"The millennials are coming!" : Improving Self-Efficacy In Law Students Through Universal Design In Learning

The Millennial generation has arrived in law school. This new generation of self-confident and extremely high achieving learners merits a new interdisciplinary approach to legal education. Some institutions have explored formative assessments and regulated self-learning to improve academic success. Other universities have looked to universal design, specifically universal design in learning or universal design in instruction, as a mechanism for furthering educational goals for their students.

All agree that a lack of self-efficacy can prevent Millennial students from overcoming challenges in their educational growth, and that high self efficacy, the ability to put forth effort and persistence to successfully accomplish a goal, will lead to better learning outcomes and is a powerful predictor of educational success. None, however, have paired the theories of self-regulated learning and universal design in instruction as a vehicle to improve self-efficacy in the law school classroom. This article is the first to address the unique intersection of these learning theories and their potentially positive impact on self-efficacy for today’s learners.