In this article, the author shares his thoughts on being a "scholarly" teacher. He points out that engaging in scholarly activity, which includes publishing as well as other ways to engage with relevant research, like reviewing and editing for journals, can lead to better teaching. This sort of scholarly commitment allows an instructor to maintain…

The transition into academia from law school or legal practice is a significant and exciting shift in one's legal career. This transition, however, can also be one that presents numerous challenges. Preparing a syllabus and drafting lecture material can seem like a daunting task. Writing an academic article for the first time involves learning a…

Beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s, higher education was swept up in the theoretical phenomena of mastery learning, cooperative learning, and small-group learning. Professors, instructors, and teachers at the K-12 level became facilitators, guides, supervisors, counselors, and advocates for all things team and group. The thought of a…

In this article, the author shares his thoughts about teaching. He says in every class teachers enter, during every conversation they have, through everything they do, they should strive to create the environment that allows learning to occur. How they decide what is "worthwhile" is too complex for a simple prescription. Teachers must exercise…

In Academic Year 2010-11, the author's 25th year in the undergraduate classroom at Loyola University Maryland, a confluence of circumstances renewed her interest in motivation, "the level of enthusiasm and the degree to which students invest attention and effort in learning." She became interested in motivation because, that year, she experienced…

This essay encapsulates the author's perspective on how average professors can become highly effective professors. The author asserts that the secret rests in the ability to genuinely connect with students. Connecting really matters--even if it takes some personality adaptation and thrusts academics out of their comfort zones. Many professors fail…

Excellent professors do not teach subjects or classes; they teach students. Although innovative exercises and teaching techniques are critical to, and enhance, student learning, they are not substitutes for "caring and seeing with the heart" as described by Flavia. Excellent teaching can be found "in the attitudes of the teachers, in their faith…

In the online environment, students and instructors are virtually, but not physically, present in the same environment. In the online environment, technology mediates learning: it mediates communications and information transfer between the student and the instructor, between the student and the content, and among the students. Critics fear that…

In this article, the author reflects on her continual journal in regard to improving her teaching skills. She opines that this journey is a story that could resonate with other colleagues to whom teaching is also critically important but to whom it does not come naturally. She describes lessons she learned in her early years of teaching, and she…

Legal studies faculty need to take the long view in their academic and professional lives. Taking the long view would seem to be a cliched piece of advice, but too frequently legal studies faculty, like their students, get focused on meeting the next short-term hurdle--getting through the next class, grading the next stack of papers, making it…

The author began teaching at the University of Oklahoma in the late 1970s. In this article, the author shares two memories of those times on campus. The first was looking out his office window and seeing Iranian students marching on campus, shouting, "The Shah is a Fascist Pig." The second memory provoked this paper. It made the author reflect…

In September 2006, the Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education released its final report entitled "A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education" postulating that graduates today are lacking important skills such as reading, writing, problem solving, and critical thinking. In the field of…

This article discusses the tensions between the federal government and the states in several areas in modern commerce where consumers and business have competing interests. First the article discusses traditional approaches to express preemption and the constitutional and economic policy behind its uses by Congress. Even when Congress expressly…

Colleges and universities long ago made the necessary accommodations and structural changes necessary to allow students with physical impairments to attend and eventually complete their studies. Students with physical impairments enjoy a full range of accommodations. However, the issues of disability and accommodation continue to evolve as more…

A widespread deeply held belief by law professors is that law reviews are unfairly prejudiced and biased in favor of papers from authors at higher ranked, or more prestigious, institutions. This article was born out of a desire to test a belief held by law professors that those individuals who have positions at higher ranked law schools receive…