TEACHING LAW EFFECTIVELY WITH THE SOCRATIC METHOD: THE CASE FOR A PSYCHODYNAMIC METACOGNITION OTIS GRANTt
I. INTRODUCTION.......................................399 II. THE SOCRATIC METHOD...............................401
A.
The SocraticMethod.............................401
B. Applying the Socratic Method... ................... 402 III. METACOGNITION......................................403
A.
Metacognition
.........................
........... 403 404 406 406 B. Psychodynamic learningtheory ......................... 407 C. Psychodynamic metacognition.. ...................... 409 V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ................................ 414
B. Metacognition can be Taught ................. ..... IV. PSYCHODYNAMIC PSYCHOLOGY ..................... ..... A. Psychodynamic psychology ............................
I.
INTRODUCTION
In American legal education, the Socratic Method, in some form or another, has been the predominant teaching tool since the advent of the modem law school.' The Socratic Method teaches students the capacity to think through and unravel fact patterns, the ability not to accept the opinions of others without review and reflection, the talent to make a searching analysis of a group of facts and disclose the legal problem involved, enough imagination to discover possible solutions, ... and the courage to form and then act upon their own judgment.2 t
Otis Grant is the Director of the Center for Law and Strategy.
1.
Jeffrey D. Jackson, Socrates and Langdell in Legal Writing: Is the Socratic Method a ProperToolfor Legal Writing Courses?, 43 CAL. W. L. REv. 267, 267 (2007). 2. Cynthia G. Hawkins-Le6n, The Socratic Method-Problem Method Dichotomy: The Debate Over Teaching Method Continues, 1998 BYU EDUC. & L.J. 1, 14 (1998) (footnotes omitted). See Bernard J. Ward, The Problem Method at Notre Dame, 11 J. LEGAL EDUC. 100,
399