Reframing Legal Education's - Rutgers Law Review

2009] WICKED PROBLEMS 885drive the curriculum after all?Most faculty members have had discussions on these topics,often more than once. The courses offered, the units they receive, thefrequency with which they appear on the course schedule, and thenumber of advanced opportunities in a given field are the “visible”part of most efforts at curriculum reform. There are at least threeother arenas that are typically “invisible” and these may be the keyto unraveling the challenges presented by legal educations “wickedproblems.” These arenas are the nature and drivers of studentlearning and the power of teaching. Each of these “invisible” arenasis worth considering here.1. Invisible Dimensions: Student LearningMost legal educators are ignorant about the profounddevelopments in the “learning sciences” (psychology, cognitive andneurological studies, physiology, and more) that have occurred sincethey attended law school. A superb study, How People Learn,published by the National Academies Press,41 illustrates how muchhas been learned about the nature of learning from infancy throughadulthood.The Carnegie Foundation’s work on professional education wasdeeply informed by developments in the learning sciences, and thatemphasis is important for a number of reasons. First, “learners” aretoo often absent in educators’ conversation about education, sinceteachers tend to think of “teaching” and “curriculum” as central,whatever the effects on what students actually gain. The emphasison learning also provides educators with intellectual frameworks andterminology that can guide decisions about the structure of courses,student instruction, and larger scale instructional program design.a. ExpertiseThose involved in professional education should give specialattention to insights about the development of “expertise.” Thedevelopment of “expertise” has been studied across a myriad of fieldsranging from chess players to historians to educators. Experts aretypically those who possess both the “know what” and the “knowhow” that allows them to demonstrate great skills in solvingproblems in a particular domain. The movement from “novice” to“expert” is a journey that occurs in the context of many domains.Bransford and others have summarized key research about thecharacteristics of “experts.”42 Experts “notice” patterns not seen bynovices. They possess a great deal of content knowledge, and41. JOHN D. BRANSFORD ET AL., HOW PEOPLE LEARN (2000).42. Id. at 31-50.