Elon Law professor Steve Friedland published an article in the fall 2010 issue of The Law Teacher exploring the benefits of student questioning activities in law school courses.
In the article, “Reversing the Norm: Promoting Student Questioning Proficiency,” Friedland encourages law professors to consider workshops and simulations in the classroom designed to help students improve their questioning skills because of the communicative and analytical benefits that result.
One method Friedland recommends is an “all-write” session, in which students reflect on a topic and write questions about it for a few minutes in the classroom. Students are then selected to ask questions through role-play simulations. After these structured learning exercises, the professor would offer feedback on students’ questioning techniques.
In the article, Friedland, who directs Elon Law’s Center for Engaged Learning in the Law, provides a list of hypothetical contexts that law professors could use for in-class workshops designed to improve questioning skills, such as questioning a witness to an auto accident, questioning a judge about the judge’s opinion, performing interrogatories, and asking about the components of an opinion.