A common complaint among first-year law students is that they spend a significant amount of time and effort studying, yet this does not always result in academic success. Empirical research suggests that this may be due to learning strategies adopted during their undergraduate years that do not correlate with improvement of law school grade point averages (GPA). Other studies highlight the adoption of self-regulated learning strategies for law students to help them succeed in school. However, law schools lack accessible diagnostic instruments that can help students identify deficits in their study habits. This study presents the development and preliminary validation of an a diagnostic tool to measure the cognitive and metacognitive study habits of first-year law students, specifically for a law school based in the Philippines. The design is grounded in the HowULearn Framework of the University of Helsinki (Parpala & Lindblom-Ylanne, 2012) and Schwart'z Expert Learning Cycle (2008). The diagnostic tool used a 5 point-Likert scale. Legal education faculty and high-performing upper-level law students were engaged for content-validity. Cognitive interviewing was conducted to ensure construct clarity. The tool was piloted to a cohort group (n=50) to assess internal consistency via Cronbach’s Alpha and exploratory factor analysis. The results show a valid and reliable diagnostic tool that can also also be used for empowering students. The process can be useful for helping first-year law students improve their learning strategies and provide educators with data-driven framework for early academic support in higher education context.

Authors:
Izel Marie Guatno, De La Salle University, Philippines

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Posted by James Alexander Gordon

Last updated: 2023-02-23 23:45:00

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