Riding the Tail of the Dragon: Replacing Tradition with Engaged Legal Education
36 Pages Posted: 22 Oct 2010 Last revised: 16 Dec 2012
Date Written: October 21, 2010
Abstract
While many advances in American legal education have occurred over the years, the traditional vision of law as an academic science, taught by iconic experts out of casebooks carved up by subject matter, persists. Most law professors have eschewed using alternative methodologies, perhaps because they have had little institutional incentive to experiment. Yet, an alternative narrative of engaged learning is gaining currency in many different educational domains. The utilization of an engaged learning protocol as an organizing principle would dramatically shake-up the traditional structures of legal education, but mostly for the better. Engaged Education would enhance educational outcomes, facilitate the development of competencies and result in an education that better bridges theory and practice throughout. Despite the costs of reconstructing the educational enterprise, engaged education would be educationally beneficial in the short-term and serve as a better adaptation to global and economic pressures in the long-term.
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