Law Commons^™

Using Instructional Design To Improve Student Learning, Gregory S. Sergienko

Greg Sergienko

Categorizations of knowledge and skills have different purposes. Robert Gagne's classification, which we use here, organizes types of learning according to the mental processes involved in performing them. The best practices for teaching knowledge or skills in a particular category are similar, whether the knowledge being taught is torts, contracts, or electrical engineering. For law teachers, the practical advantage of this classification is that it allows us to identify successful learning techniques from other subjects and adapt them to law teaching, rather than starting from scratch and developing and testing our own techniques. A second advantage of classifying types of …

New Modes Of Assessment, Gregory S. Sergienko

Greg Sergienko

The traditional and dominant mode of formal assessment in law schools is an essay examination administered at the end of the semester. Unfortunately, the essay exam is prone to inaccuracies, some of which can be balanced by other forms of assessment. In addition, essay exams are extremely burdensome to grade.

The purpose of this Article is to call attention to a variety of alternatives to this traditional format that are more accurate and less burdensome than traditional essay exams. Increasing accuracy makes it possible to determine whether the instruction has been effective, allowing the instructor to address areas of weakness …