SECOND GEORGETOWN SUMMER INSTITUTE ON CLINICAL TEACHING

Georgetown Law Associate Dean Deborah Epstein has provided more details on the second Summer Institute on Clinical Teaching:

On June  22-25,  2009, Georgetown University Law Center will hold  its second Summer Institute on Clinical Teaching.  During this four-day, intensive workshop on our campus, we will help clinicians with more than 5 years of experience improve their teaching and supervision through plenary sessions, hands-on work, and individualized feedback.

The Institute will be open to 21 participants.  All selected participants will be required to submit, in advance:

1.  A videotape/DVD of a clinical event on which you would like to get help and feedback; or

2.  A class plan that you will be willing to conduct with your small group during the Institute; as well as

3.  A written description of a difficult problem you have encountered as a clinical teacher.  We will attempt to develop effective ways to handle the issues raised.

4.  A short biography of your life as a clinician

5.  A description of your program

If possible, please also submit:

1.  Something you use in your clinic (an exercise, requirement, technique, etc.) that you have liked and are willing to share; AND.

2.  Your grading rubric, if you have one.

There will be no registration fee for the Institute.  Georgetown will provide the majority of meals throughout the workshop period, and those who wish to stay in the Law Center’s dormitory apartments may do so at low cost.

If you would like to participate, please complete the  application form  attached to the end of this message.

Faculty will include:

Muneer Ahmad -- American; Jane Aiken – Georgetown; Sameer Ashar -- CUNY; Sue Bryant – CUNY; John Copacino – Georgetown; Deborah Epstein – Georgetown; Conrad Johnson -- Columbia; Catherine Klein -- Catholic; Elliott Millstein – American; Wally Mlyniec -- Georgetown; Ann Shalleck – American; Abbe Smith -- Georgetown; Grant Wiggins – President, Authentic Education

Why an Intensive Institute?

In the fall  of 2008, in response to a clinic listserv discussion about fellowship programs, I posted a description of the Clinical Pedagogy course that the Georgetown faculty teaches for our clinical teaching fellows.  I was overwhelmed by the response.  Clinicians around the country, most of whom had been teaching for 5-15 years, sent messages saying they wished they could enroll in the class.  It struck me that there are few, if any, opportunities for experienced clinicians to sit back and reflect on their pedagogical choices.  The annual May AALS Clinical Section conference can be wonderful, but our community has become so large that there is little room, even in the conference’s small groups, for sustained focus on individual challenges.

Wally Mlyniec, Jane Aiken, and I began discussing what role Georgetown could play in meeting this need.  We decided to launch this program -- the Georgetown Summer Institute on Clinical Teaching – with the goal of helping a small group (approximately 21) of experienced clinicians rethink and refine their teaching and supervision methods. 

Our Goals

The Institute will offer participants the chance:

*  To clarify our goals as clinical teachers, ensure that our teaching methods are consistent with our goals, and identify potential new goals and approaches to re-energize our teaching.

*  To improve our listening skills so as to identify opportunities for learning as they arise during the student’s clinical experience.  We will investigate classic problems that arise in clinic that get in the way of our teaching and learning, including approaches to difficult conversations with students, teaching about cultural difference without assuming a majority audience, as well as unique problems brought by participants to the Institute. 

*  To develop strategies for purposeful learning in our direct supervision and seminar components. The Institute will draw upon experts in educational theory that trains teachers to choose teaching methods that are a function of our ultimate teaching goal to ensure that our teaching is effective and purposeful.   We will constantly be asking the questions, “Why did you do that?,” “How did it work?” and “What would you do differently?”

*  To create a group of peers who can share the unique challenges that clinical education poses and provide each other with continuing feedback and ideas well into the future.

*  To provide participants with a meaningful take-away from the experience. Participants will leave the week with particularized feedback on their own clinical teaching, insight into the strategies that work and those that don’t, ways to improve those strategies, and materials that address teaching methods and theory appropriate to the clinical setting.

We’re extremely excited about this opportunity to teach and learn, and are looking forward to spending intensive time with a small group of you this summer.

  - Deborah Epstein, Jane Aiken, and Wally Mlyniec

APPLICATION FOR GEORGETOWN SUMMER INSTITUTE ON CLINICAL TEACHING

Name:

School:

Number of years in full-time clinical teaching:

Types of clinics taught:

Two things you would like to get out of this Institute:

-jl