Introduction: Family court review special issue dynamic pedagogy in the family and juvenile law classroom: Experiential and in‐class exercises

• Published date: 01 October 2022
• Author: Meredith Johnson Harbach,Naomi Cahn
• Date: 01 October 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12665

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Introduction: Family court review special issue

dynamic pedagogy in the family and juvenile law

classroom: Experiential and in-class exercises

Meredith Johnson Harbach | Naomi Cahn

Over the last number of years, the legal academy has placed increasing emphasis on the need to diversify teaching

methods, and in particular, has focused on expanding in-class, experiential teaching methods. Educational research

confirms that learning experientially has multiple benefits for adult learners, including better retention of material,

the ability to explore a more diverse range of representation contexts, the development and use of a broader range

of analytical skills, and an emphasis professional collaboration and growth.

1

Consistent with this evolution of the

scholarship on teaching and learning in law school, ABA Standard 303(a)(3) requires all students to complete “one or

more experiential course(s) totaling at least six credit hours.”

2

This growing recognition has increased demand for

experiential learning courses and clinics at law schools, and presents opportunities for innovative teaching and com-

munity partnerships.

Alongside this (r)evolution in how we teach our students, we have also increasingly come to realize that our

responsibility to teach all students effectively and according to best practices requires additional commitments: to

designing inclusive classroom environments in which all students can learn and thrive; to creating spaces in which

our students can critically evaluate their roles as lawyers; to collaborating with community partners to effect change

in the real world; and to bringing in and engaging with multiple disciplines and perspectives as we design and teach

our courses.

This Special Issue explores existing—and creative—visions for engaging experiential learning in service of these

goals. The volume builds on programming offered by the Section on Family and Juvenile law at the Association of

American Law School's Annual Meeting in January 2021, including several presenters from that programming, as well

as bringing in additional voices. Our authors include both veteran and newer teachers, who teach in clinics and

casebook-focused classrooms, in courses on family law, children and the law, legal writing, and clinical practice. The

articles in this volume provide a rich array of course design, exercises, techniques, and perspectives on possible ways

to teach and what might be taught. They also provide thoughtful, introspective reflections on the craft of teaching,

and on our continuing obligation to design courses and content that serve all students, and enable them to develop

and thrive professionally in service to our communities.

1

See Peggy Cooper Davis, et al., Making Law Students Healthy, Skillful, and Wise, 56 N.Y.L. Sch. Law Rev. 487 (2012).

2

AMERICAN BAR ASSN., STANDARDS AND RULES OF PROCEDURE FOR APPROVAL OF LAW SCHOOLS 303(a)(3)) (2022).

DOI: 10.1111/fcre.12665

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which

permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no

modifications or adaptations are made.

© 2022 The Authors. Family Court Review published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Association of Family and Conciliation

Courts.

Family Court Rev. 2022;60:611–612. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fcre 611