The pedagogical value of an integrated approach to legal research instruction: Overcoming student resistance to the use of print sources and striking a balance that instills an appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of both print and online sources

Gary Lui

Sears, D. S. (2014). The pedagogical value of an integrated approach to legal research instruction: Overcoming student resistance to the use of print sources and striking a balance that instills an appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of both print and online sources. Legal Reference Services Quarterly, 33(1), 38-65. doi:10.1080/0270319X.2014.869977

Summary:
The Sears (2014) article notes that law students prefer online resources is a result of these law students having grown up using computers and the Internet. In order for law students to be less inexperienced using print resources, Sears suggests implementing an integrated approach to teaching legal research, where students were given assignments which made the law students to use print and online resources. The reason for including print resources in legal research instruction is that law firms are finding that new associates who just graduated from law school are racking up their clients' bills from spending a lot of time doing legal research online, which costs a lot of money.

Evaluation:
The author of the article is the Senior Law Librarian and Associate Director for Legal Research Instruction, which makes the author qualified to discuss the challenges of teaching legal research. I appreciate that the article uses Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning, which makes law students "think critically about their experience and move to a higher level of learning, that is, evaluating their experience" (Sears, 45). This reminds me of The Big Think. Overall, I think anytime students are made to think about their learning experience is a good thing.