Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 5 of 5
Full-Text Articles in Law
Legal Reading And Success In Law School: Law Students With Attention Deficit Disorder (Add), Leah M. Christensen
Legal Reading And Success In Law School: Law Students With Attention Deficit Disorder (Add), Leah M. Christensen
Leah M Christensen
The new reality in legal education is that a certain percentage of our students will come to us with ADD or with another learning disability, either disclosed or undisclosed. Yet there has been little empirical research on how law students with learning disabilities read and understand the law. This study examined how three law students with ADD read a judicial opinion. The results suggested a relationship between successful law school performance and the use of problematizing and rhetorical reading strategies; and less successful law school performance and the use of default reading strategies. Further, the results suggest that law students …
Predicting Law School Success: A Study Of Goal Orientations, Academic Achievement And The Declining Self-Efficacy Of Our Law Students, Leah M. Christensen
Predicting Law School Success: A Study Of Goal Orientations, Academic Achievement And The Declining Self-Efficacy Of Our Law Students, Leah M. Christensen
Leah M Christensen
This study asked 157 law students to respond to a survey about their learning goals and motivations for learning in law school. The student responses were correlated to different academic variables, including class rank, LSAT scores, undergraduate GPA. Further, the study explored whether any relationships existed between goal orientations (mastery or performance) and law school success (class rank). The results were illuminating: despite the performance-based curriculum of law school, the most successful students were mastery oriented learners. In contrast, there was no statistical correlation between performance-oriented learning and law school success. Further, the LSAT score was the weakest predictor of …
Law Students Who Learn Differently: A Narrative Case Study Of Three Law Students With Attention Deficit Disorder (Add), Leah M. Christensen
Law Students Who Learn Differently: A Narrative Case Study Of Three Law Students With Attention Deficit Disorder (Add), Leah M. Christensen
Leah M Christensen
Abstract: More law students than ever before begin law school having been diagnosed with a learning disability. As legal educators, do we have an obligation to expand our teaching methodologies beyond the typical law student? What teaching methodologies work most effectively for law students with learning disabilities? The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of law students with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) about their law school experience. The case study yielded four themes relating to the social, learning and achievement domains of the students. First, law students with ADD experienced feelings of isolation in law school; second, …
Navigating The Article Selection Process: An Empirical Study Of Those With All The Power--Student Editors, Leah M. Christensen, Julie A. Oseid
Navigating The Article Selection Process: An Empirical Study Of Those With All The Power--Student Editors, Leah M. Christensen, Julie A. Oseid
Leah M Christensen
Abstract: Anyone who enters the legal academy knows the pressure for new law professors to publish or perish. The use of student editors as the “gatekeepers” of legal scholarship is a distinctive feature of the legal academy. Yet, even with student editors holding the keys to academic success, few empirical studies have explored what factors student editors consider most important when making article selection decisions. The study reported in this Article attempts to shed light on this process and provide suggestions for new law professors as they navigate the law review article submission process. The present study examines how law …
"The Paradox Of Legal Expertise: A Study Of Experts And Novices Reading The Law", Leah M. Christensen
"The Paradox Of Legal Expertise: A Study Of Experts And Novices Reading The Law", Leah M. Christensen
Leah M Christensen
Abstract: What strategies do lawyers and judges use to read the law? The study described in this article examined the way in which 10 legal experts (8 lawyers and 2 judges) and 10 novices (law students in the top 50% of their class) read a judicial opinion. Whereas the experts read efficiently (taking less overall time), the beginning law students read less efficiently. Where the experts read the text flexibly, moving back and forth between different parts of the opinion, the novices read inflexibly. The experts connected to the purpose of their reading more consistently than the novices and drew …