Frank: To me teaching legal research is a lot like teaching a
foreign language or any other skill in which the learner has
no substantive background. He or she still has a brain and can
absorb a certain limited amount of information to begin with,
so that's where you start. You limit the concepts that you
intend to teach and you teach those well. Then, later, you
build on them and you keep building at every opportunity until
the person can carry on by teaching himself or herself. In an
ideal situation you would link legal research with some
first year class just like you link chemistry lecture with a
chemistry lab or French class with daily sessions in the
language lab. In second year, you would teach something else,
more sophisticated and linked to some advanced course the
students were taking. For the writing requirement or a
law review note, you would teach even more difficult and
specific (the legal research for a foreign jurisdiction, for
example, or something arcane in tax law). I don't know of
anyone who does things this way , teaching legal research
on a regular basis for all three years, and introducing
new skills every year, but I've always wanted to try it.
Anyway, just my thoughts...
-- C. A. Corcos CWRU Law School Cleveland, OH 44106 USA cac2@po.cwru.edu
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