The Jury Is In: Law Schools Foster Students' Fixed Mindsets

Document Type

Law Review Article

Publication Date

1-2018

Keywords

educational psychology and metacognition, growth mindset, health and psychological barriers, bar passage

Abstract

The legal education community remains concerned with the resiliency of law students and lawyers. In other fields, a growing body of research suggests that students' mindsets are linked to their resilience, and it is assumed that the findings will hold in legal education. However, to date, there has been no empirical research to support these assumptions. This article describes an empirical study of law students' mindsets based on responses from 425 students at six law schools across the United States. Our results unveil a troubling trend in law students' mindsets at different stages of the law school experience.

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