I recently read an article that nicely brings together advice about teaching law school courses from neuroscience and psychology. The article is: Deepening The Discourse Using The Legal Mind’s Eye: Lessons from Neuroscience and Psychology that Optimize Law School Learning by Hillary Burgess, 29 Quinnipiac L. Rev. 1 (2011). The article summarizes the research on teaching and retention of information from neuroscience, cognitive psychologists, and educational psychologists. It recommends more use of visual aids and visual exercises and gives a number of examples of what those exercises and aids could look like in the context of law school courses. Due to all the fancy charts and visuals in the article, I suggest you get a copy of it in the original format and not just the text version readily available on Westlaw or LexisNexis.

The article is probably most useful to those who teach doctrinal courses as it gives some very clear examples of how to better incorporate visuals aids into such classes. I have never thought of myself as a chart or graph person and have not included very many in my classes (aside from a snazzy chart on the spectrum of dispute resolution processes). But, this article convinced me that I should rethink that and start including those types of visual aids into my first year Criminal Law class. This article is also a quick and good read to help get you motivated for the beginning of a new school year (for those who might still be in shock that the summer is coming to an end so soon…).