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Institutes & Centers > The Center for Legal Pedagogy > On-Going Research
The primary research aim of the Center is to investigate fundamental questions
about how legal knowledge is organized and how the cognitive processes that accompany
legal knowledge develop with learning and experience.
Each school year, the Center measures incoming law-school students’ skills
and abilities through a battery of diagnostic tests including:
- The Learning and Study Strategy Inventory (LASSI) –
a measure of the student’s motivation, concentration, time management,
information processing, main idea selection, self-monitoring, use of study
aids, and test-taking strategies;
- The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal – a
measure of the student’s inference-making skills, including assumption
recognition, deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, and argument evaluation;
- The Kolb Learning Style Inventory – a measure of
the student’s primary and secondary learning preferences to determine
the student’s learning profile(s) for sensing, thinking, reflecting,
and acting; and
- The Legal Writing Diagnostic Exam – a measure of
how effectively students communicate a formal essay to a specified audience
for a stated purpose and how effectively students observe the standard conventions
of formal writing, grammar, syntax, usage, and mechanics.
In addition to collecting and analyzing data, the Center reports on the collected
data, making the data available to law school faculty members through a series
of reports to enable the faculty to better mentor students, pursue teaching
methodologies, and plan teaching innovations and interventions.
<link to LASSI Report>
<link to Watson Glaser Report>
<link to Kolb Report>
<link to Writing Diagnostic Report>
Utilizing the data collected, the Center advises and assists students in identifying
areas in which students can benefit most from educational interventions.
And, in addition to providing reliable pre-test and post-test data for faculty
research and scholarship about teaching innovations and interventions, the Center
engages in on-going research to develop new test instruments and test batteries
that the law school may use for determining instructional outcomes assessment.
As part of its continuing research, the Center is also engaged in conducting
two major educational studies:
- The Bar Passage Study – an examination of the LSAT,
UGPA, INDEX, Second and Third Year Required Course Performance, and Third-Year
LSGPA as predictors of TMSL bar performance.
- The Diagnostic Correlation Study – an examination
of the validity of the LSAT, UGGPA, INDEX, LSI, LASSI, Watson Glaser, and
the Legal Writing Diagnostic Exam.
As part of the law school’s overall strategic plan, the results from these
studies are designed to assist the faculty in developing an outcomes assessment
to demonstrate the effectiveness of instruction. Additionally, the results are
designed to assist the faculty in enhancing the law school’s curriculum
as certificate programs and concentrations of electives in fields are developed,
and joint degree programs are proposed.
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