I am extremely fortunate that Rafael Gely, the director of Missouri’s Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution, has been my partner in developing the Stone Soup Project. A year ago, when I first emailed him about it, the subject line was “a crazy idea?” Rafael’s immediate response was, “I love this idea! (Of … Continue reading Stone Soup Assessment: Rafael Gely’s Negotiation Course
Much legal education in the US is like telling someone how to ride a bike or having them read an instruction manual. It’s important, but most people wouldn’t get very far if that’s all you did. You could simply give them a bike and tell them to go, but that could lead to some … Continue reading Stone Soup Assessment: Bob Dauber’s Evidence Course
Stacey-Rae Simcox, who is director of Stetson’s Veteran’s Advocacy Clinic, used a Stone Soup assignment in her Trusts & Estates course. This is a great illustration of how faculty can use Stone Soup in almost any law school course, not just traditional ADR courses. As an extra-credit assignment, 45 out of 67 students conducted … Continue reading Stone Soup Assessment: Stacey-Rae Simcox’s Trusts & Estates Course
In June, Rafael Gely and I, the co-directors of the Stone Soup Project, decided to shift our approach from our original plan of a centralized database to a decentralized set of experimental efforts to produce knowledge about actual practice – aka letting a thousand chefs cook. I recently talked with many of the faculty who … Continue reading Stone Soup: A Thousand Great Chefs
Recently, Susan Yates and I conducted mediation trainings on behalf of the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Judicial Branch Office of Mediation and Arbitration, and the University of New Hampshire, School of Law. As part of the trainings, we collected survey data and focus-group-like comments from … Continue reading Takeaways From New Hampshire Mediation Training
Recently, Susan Yates and I conducted mediation trainings on behalf of the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Judicial Branch Office of Mediation and Arbitration, and the University of New Hampshire, School of Law. As part of the trainings, we collected survey data and focus-group-like comments from … Continue reading Stone Soup: Model for Gathering Data at Continuing Education Programs
We all say that preparation is important – it’s more popular than mom and apple pie – but we have only vague ideas about how people actually consider possible alternatives. This includes the negotiators themselves. We sometimes list general factors or approaches, but usually that’s as far as we get. I will go out on … Continue reading Stone Soup: Learning How People Actually Prepare for Negotiation and Mediation
Out of the blue, I got an email from a student at my university who I had never met. She said that her best friend is graduating from college this month and will start law school in the fall. As a graduation present, she is collecting letters with advice for her friend and she asked … Continue reading Letter to Kelly
University of Michigan Education Professor Susan Dynarski wrote a compelling article in the New York Times, Laptops Are Great. But Not During a Lecture or a Meeting. She cites research finding that when students use laptops in class, they not only reduce their own learning, but they also reduce the learning of nearby students. The … Continue reading Are You Ready to Apply Unequivocal Research Findings That Students’ Use of Laptops in Class Reduces Learning?
If so, you have a lot of company. Having reviewed negotiation publications and listened to colleagues, I can confidently assert that most of us grossly misuse the term “BATNA.” This is one of my pet peeves, which drives me crazy – an admittedly short excursion. I discussed this in my top-notch post, BATNA, MLATNA – … Continue reading Do You Use “BATNA” Wrong?
