Understanding the Socratic Method in Law School Teaching after the Carnegie Foundation's Educating Lawyers
![handle is hein.journals/wnelr31 and id is 99 raw text is: UNDERSTANDING THE SOCRATIC METHOD
IN LAW SCHOOL TEACHING AFTER THE
CARNEGIE FOUNDATION'S
EDUCATING LAWYERS
JOSEPH A. DICKINSON*
INTRODUCTION
In the spring of 2007, the Carnegie Foundation for the Ad-
vancement of Teaching released Educating Lawyers: Preparation
for the Profession of Law.1 This volume is part of a series of com-
parative studies of professional education in medicine, nursing, law,
engineering, and preparation of the clergy that examines how the
members of different professions are educated for their responsibil-
ities in the communities they serve.2 The dust jacket describes the
book as one that presents a richly detailed picture of how law
school goes about its great work of transforming students into pro-
fessionals and probes the gaps and the unintended consequences of
key aspects of the law school experience.'3 In the introduction, the
authors state that professional training is a complex educational
process, and that its value depends, in large part, on how well the
several aspects of professional training are understood and woven
into a whole.'4 They assert that the challenge of professional
preparation for the law involves linking the interests of educators
with the needs of practitioners and the members of the public the
profession is pledged to serve-in other words, participating in civic
professionalism.'5 The authors write further that it is the aim of
* Professor of Law, Franklin Pierce Law Center. I am most grateful for the in-
valuable editorial assistance of Frederick Millett, FPLC class of 2008, and the support of
my colleagues Jordan Budd and Mitchell Simon, as well as the support of Franklin
Pierce Law Center.
1. WILLIAM M. SULLIVAN ET AL., EDUCATING LAWYERS: PREPARATION FOR THE
PROFESSION OF LAW (2007) [hereinafter EDUCATING LAWYERS].
2. See, e.g., CHARLES R. FOSTER ET AL., EDUCATING CLERGY: TEACHING PRAC-
TICES AND PASTORAL IMAGINATION (2006).
3. EDUCATING LAWYERS, supra note 1, at dust jacket.
4. Id. at 4.
5. Id.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/wnelr31&div=8&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Understanding the Socratic Method in Law School Teaching after the Carnegie Foundation's Educating Lawyers
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