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36 Ariz. L. Rev. 287 (1994)
Beyond MacCrate: The Role of Context, Experience, Theory, and Reflection in Ecological Learning

handle is hein.journals/arz36 and id is 297 raw text is: Articles BEYOND MACCRATE: THE ROLE OF CONTEXT, EXPERIENCE, THEORY, AND REFLECTION IN ECOLOGICAL LEARNING Brook K. Baker* I. INTRODUCTION A third year student sits through her UCC course taking notes on the doctrinal portion of the class and responding occasionally to the professor's questions. Thereafter, as a student in the HIV-elinic, she talks with her supervisor about an upcoming negotiation in a summary process action. After talking with her best friend who is doing an extemship at the U.S. Attorney's office, she rushes off to her part-time job with a small law firm where she is working on jury instructions for an upcoming trial, responding to her employer's request that she revise her first draft to make the instructions more case specific. According to the conventional wisdom, this student is being educated in legal doctrine and rigorous legal analysis in the classroom and being trained in reflective, client-centered problem-solving in the in-house clinic. The class- room teacher, a specialist in the doctrine and jurisprudence of the subject area, transmits this specialized knowledge Socratically, and in the process demon- strates and inculcates a repertoire of legal reasoning skills, the ordinary religion of the classroom, called thinking like a lawyer.1 This specialized * Associate Professor Northeastern University School of Law, and Director of Legal Practice, a first-year skills program. This article is largely the result of having received my legal education at Northeastern University School of Law in a program which maximized opportunities for contextualized, experiential learning. Its motivation also draws on countless discussions with hundreds of Northeastern students about their learning experiences on co-op. Former Dean Daniel Givelber was especially instrumental in encouraging me to write this article, what was originally intended to be a modest introduction for an empirical analysis of experiential learning. Then Dean Givelber also granted me a research leave which was the only practical means for finishing this project. My mentor Steve Subrin consistently spurred me on as did the enthusiastic reading of an earlier draft by Michael Meltsner. My most careful reader and most thoughtful interrogator, as usual, was my colleague and friend James V. Rowan. To this list, many other colleagues, clinicians, and legal research, analysis, and writing specialists could be added for their robust discussions of how students learn. 1. The ordinary religion of the classroom includes skepticism about legal rules, instrumental manipulation of concepts and authority to reach Machiavellian ends, and •tough-minded linear analysis. Roger C. Crampton, The Ordinary Religion of the Law School Classroom, 29 . LEGAL EDUC. 247, 248 (1978). In addition to teaching how to think like a lawyer, law schools teach the ideology of being a lawyer and how to feel like a lawyer. Karl E. Klare, The Law-School Curriculum in the 1980s: What's Left?, 32 J. LEGAL EDUC. 336,

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