Michael Hunter Schwartz
"Best Law Teachers"
Conference at Washburn
In either Fall of 2009 or Fall of 2010, I hope to organize a conference at Washburn about the project. I will invite subjects to talk about their teaching and ask them to allow class sessions to be videotaped so conference participants can analyze and discuss what makes these teachers so effective. I also will share my research results to date and encourage participants to discuss themes they perceive in those results.
Project Investigator
Professor Michael Hunter Schwartz
Washburn University School of Law
1700 SW College Ave., Room 309
Topeka, KS 66621
(785) 670-1666
michael.schwartz [at] washburn.edu
What the Best Law Teachers Do
Introduction
Having signed a contract with Harvard University Press to publish What the Best Law Teachers Do in 2011, I have the extraordinary opportunity to conduct a law professor-focused, follow-up study to Ken Bain's wonderful What the Best College Teachers Do (Harvard University Press, 2004).
I have three goals:
- to find the best law teachers in America,
- to synthesize the principles by which they teach as an ethic to which I (and my colleagues in legal education) can aspire, and
- to share these principles and stories of these brilliant teachers.
I hope what I produce inspires you as much as Bain's work has inspired me. I have adopted Bain's qualitative methodology. I will
- solicit nominations,
- gather evidence of nominees' excellence,
- pare the list to the most extraordinary law teachers, and then
- visit law schools around the country, sitting in on classes, interviewing the nominees, and talking to focus groups of students and alumni.
I hope to complete my research over the next two and a half years, producing What the Best Law Teachers Do by January 2011.
On this web site, you will find
- a more detailed description of my project,
- an online form for submitting nominations,
- a list of nominees and what their nominators had to say about them,
- information about the teaching and learning resources that influenced this project,
- some information about my interest in teaching and learning, and
- additional information about this project.
Project Investigator
Professor Michael Hunter Schwartz
Washburn University School of Law
1700 SW College Ave., Room 309
Topeka, KS 66621
(785) 670-1666
michael.schwartz [at] washburn.edu
