Here’s another summary of info from the Legal Educators’ Committee’s program entitled Law Professors’ Forum: Mediation Shop Talk, which was part of last month’s ABA DR Section’s annual meeting in New York.  The Forum was split into three separate presentations: a general “plenary” session, the notes for which Andrea posted on May 9th, a clinical section devoted to issues of grading in mediation clinics, and a “schtick” program for lecture style mediation classes. 

What follows are the notes for the session on grading in mediation clinics.  My thanks to Darshan Brach at Hastings for forwarding the notes and for acting as a co-facilitator for the session along with Jim Levin from Missouri.

The following are ideas and thoughts captured from the Session on Law Student Assessment at the end of the LEC, with some editorial additions. 

Criteria for Student Assessment

–         Transparency – criteria clear to students

–         Meets articulated teaching goals

–         Ensures “fairness”

–         Helps students to learn

–         System is manageable for professors

*See also Chapter 7, “Best Practices for Assessing Student Learning”, Carnegie Foundation, Stuckey and others (2006).

 

What do we assess?

Skills:

–         Observable mediative skills (simulation/fieldwork)

–         Improvement

–         Effort

–         Professionalism

 

Classroom Participation and Theory:

–         Frequency of class participation

–         Quality of class participation (theoretical understanding, depth of analysis, uniqueness of insights)

 

Written Submissions:

–         Writing quality – clarity, organization, grammar

–         Understanding of theory and learning goals

–         Depth of analysis

–         Uniqueness of insight

 

Individual or Group Projects

–         Input quality and quantity

–         Collaboration skills

 

Presentations

–         Student effectiveness in conveying ideas/learning goals

–         Organization, structure effectiveness (evidence of planning/preparation)

 

Other

–         Ability to listen to and follow instructions

–         reflectiveness

Methods of Assessment

–         Instructor evaluation

–         Peer evaluation

–         Objective/third party evaluator

–         Party (mediation) evaluations

 

Specific Assessment Tools Used by Participants

–         Each student required to teach one of the classes on the syllabus

–         Students read DR theory and write paper on what type of mediator they want to be

–         Case studies

–         “Time capsule” – individual student videos at beginning of semester assessed by student at end

–         Peer evaluation of videos where evaluator is evaluated

–         Assessment criteria tied to categories of behavior (to stay away from assessment of personal characteristics)

–         Student identification of personal learning goals with self evaluation at end of term/class

–   Performance and feedback