About Ed Doctor in the (Law) House

This blog was created to provide law school students and instructors with information on evidence-based learning and instructional methods .  “Evidence-based” means based on empirical (quantitative or qualitative) research that is in accordance with scientifically sound research methods and principles.

The blog serves the following purposes:  First, it’s designed to help law students and instructors evaluate different methods for learning and instruction. By doing that,  law students and educators can better evaluate what works and doesn’t work. The blog is meant to supplement, not supplant, what law school academic support departments are doing. Second, it’s designed to inform legal educators and law students of scholarly research in the field of educational psychology.  Third, this blog seeks to promote an informed dialogue between legal educators and educational psychologists.

The educational doctor is Sam Sue. I am a licensed attorney,  and I have a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the City University of New York Graduate Center and School.  My faculty supervisor was Distinguished Professor Barry Zimmerman, who is a leading figure in self-regulation theories.  My dissertation was on the use of student-generated hypotheticals from law cases to promote legal problem solving.

I  have a J.D. from New York University School of Law, and I had practiced public interest law at the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI).  I established the Environmental Justice Project at NYLPI where I successfully brought litigation to force the New York City to adopt regulations to site garbage transfer stations.  I developed a community-based lawyering approach that was featured in the documentary So Goes a Nation:  Lawyers  & Communities.  I also successfully brought litigation (NYPIRG v. City of New York) to force the City to establish the Independent Budget Office, a budget watchdog that has brought greater accountability and understanding of the New York City budget.

As a law student, I developed the theory that socioeconomic impacts are cognizable impacts under the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act, and this  led to the landmark New York Court of Appeals ruling in Chinese Staff and Workers Association v. City of New York.

I taught urban planning law at the Pratt Institute, and I co-curated with artist Andrea Callard an exhibition on the history of tenement housing on the Lower East Side.  The exhibition was shown at then Chinatown History Project and at a Dia Art Foundation gallery in Soho.  I was a Charles H. Revson teaching fellow in the pre-law program at City College, CUNY. I am a graduate of Oberlin College.

On a personal note, I am the son of Chinese immigrant parents who grew up in the Mississippi Delta during the height of civil rights activities. My story was featured in Asian Americans by Joann Faung Jean Lee and later in The Chinese in America:  A Narrative History by Iris Chang.  My story also served as an inspiration for documentary Mississippi Triangle by filmmaker Christine Choy.   A photo of my wife and I are featured in the children’s book When Spring Comes by Robert Maas.

I now serve as the Director of the Career Planning Office of the City University of New York School of Law.  Although I work at the CUNY School of Law, this blog represents my personal views; in no way does it represent the official  views of CUNY School of Law or any of its departments.

Have a question about what learning, study, reading or instructional method works?  I welcome topics to write on.