Inspiring Students and Facilitating Learning

The Institute for Law School Teaching is pleased to announce that its next conference -- "Inspiring Students and Facilitating Learning" -- will take place on June 2-3 in Chicago. The conference will be co-sponsored and hosted by IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law and will include workshops on, among other things:

A. Inspiring Students

How do we as teachers motivate students to want to learn (as opposed to merely get a good grade or prepare for the bar exam)?

B. Learning by Doing: Service Learning & Field Observation

A discussion of how to incorporate into courses a service learning component or observations of the real world and the people in it. Such discussion will also deal with the benefits to students of such experiential learning.

C. Facilitating Learning in Small Groups

A discussion of what teachers can do to facilitate learning in small groups outside the classroom. Such groups may be used anywhere along a long continuum of activities: anywhere from completing an assigned and graded project to functioning as an informal study group. A component of such discussion will be how to teach students to be effective teachers to their peers.

D. Metacognition: Getting Students to Think About How They Learn

A discussion of what teachers can do to assist students in thinking about how they learn and how to learn.

E Tapping Creativity to Aid Visual Learning

A discussion of what teachers can do to assist students in synthesizing information by getting them to create charts, illustrations, and other visual displays.

F Learning by Doing: Drafting Exercises and Simulations

A discussion of how to incorporate drafting exercises and simulations into courses along with the benefits to students of such experiential learning.

The Institute is eager to have additional workshops and presentations on topics related to the conference theme and will waive the conference registration fee for workshop facilitators and presenters. Teachers interested in facilitating such a workshop or making such a presentation should send a proposal to Professor Stephen L. Sepinuck, Co-director, Institute for Law School Teaching, at ssepinuck@lawschool.gonzaga.edu. Please indicate in the proposal whether you would prefer 45 or 75 minutes for the workshop or presentation.

Stephen L. Sepinuck

Professor of Law

Gonzaga University School of Law

P.O. Box 3528

Spokane, WA 99220

(509) 323-6379

(509) 323-5840 (fax)

ssepinuck@lawschool.gonzaga.edu