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Abstract

When I tell colleagues that I am using journals in my classes, I usually get a quizzical look and then the question: "You mean law reviews?" "No," I say, "I mean journals, like diaries, only more public." My colleagues' lack of familiarity with the use of journals is no reflection on their professional reading habits. In fact, the literature on legal education contains only a few scattered references to journal writing by law students. Even among these references, there is no discussion of the contributions from learning theory that support the use of journals, no critical examination of the relative costs and benefits of the practice, and no exploration of the practical challenges inherent in their use. This absence of academic dialogue on the use of journals in the literature on legal education is remarkable for several reasons. First, the use of journals as a pedagogical tool enjoys over two thousand years of recorded history. Second, our colleagues in other academic disciplines have been using journals extensively and there is much to learn from their analysis and experience. Third, journals are used extensively in some areas of legal education, notably in conjunction with externship programs. This Article demonstrates that the journal is a pedagogical tool worthy of more explicit attention by both clinical law teachers and non-clinical faculty alike. It introduces some of the literature on critical thinking and learning theory that supports the assignment of journals as an important tool in legal education; it provides a starting point for articulating pedagogical goals that can be met through journal assignments; and it alerts the first-time user to the challenges inherent in the use of journals in legal education. But first things first. My answer to my colleagues is obviously incomplete; just what is a journal and how does it work?

Publication Title

Clinical Law Review

Volume

3

Issue

1

First Page

55

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