From Understanding to Production: A Qualitative Case Study of Instructional Alignment and Bar Examination Readiness at One Law School

Author

• Mackenzie E. Gray, Chapman UniversityFollow

Date of Award

Summer 8-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

First Advisor

Dr. Keith Howard

Second Advisor

Dr. Douglas Havard

Third Advisor

Sarira Sadeghi

Abstract

Many law students who understand the law struggle to produce it under examination conditions.This qualitative case study examined how instruction in three settings at one ABA-accredited law school (first-year doctrinal, upper-division doctrinal, and for-credit bar preparation courses) shaped students’ perceptions of their readiness for the California Bar Examination. Grounded in metacognitive transfer theory, the study drew on 18 classroom observations across six courses, semi-structured interviews with seven students and four professors, and a simulated bar examination scored against a criterion-referenced rubric, all collected during the Spring 2026 semester. Interview data were analyzed through codebook thematic analysis. Five themes resulted. Students credited structured, explicit instruction with building their understanding of the law but described a persistent gap between understanding doctrine and producing organized written analysis under timed conditions, an account the simulated exam bore out. Professors differed over whose responsibility bar readiness was, and both groups, interviewed separately, described the same structural misalignment between doctrinal teaching and the demands of the bar. The barrier to bar readiness lay in converting understanding into bar-format production, not in doctrinal knowledge itself. The study recommends distributing bar-format practice, feedback, and explicit expectations across the doctrinal curriculum as a shared responsibility.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Gray, M. E. (2026). From understanding to production: A qualitative case study of instructional alignment and bar examination readiness at one law school [Doctoral dissertation, Chapman University]. Chapman University Digital Commons. https://doi.org/10.36837/chapman.000763