What Was Your Name Again? Fostering Peer Learning and Belonging in a Seminar Group in Legal Education

This paper reports on the results of an innovation introduced in the Legal Skills course. As the course instructor, I implemented a practice of addressing students by their first name and encouraged students to do the same. In an environment where law instructors typically address students by surname or simply as a “colleague,” deliberately learning the names of 53 students represented a true pedagogical challenge. The rationale was as follows: first, in legal education, professional identity and relational competence are as important as knowledge itself. It is essential that future lawyers learn to use names in communication with clients and colleagues. Second, addressing each other by name supports a sense of belonging. Third, when students know and use each other’s names, they can more easily overcome barriers to engagement and interact meaningfully with their peers. In other words, addressing each other by name may support conditions for peer learning. To evaluate the innovation, I used an anonymous post-course survey, peer observation, a reflective journal, and an institutional course evaluation. The findings indicate that deliberate name learning and consistent use of students’ names contribute to stronger perceptions of recognition, belonging, and peer interaction within relatively large seminar groups.