Law and categories of learning.

• Author: Mildon, Marsha
• Position: School's in

As we noted during the 30th Anniversary celebration of LawNow and the Legal Studies Program/Legal Resource Centre, we have been involved and excited about bringing legal information and resources to schools ever since we began. School's In, as a part of LawNow, is only one aspect of that involvement. This issue of LawNow goes even further by making "Law and Schools" the feature section of the magazine.

That feature section provides teachers, parents, and education administrators with information about School Board powers; liabilities of School Boards, parents and parent organizations; the issue of accommodating students and educating them in ways both inclusive and suitable for their abilities; educational malpractice--a potential new civil wrong (see Educational Malpractice: When Students Sue Teachers, April 2000); and the new menace of Internet luring and how schools and parents can deal with that.

In this issue of School's in, to provide further access to classroom material, I start by providing a skill-based or technique-based reference to the past six years of School's In sections that are available on the LawNow Plus searchable archives (leaving out a few that were particularly dated). I have organized this School's In bibliography, roughly according to Robert Gagne's categories of learning:

* verbal information;

* intellectual skills;

* cognitive strategies;

* motor skills; and,

* attitudes

So for example, the issues that are focused on Legal Information primarily deal with verbal information; sections I have labelled Situated problem-solving provide opportunities for the development of both intellectual skills and cognitive strategies, as do the Case Studies. Mock Trials, Simulations and Games, and Democratic Action tend to involve those three types of learning, but to also involve affective or attitudinal learning as well. This style of organization does not provide a topical index, but using key words in the LawNow searchable database can provide you with that kind of topical index. Thus, in this issue featuring Law and Schools, I thought it might be useful for teachers to have available an organization based on something like categories of learning.

In the second half of this issue, I will provide some case summaries of cases involving schools that could be used in mock trials or case studies.

Legal Information

Not So Trivial ... Pursuits: Sixty Years of the United Nations (Junior--Senior High) Oct 01, 2005, LN 30:2 Marsha Mildon International Law; A trivial pursuit game regarding the United Nations

From Hammurabi to McLachlin (Junior--Senior High) Feb 01, 2002, LN 26:4, Marsha Mildon, Lesley Conley, Melanie Eastley Legal history, courts, legal process, legal research

Canadian Politics Scavenger Hunt (Junior High) Apr 01, 2004, LN 28:5 Marsha Mildon Canadian political and democratic history, electoral law, legal research

Law for a Broken World (Junior--Senior High) Dec 01, 2001, LN 26:3, Marsha Mildon International Law, landmark cases, class discussion

Educational Malpractice: When Students Sue Teachers Apr 01, 2000, LN 24:5, Dr. Danielle Dalton, Bill Howe Education law, Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Situated Problem-solving

Light in the Darkness and other Celebrations and Symbols (Elementary--Senior High) Dec 01, 2005, LN 30:3 Marsha Mildon Charter of Rights and Freedoms, legal research, personal expression

Common Sense Behaviour! Common Sense Laws? Feb 01, 2006, LN 30:4 Marsha Mildon, Tim Battle Laws regarding animal treatment, cruelty, and ownership. What makes a good law?

Bylaw City Aug 01, 2005, LN 30:1 Marsha Mildon Municipal Law, legal research, legal roleplays

Is a Suite ... Apartment ... House ... Room ... your Castle? (Senior High) Dec 01, 2004, LN 29:3 Marsha Mildon Landlord-tenant law; contract law; legal research; personal expression

Sticks and stones may break my bones ... and the names that make it happen Feb 01, 2004, LN 28:4, Marsha Mildon Bullying, Charter of Rights, Racism, Dispute resolution

Getting bugged: Front Door Law (Junior--Senior High) Aug 01, 2001, LN 26:1, Marsha Mildon Environmental Law, case study

Indoctrination 101 (Junior--Senior High) Feb 01...