Hindsight is 20/20: Finding Teachable Moments in the Extraordinary and Applying Them to the Ordinary

63 Pages Posted: 1 Feb 2013 Last revised: 16 Feb 2024

Date Written: January 20, 2013

Abstract

Service learning opportunities that offer social justice-oriented learning through disaster response have been found to be a highly effective and transformative experience for both students and professors. The author’s recent experience with law students in the south of Israel during a time of turmoil resulted in significant learning for students in the areas of social justice orientation, empathy, reflective skills, and professional identity development, as well as for the author in her approach to, and implementation and evaluation of, clinical teaching. However, student participation in these types of experiences often is restricted due to enrollment limits, cost concerns, and the juggling of school, work and home life responsibilities required to engage in travel. This article proposes that clinical professors, through clinical pedagogy, can translate many of the extraordinary teachable moments that arise in the service-learning model to more ordinary clinical experiences and thereby enhance student learning.

Keywords: service learning, social justice, empathy, professional identity, modeling, self-disclosure, disorienting moments, reflection, trauma, leadership

Suggested Citation

Rosen Valverde, Jennifer, Hindsight is 20/20: Finding Teachable Moments in the Extraordinary and Applying Them to the Ordinary (January 20, 2013). NYLS Clinical Research Institute Paper No. 25/2013, Rutgers School of Law-Newark Research Paper No. 126, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2208601 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2208601

Jennifer Rosen Valverde (Contact Author)

Rutgers U. School of Law-Newark ( email )

Newark, NJ
United States

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