What Did They Know and When Did They Know it? Pretesting and Assessing Learning Outcomes

23 Pages Posted: 7 Apr 2017

See all articles by Jeffrey Lynch Harrison

Jeffrey Lynch Harrison

University of Florida Levin College of Law

Date Written: April 7, 2017

Abstract

Are legal rules intuitive or, at least, consistent with common sense? In this study, 260 law students at five law schools who had not taken contract law, were presented with eight questions based on specific contracts cases or common contracts issues. They were asked what they felt was the fair or right answer to each question and to formulate the rule they would apply. The purposes of the study were to 1) determine whether contract law is what the untrained person believes it is or should be and 2) experiment with a strategy of pretesting to determine what topics within any course deserve special attention during a semester.

Keywords: contracts, instruction, teaching, pretesting

Suggested Citation

Harrison, Jeffrey Lynch, What Did They Know and When Did They Know it? Pretesting and Assessing Learning Outcomes (April 7, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2948583 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2948583

Jeffrey Lynch Harrison (Contact Author)

University of Florida Levin College of Law ( email )

P.O. Box 117625
Gainesville, FL 32611-7625
United States

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