Author: Michael Hunter Schwartz
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Teaching Tidbit of the Week: Teaching Using Multiple-Choice Questions
In last week’s blog post identifying 11 teaching technique alternatives to Socratic-style questions and lectures, I promised that, among other things, I would create a post that explores teaching using multiple choice questions. This post explores four such uses, but I start with a recommendation. How Students Should Communicate Their Answers. Regardless of which of the four uses…
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How Students Justify Academic Dishonesty
Honorlock, How Students Justify Academic Dishonesty, June 25, 2026. For this article, you may want to make sure you read it while sitting down, perhaps with an excellent glass of wine, and definitely when you are in a good frame of mind. Below, I share two of the justifications the article articulates, which may encourage…
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Teaching Tidbit of the Week: (Beyond Questions and Lectures) Eleven Other Tools for the Teaching Toolbox
One facet of my efforts to promote excellent teaching and learning has been to support faculty who wish to expand their teaching techniques beyond simply asking Socratic-style questions every class. All class. Expanding one’s teaching repertoires engages students, improves learning, and, for me at least, keeps the class preparation experience challenging and stimulating. To be…
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Faculty Focus: Five Things I Wish I Knew My First Semester
Peter Szawranskyj (Faculty Focus), Five Things I Wish I Knew My First Semester (July 20, 2026). This article offers five excellent suggestions for new professors of all stripes. My first semester as a faculty member taught me something I wish I had understood on day one: most of the stress did not come from teaching…
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Cult of Pedagogy: The Art of Classroom Timing
Jennifer Gonzalez (Cult of Pedagogy), The Art of Classroom Timing: 10 Ways to Fit It All In (April 27, 2026) For most of my academic life as a student, I had observed classes ending in this way: The teacher or professor said, “I see our time is up. See you next time.” Then, I had…
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Teaching Tidbit of the Week: Two Exciting Ideas from Professor Mary Largent Purvis
This week’s blog feature re-introduces an intermittent feature of my contributions to this blog: teaching ideas from faculty colleagues. This week, I am featuring two ideas from Associate Dean/Professor Mary Largent Purvis of Mississippi College of Law. Professor Purvis presented these ideas in a memorable and inspiring presentation at this year’s Institute for Law Teaching and Learning…
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Edutopia, Five Tips to Address the Forgetting Curve
Edutopia, Boosting Student Memory. This very short video explains The Forgetting Curve and offers five tips for teachers to help their students remember. It’s a short video, but the ideas are supported by research and are good ones to adapt to law teaching.
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Schapiro, Tripepi, & Blackley: Reclaiming the Writing Process Using AI
Hannah M. Schapiro, Manuela Tripepi, Julia Blackley (Thomas Jefferson University), Reclaiming the Writing Process Using AI: A Scaffolded Writing Assignment That Promotes Critical Thinking, Reflection, and Assignment That Promotes Critical Thinking, Reflection, and Accountability (Thomas Jefferson University College of Life Sciences Faculty Papers, 4-30-2026). In this article, the authors offer an idea that would work…
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Garon, “Empathy by Design: Rethinking Law School Engagement for Critical Thinking in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”
Jon Garon (Nova Southeastern), Empathy by Design: Rethinking Law School Engagement for Critical Thinking in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, 57 ST. MARY’S L.J. 41 (2025). Professor Garon’s powerful introduction, excerpted in part below, introduces his insightful and convincing argument for redesigning legal education in the age of AI. Introduction . . . Treating law students…
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Teaching Tidbit of the Week: Plan Your Assessments Now
Most law professors plan their assessments a week or two before their exams are administered (depending on the due date given by the law school administration). This post articulates a counter-intuitive point: it is a best practice to plan your assessments as the second step in designing your courses, right after articulating your learning outcomes.…
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Teaching Tidbit of the Week: A Next-Gen Bar-Style Activity to Prepare Students for AI-Enhanced Law Practice
Two major challenges are hitting legal education at the same time: the NextGen Bar Exam and AI. Both feel threatening. This post offers an alternative to the natural human reactions to threats: fight, flight, or freeze. Instead, I propose combining the two, AI and a NextGen Bar testing format, to create a teaching tool for…
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Perlman: Generative AI and the Future of Legal Scholarship (June 2026 Edition)
Dean and Professor Andrew Perlman of Suffolk Law (but mostly Claude Fable 5 (Max)), Generative AI and the Future of Legal Scholarship (June 2026 Edition). Dean Perlman shares a law review article generated by Claude Fable 5 (Max) in less than an hour based on the following prompt: You are going to write a cutting-edge…
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Faculty Focus: Building Psychological Safety in College Classrooms Through Cooperative and Experiential Learning
Dr. Ana Figueroa (Faculty Focus), Building Psychological Safety in College Classrooms Through Cooperative and Experiential Learning (June 10, 2026). This article, filled with insights and evidentiary data from a study the author conducted. She persuasively explains how cooperative learning experiences and experiential learning can help create psychological safety for our students, which Dr. Figueroa defines…
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Teaching Tidbit of the Week: Take Your Model Answers to the Next Level with Cognitive Think-Alouds
This week’s teaching tidbit addresses a technique for helping your students grow their analytical skills after they have completed a formative assessment. Many law professors provide model answers or issue outlines for midterm essay exams so that their students get a clear understanding of expectations. Many others provide, with the students’ consent, the answers of…
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Faculty Focus: Where to Go From “I Don’t Know”: Building Trust Through Authenticity
Cassidy Downs, Faculty Focus, Where to Go From “I Don’t Know”: Building Trust Through Authenticity (May 15, 2026) In this terrific essay, Downs explores tools for responding to a student question when you do not know the answer. Her introduction sets us up well for reconsidering a moment most of us experience with anxiety. In…
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Teaching Tidbit: Respond to the Email You WISH Your Student Had Sent
This week’s teaching tidbit shares a lesson that Professor Susan Keller of Western State College of Law taught me. Professor Keller, my first law professor mentor, gave me brilliant advice for responding constructively to an angry student email. Professor Keller taught me to respond to the version of the email I wish the student had sent. Many…
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Teaching Tidbit: Write a Great Syllabus, Part II
This week’s teaching tidbit takes up where last week’s post left off. Both posts suggest ways you can draft syllabi that advance goals common among us, i.e., creating a welcoming, inclusive culture, encouraging students, advancing a culture of constructive disagreement, communicating our high expectations, and demonstrating our passion for our subjects and for student success.…
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Cult of Pedagogy: Growth Discourse
Jennifer Gonzalez, Cult of Pedagogy, Growth Discourse: A Framework for Discussing Hard Topics with Students (December 7, 2025). This article offers concrete suggestions for facilitating conversations about challenging topics drawing on the work of the School for Ethics and Global Leadership. It details four strategies for facilitating hard conversations: creating a community where all students…
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Edutopia: 28 Ways to Quickly Check for Understanding
Daniel Leonard, 28 Ways to Quickly Check for Understanding (May 19, 2024) The subheading offers a preview of the great ideas to follow: From sketching comics to drafting tweets, these fun—and fast—ways to check for understanding are creative and flexible. My four favorites are: asking students to write a six-word headline, create quiz questions, write…
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Teaching Tidbit of the Week: Write a Syllabus that Sets You Up for a Great Semester
This week’s and next week’s teaching tidbits focus on creating syllabi that advance goals common among us, i.e., creating a welcoming, inclusive culture, encouraging students, advancing a culture of constructive disagreement, communicating our high expectations, and demonstrating our passion for our subjects and for student success. In addition, as you might expect, these two tidbits…
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Teaching Tidbit: Read (or Ignore) My Teaching Philosophy
For this week’s post, I am rearticulating my teaching philosophy. Writing my teaching philosophy is more than an exercise for me. I am returning to the classroom full time this fall for the first time since 2013, and I am writing my teaching philosophy to center myself on my teaching values. I have been troubled…
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Cult of Pedagogy: How Unconditional Positive Regard Transforms Classrooms
Jennifer Gonzalez (Cult of Pedagogy), Nothing’s Going to Change My Mind: How Unconditional Positive Regard Transforms Classrooms (September 18, 2023). This article starts with acknowledging an issue that the author reports to be prevalent in K-12 education, but I must confess that I have seen it a lot in legal education, too. I worked with far…
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Edutopia: 16 Variations on Think-Pair-Share to Keep Students Engaged
Todd Finley (Edutopia), 16 Variations on Think-Pair-Share to Keep Students Engaged: Teachers and students use this classic learning strategy often. To keep it from getting stale, try these tweaks (December 6, 2024). In a Teaching Tidbit TaxProf Blog post, I explained why using a variety of teaching techniques increases engagement and enhances learning. At this…
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Cult of Pedagogy: How and Why to Use Concept Maps
Jennifer Gonzalez, Cult of Pedagogy, How and Why to Use Concept Maps (October 12, 2025). I have a new, rich addition to my resources on teaching and learning; it’s a website called Cult of Pedagogy. The referenced post explains how concept maps can strengthen and deepen students’ learning, particularly their understanding of the relationships among…
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Teaching Tidbit of the Week: Consider Becoming a Teaching and Learning Scholar
As a young professor, my first two scholarship works were (at best) mediocre imitations of the brilliant scholarly work of my first mentor. I was struggling to enjoy and complete my work. Then, by random luck, I discovered that I could more directly align my passion for student learning and for teaching with my scholarly…