Kye Joung Lee, A Study on the Pass-Fail Grading System of the U. S. Law School and Its Implications, Journal of Law-Related Education, Vol. 13, No. 3(2018), pp. 161-196.
<Abstract>
This study gives an overview of the pass-fail grading system(hereinafter ‘PF system') of the U. S. law schools such as Yale, Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford and makes an extensive research on the virtues and shortcomings of the PF system and its implications for Korean law school education. The virtues of the PF system can be enumerated as follows : 1) encouraging students to study based on their internal motivators(excitement and curiosity) rather than external motivators(grades), 2) making the relationships among students more cooperative rather than competitive, and 3) inducing students to participate in extra curricular activities more actively. The shortcomings of the PF system can be submitted that the student may make less efforts for learning because of the lack of external motivators and the PF system may result in less justice. Currently, Korean law school education has suffered from problems mainly caused by the system of strict curve grading(strict letter grade). Law school students tend to focus on exam performance rather than fundamental understanding of the principles and select the subjects considering advantages of decent grades rather than his/her own interest. These students' attitudes can be said to be very detrimental to building the legal reasoning, which is very pivotal to pursuing their career in law. To address these problems, the adoption of PF system should be considered affirmatively so that the law school can provide the educationally desirable surroundings, where the student can pursue his/her academic achievement without worrying about his/her grade, choose the subject by putting his/her own interest ahead of other factors and build his/her academic strength based on internal motivators. However, the measures for the improvement of the teaching method and tutoring system can be recommended to minimize the negative effect PF system might bring about.
<Keywords>
law school education, pass-fail grading system, strict curve grading, letter grade system, legal reasoning, internal motivator
Kye Joung Lee, A Study on the Pass-Fail Grading System of the U. S. Law School and Its Implications, Journal of Law-Related Education, Vol. 13, No. 3(2018), pp. 161-196.
<Abstract>
This study gives an overview of the pass-fail grading system(hereinafter ‘PF system') of the U. S. law schools such as Yale, Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford and makes an extensive research on the virtues and shortcomings of the PF system and its implications for Korean law school education. The virtues of the PF system can be enumerated as follows : 1) encouraging students to study based on their internal motivators(excitement and curiosity) rather than external motivators(grades), 2) making the relationships among students more cooperative rather than competitive, and 3) inducing students to participate in extra curricular activities more actively. The shortcomings of the PF system can be submitted that the student may make less efforts for learning because of the lack of external motivators and the PF system may result in less justice. Currently, Korean law school education has suffered from problems mainly caused by the system of strict curve grading(strict letter grade). Law school students tend to focus on exam performance rather than fundamental understanding of the principles and select the subjects considering advantages of decent grades rather than his/her own interest. These students' attitudes can be said to be very detrimental to building the legal reasoning, which is very pivotal to pursuing their career in law. To address these problems, the adoption of PF system should be considered affirmatively so that the law school can provide the educationally desirable surroundings, where the student can pursue his/her academic achievement without worrying about his/her grade, choose the subject by putting his/her own interest ahead of other factors and build his/her academic strength based on internal motivators. However, the measures for the improvement of the teaching method and tutoring system can be recommended to minimize the negative effect PF system might bring about.
<Keywords>
law school education, pass-fail grading system, strict curve grading, letter grade system, legal reasoning, internal motivator