The Language of Law School This page intentionally left blank

participation. In this study, we coded extended one-on-one exchanges between
student and professor as “focused” dialogue (our closest measure for Socratic-type
structuring).
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 Chapter 7 outlined the distributions of different kinds of dialogue
in the classrooms of the study (see Table 7.1). As we’ve seen, these figures can be
broken down into three categories: the modified Socratic classes, with 45 to 60%
of the time (and 74 to 86% of the turns) spent in extended dialogue (Classes #5,
#4, #1); the classes characterized by shorter exchanges, with 21 to 29% of the time
(and 34 to 60% of the turns) spent in extended dialogue; and the predominantly
lecture class, with 2% of time (and 16% of turns) spent in Socratic-style exchanges.
table
 8.5
Percentage of Students Who Spoke at
Least Once, by Gender
Class
Women
Men
Elite/Prestige
2
96
91
8
100
86
5
75
90
Regional
4
66
73
7
90
78
Local
6
100
100
3
84
92
We were able to track participation
by individual speakers for seven of the
eight schools.

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Student Participation and Social Difference
193
Comparing these results with those reported in Table 8.4, we see that all of the most
Socratic classes (#5, #4, #1) have gender imbalances in favor of men. We also see
that both of the classes in which there were gender imbalances in favor of women
were structured around short exchanges.
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If we now ask about the interaction of different forms of dialogue with gen-
der, we find intriguingly mixed results. Table 8.6 summarizes the different gendered
distributions of focused and shorter dialogue in the eight classrooms of the study.
We can see that women actually participate more in extended dialogues than they
do in shorter exchanges in four of the classrooms—and these are the four most
elite male-taught classes. In Class #2 (elite school, male teacher) women take 6%
more turns than do men in extended dialogues, but 14% fewer turns in shorter
exchanges. The same reversal occurs in Class #7, taught by a male teacher in a re-
gional law school. In Class #5, in a prestige law school and taught by a man, we
find a dramatic shift: men take 14% more turns in extended dialogue but 75% more
in shorter exchanges. A similar, though less dramatic shift occurs in Class #4, taught
table
 8.6
Comparison of Extended and Shorter Dialogue Turns, by Gender
Shift in Women’s