Law Class Comments

    The student presentation was the most effective way of presenting legal reviews.  I would not have changed how we did the Law review class.  Legal reviews can be very drab and difficult to learn.  The best way to overcome that is to use the tools already possessed by the class.   In addition to the excellent class learning and researching, this method also had a side effect of the presenters finding intricate nuances that otherwise might have gone unnoticed.
      The student presentation method was the best way of presenting all of these cases because this method encompassed reinforcement, feedback, and cooperative learning.   According to H. J. Walberg's (1984) research, reinforcement first, feedback was number four, and cooperative learning was seventh in importance of effect size for all instructional factors on student learning.  As a class, we used very effective instructional methods for learning about the legal cases.  The presentations allowed the class to provide feedback to each other.  As the class discussed each case, students provided feedback and reinforcement. 
    The lesson was constructed very well from the start and the talents of the class were effectively used for successful learning.  Having the students choose which case they would present was an excellent way of providing interest and enthusiasm for each case.  Using the interests and enthusiasm of both the presenters and the class produced class learning that might not have happened with any other method.  The group learning that resulted produced constructive class discussion.  When students presented their cases, the passion that each student had for the case was noticeable.  This produced a higher level of learning because the rest of the class picked up on the presenters' passion.  Falk et al. (1998) showed that students show significantly higher learning outcomes when the enthusiasm level is higher. 
    The presentation method was the clear cut winner in terms of learning achievement capabilities for the legal case reviews.  Few methods can cover as many effective techniques under one method as this one.  When teachers can harness the enthusiasm of the class, they should use it.