Numerous studies have shown that when classroom participation depends on volunteers, male students speak more often. The solution, three University of Virginia professors explain in a new paper focused on law school classes — is to call on students systematically, and with care.
Written and conducted by UVA Law professors Molly Bishop Shadel and J.H. “Rip” Verkerke, and Associate Professor Sophie Trawalter of UVA’s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, the study suggests that instructors can employ various tactics in their classes to achieve more balanced levels of engagement. Gender differences in classroom participation are not related to confidence levels, as popular culture often suggests, but to curricular design, they argue.
The authors presented the results of their paper, “Gender Differences in Law School Classroom Participation: The Key Role of Social Context,” at the Virginia Law Review Online symposium “Interrogating Legal Pedagogy: Imagining a Better Way to Train Lawyers” in February.
“We care about all of this because speaking is power,” said Shadel, who teaches public speaking classes at the Law School. “That is true in our society; it is absolutely true in the practice of law. You have to be able to speak up in order to represent a client, in order to claim value.”
Verkerke, who has reengineered his own classrooms over the years to experiment with different teaching tools and kinds of engagement, said the studies’ results support the idea that a...
News movies korean Earlier this year, Kim Soo-Hyun was cleared of all allegations and YouTuber Kim Se-Ui was accused of spreading false claims against the actor through YouTube broadcasts. South Ko...