In Teaching Law by Design: Engaging Students from the Syllabus to the Final Exam (new edition forthcoming 2026—any day now), my co-authors, Gerry Hess, Sophie Sparrow, Olympia Duhart and I identify eleven elements of effective teaching. Below, I identify each of the eleven and offer a short explanation of each. I have addressed some of these topics in prior posts; most of the others will be in addressed in greater depth in future posts.
Subject Matter Expertise. Effective teaching is more than technique or relationship; it also requires that the professor know the subject very well.
Respect. Past posts have addressed all the ways we can manifest respect, including learning students’ names and interests, assuming students are doing their best given their circumstances, etc.
Expectations. High expectations as a teaching concept has two components: (1) giving students challenging tasks that require them to stretch and grow, and (2) communicating an unequivocal belief that each student can accomplish those challenging tasks.
Support. This element is met when, among other things, we show up early to class and stay after to answer student questions, warmly welcome students when they knock on our doors (even outside of office hours), and privately check in on them when they appear to be struggling.
Passion. This element includes passion for the subject (even if you do not teach Contracts and Remedies, the two best subjects to teach in law school!) and passion for students’ learning.
Preparation. One of the teachers we studied for What the Best Law Teachers Do would start preparing her bankruptcy class at 4:00 am on the days she taught at 1:00 pm. Two of the people we studied read every case they taught three times, once as a student, once as a practicing lawyer, and once as a law professor. Two other professors reached out to the lawyers who handled the cases they taught to get inside information about the cases.
Variety. This past post for this blog details the value of using a variety of teaching methods.
Active Learning. When your students are talking, writing, asking or answering questions, or interacting with each other, they are engaged in active learning.
Collaboration. This past teaching tidbit post and this past teaching tidbit post detail the keys to effective cooperative learning groups and types of cooperative learning group structures.
Clarity. The keys to clarity include roadmaps (where the course and the class session are heading), review, repetition, examples, and visuals.
Formative Feedback. Students learn when their professors help them understand, via feedback that is specific, timely, supportive, and explanatory, how to improve.
