Washburn Law Hosts Chilean Law Professors

Four Chilean law professors are visiting Washburn University School of Law Jan. 22-27 as part of a two-week immersion into American law school teaching methods. The project is part of the work of the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning (ILTL), which is dedicated to the improvement of law teaching and learning, assessment, and curriculum design in the United States and abroad. Visiting the law school are Professors Gabriel Bocksang, Nicolás Cobo, Carolina Larrain, and Raúl Madrid.

The Chilean professors will begin their visit at Washburn, where they will be introduced to interactive teaching methods with a focus on what the best law teachers do, best practices for Socratic-style questioning, and cooperative learning. Washburn Law professors will introduce the visitors to free writing, cognitive think-alouds, classroom assessment techniques, discovery sequence instruction, integrated learning strategies instruction, in-class instant messaging, and simulations and linking to real life. The benefits of multi-modal teaching will also be discussed. At the end of the week, the visiting professors will practice their new skills by teaching simulated classes.

The Chilean law professors will then spend a week at Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane, Wash., to focus on assessment.

Washburn Law and Gonzaga University School of Law co-host the ILTL, and Michael Hunter Schwartz, law professor and association dean for faculty and academic development at Washburn Law, is the co-director.

For more photos, visit the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning on Facebook.

Posted January 25, 2012.