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Full-Text Articles in Law

When Socrates Meets Confucius: Teaching Creative And Critical Thinking Across Cultures Through Multilevel Socratic Method, Erin Ryan Dec 2012

When Socrates Meets Confucius: Teaching Creative And Critical Thinking Across Cultures Through Multilevel Socratic Method, Erin Ryan

Erin Ryan

This article presents a case study of adapting the Socratic Method, popularized in American law schools, to teach critical thinking skills underemphasized in Chinese universities and group competency skills underemphasized at U.S. institutions. As we propose it here, Multilevel Socratic teaching integrates various levels of individual, small group, and full class critical inquiry, offering distinct pedagogical benefits in Eastern and Western cultural contexts where they separately fall short. After exploring foundational cultural differences underlying the two educational approaches, the article reviews the goals, methods, successes, and challenges encountered in the development of an adapted “Multilevel Socratic” method, concluding with recommendations …


Editorial: "You Talkin' To Me?", Katina Michael Feb 2012

Editorial: "You Talkin' To Me?", Katina Michael

Professor Katina Michael

Advancing knowledge through robust research is an honourable aim- being scientific, finding the right methodology, executing project phases meticulously, and reporting on the outcomes as objectively and accurately as possible. But may I begin my inaugural editorial by saying that an even higher ideal to advancing knowledge is critiquing it as it happens. Reflective practice is not just something to be done by academics in their teaching- reflective practice is what we should all be doing as we go about undertaking our various day-to-day work tasks. For the engineer engaged in research and development, whether in industry or government, reflective …


Thinking Like Thinkers: Is The Art And Discipline Of An "Attitude Of Suspended Conclusion" Lost On Lawyers?, Donald J. Kochan Aug 2011

Thinking Like Thinkers: Is The Art And Discipline Of An "Attitude Of Suspended Conclusion" Lost On Lawyers?, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

In his 1910 book, How We Think, John Dewey proclaimed that “the most important factor in the training of good mental habits consists in acquainting the attitude of suspended conclusion. . .” This Article explores that insight and describes its meaning and significance in the enterprise of thinking generally and its importance in law school education specifically. It posits that the law would be best served if lawyers think like thinkers and adopt an attitude of suspended conclusion in their problem solving affairs. Only when conclusion is suspended is there space for the exploration of the subject at hand. The …


Designing Research Assignments To Encourage Critical Thinking And Creative Problem-Solving Skills, Linda Kawaguchi Dec 2010

Designing Research Assignments To Encourage Critical Thinking And Creative Problem-Solving Skills, Linda Kawaguchi

Linda Kawaguchi

Advanced legal research (ALR) courses are unique in that they provide continual and immediate feedback to both students and teachers over the course of the semester. Unlike traditional doctrinal courses, ALR typically employs a variety of teaching methods and students receive multiple forms of assessment. This level of interaction allows teachers to respond quickly when students are struggling with specific concepts or need clarification. This article analyzes lessons learned from two assignments.


Thinking Critically About Equality: Government Can Make Us Equal, Robert L. Hayman, Nancy Levit Jan 2000

Thinking Critically About Equality: Government Can Make Us Equal, Robert L. Hayman, Nancy Levit

Nancy Levit

As kids we called it having to use the old noodle: needing to think real hard about something that was real hard to think about. It was the kind of thinking that would cause your face to get all scrunched up, and if you didn't stop or if someone didn't stop you - it would eventually make your head hurt. The expression came from our families when we figured something out: that's using your old noodle, they'd tell us. The noodle we eventually understood to be our brains, which, we reckon, do look something like noodles, though we were quite …


Thinking Critically About Equality: Government Can Make Us Equal, Robert L. Hayman, Nancy Levit Dec 1999

Thinking Critically About Equality: Government Can Make Us Equal, Robert L. Hayman, Nancy Levit

Robert L. Hayman

No abstract provided.