved my methods for teaching these topics; nonetheless, I inevitably fail to reach some students. At the same time, students often help one another understand difficult material in settings outside the classroom, perhaps in a study group. However, students who do not study together miss out on this opportunity. Why not, I thought, enable students to teach one another in the classroom? In that setting, I am available to clarify and steer students away from misunderstandings. Many of us already employ peer review exercises and small-group exercises. We can build on these methods by encouraging students to help one another via peer teaching in class. Here is my procedure for peer teaching. After I work through some difficult material and take questions, I say, Now, I'm going to give you a few minutes to talk with one another and explain to one another the material that we just covered. The students always comply readily. I think these moments also provide a welcome break from the intensity of the standard classroom routine. Once the students start their conversations, some of them inevitably call me over to answer a question. Their questions give me some insight into what is troubling the class and, in turn, teach me how to improve my presentation of the material. When the class discussion seems to be getting too relaxed and students are clearly talking about other things, I reconvene the class. I then try to clarify the material, based on the conversations I have just had, take more questions, and move forward with the course. Because we have become professional teachers and have delved deeply into our subjects, we sometimes find it difficult to place ourselves in the position of novices grappling with difficult concepts for the first time. To reach novices, we sometimes must invite the novices to become teachers as well as students. Louis Sirico teaches at Villanova University Law School, 299 North Spring Mill Road, Villanova, PA 19085; (610) 519-7071;fax (610) 519-6282; sirico @ law.villanova.edu. Fall 2003 'I moo***

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most