What We in Law Can Learn from Our Colleagues in Medicine About Teaching Students How to Practice Their Chosen Profession
10 Pages Posted: 14 May 2014
Date Written: 2008
Abstract
This column is based on my personal experience teaching in both United States medical and law schools and is intended to provide an overview of how they each take very different approaches to what is inherently a very similar task: educating young adults who want to join a specific profession. It is intended to compare and contrast the two in order to promote better understanding between the two professions and to point out ways in which each might learn from the other. I know that American medical education is not perfect and do not advocate adopting it wholesale into legal education. I also know that many of the teaching techniques used in American medical schools are already being used in a wide variety of higher-education settings including law schools. Evidence from teaching conferences sponsored by the Society of American Law Professors (SALT), the listervs on teaching methods and humanizing legal education of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), and a review of the literature collectively demonstrate that numerous law professors are committed to incorporating many of the things discussed in this column. Professor Roy Stuckey's Best Practices for Legal Education is an outstanding resource that brings together many innovative and effective teaching methods. The literature on clinical legal education and teaching legal research and writing also suggests innovations analogous to those adopted in medical schools.
Keywords: law schools, medical schools, teaching, education, profession, legal education, medical education, teaching methods, doctors, law professors, medical school professors, lawyers, learning, teaching
JEL Classification: K00,K19,K39
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation