The pandemic produced two therapeutic updates for UW Law. The school became one of the first law schools in the U.S. to provide mental health counseling to students with an in-house therapist on staff. Legal writing professors also integrated therapeutic principles into their classroom teaching.
Most law professors, unlike primary and secondary teachers, are not trained in psychological principles. Legal teaching can be stressful and rigid to students facing a complex world.
In this three-minute legal talk, associate teaching professor Mireille Butler addresses how professors can teach legal writing more effectively using therapeutic principles for classroom learning. Principles for legal education include: respecting the prior knowledge of students, validating student achievement, setting transparent boundaries and providing collaborative support with active listening.
