Teaching Business Associations with Group Oral Midterms: Benefits and Drawbacks
St. Louis University Law Journal, Vol. 59, p. 863, 2015
University of Tennessee Legal Studies Research Paper No. 272
21 Pages Posted: 10 Jul 2015 Last revised: 2 Dec 2015
Date Written: January 1, 2015
Abstract
I focus in this Article on a particular way to assess student learning in a Business Associations course. Those of us involved in legal education for the past few years know that “assessment” has been a buzzword...or a bugaboo...or both. The American Bar Association (ABA) has focused law schools on assessment (institutional and pedagogical), and that focus is not, in my view, misplaced. Until relatively recently, much of student assessment in law school doctrinal courses was rote behavior, seemingly driven by heuristics and resulting in something constituting (or at least resembling) information cascades or other herding behaviors.
In the fall of 2011, I began offering an oral midterm examination to students in my Business Associations course as an additional assessment tool. This Article explains why I started (and have continued) down that path, how I designed that examination, and what I have learned by using this assessment method for three years. Although some (probably most) will not want to do in their Business Associations courses exactly what I have done in mine (as to the midterm examination or any other aspects of the course described in this Article), I am providing this information to give readers ideas for, or courage to make positive changes in, their own teaching (for a course on business associations or anything else).
Keywords: Law teaching, law school, business associations, student assessment, examination, oral examination, midterm, simulation
JEL Classification: K20, K22
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation