In a previous post I discussed the research that WVU Law’s Director of Academic Excellence, Grace Wigal had presented regarding Millennials. It was a fascinating presentation to listen to because it shed light, from a generational perspective, on some of the tools that I has used in teaching this group and how they were received. In this post I will explore two of the characteristics that Grace discussed: their confidence and team oriented nature. In the next post, I will discuss two others: They’re goal oriented and conventional (conservative) nature.
They’re Confident:
The courses that I teach at the College of Law are part of the law school’s business curriculum. In the fall, I teach Business Organizations and a Corporate Governance Seminar. In the Spring, I teach Securities Regulation and International Business Transactions. My Business Organizations course (which many students treat as a required course since it is tested on most bar exams) is by far the largest class I teach in the year. Last year, I had approximately 75 students. This year I have close to that number: approximately 70. What has surprised me more is the sheer confidence that students have when presenting a case or questioning a legal issue. There are always a core group of students who speak up in class and present their ideas. What impresses me about them is that, even if they are on the completely wrong track, or give the wrong answer to a question – they are undeterred; they simply pick themselves up and do it again.
Contrast this with an experience a classmate of mine had when he was in law school (approximately fifteen years ago). He remembers vividly being called on in 1st year contracts to present a case and, being devastated when the teacher dismissed his analysis. Here’s the thing – my friend traces that one single event to his poor performance in law school. That one experience destroyed his confidence and he feels he never recovered. In fact, I remember the day it happened and indeed, my friend truly never was the same after that.
Now does my friend’s experience exemplify our generation’s lack of relative confidence? Perhaps not, but I was a fairly outspoken person in law school and I can still remember being terrified at the thought of being unprepared, particularly in a class the size of mine. Certainly, if I had been summarily dismissed by a professor I would not have immediately jumped back on the horse and volunteered again in the same class period. So, this does seem to be a change and, welcome at that – makes me think that these group of students will be more likely than a generation ago to separate their failings in class from their value as a law student.
They’re Team-Oriented:
Based on what Grace has said in her research, these groups of students are team-oriented: they have taken to heart George Bush’s mantra – no child should be left behind. By inference, group activities would seem to go over better with this group of students than with others. I have seen that borne out in my own experiences with my Business Organizations class. One of the components of my class is that in addition to the doctrinal issues, I have my students complete various drafting exercises based on what we learn, so that they have a practical application for some of the doctrinal issues that we cover. The students draft partnership agreements, bylaws, shareholder proposals etc… Last year, I had my students complete each of these assignments individually. This year, on the advice of one of my students, I turned these into group assignments. So far, they have only completed one, but the feedback that I received from the class was exceedingly positive (in contrast to the feedback I received last year which was lukewarm at best). Now maybe it’s just that they could divide the work between many people this year – but I truly don’t think that’s it. Rather, it seems like focusing on this assignment in groups allowed them to delve more deeply into the issues implicated by the drafting exercise and really think about the implications for what a partnership agreement would look like. Going over what they handed in was one of the best classes I had this semester.
So what have your experiences been? If you’re a student, do you agree with team-oriented exercises? If you’re a professor, do you think that this approach works? I would be particularly interested in hearing from business school professors, who have long employed group methods along with case-studies in their classroom.
No comments:
Post a Comment