Developing reflective practice in legal education

Karen Hinett, UKCLE

This guidance note, published in 2002, aims to provide a starting point for law teachers who want to know a little more about reflection and how it might be facilitated. Whether you are new to the ideas of reflective practice or seeking to update and refresh current approaches, we hope this guide will be a source of enlightenment and inspiration.

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”

— (Confucius)

We all know students who adopt a ‘surface’ approach to learning. These students have little intrinsic interest in the subject and are more likely to view assessment tasks as a means to an end. Fortunately there are also students who adopt a ‘deep’ approach, committed to understanding the law and taking the time to think about feedback such that they improve future performance. The difference between the two approaches is that the deep learner reflects on experience. Put simply, reflection is about maximising deep and minimising surface approaches to learning. Reflection is a way of getting students to realise that learning is about drawing on life experiences, not just something that takes place in a classroom. It enables students to think about what and how they learn and to understand that this impacts on how well they do.

It is hoped that this guide will provide inspiration for action and prompt further debate about what we require of law graduates and how this might best be achieved. It refers to educational theory and provides a number of examples of how reflective practice can be integrated into the learning situation. What it does not do is reproduce the seminal works of Schön and Kolb, and readers are advised to turn to the originals for a deeper understanding of the issues. Neither does it repeat work available in other guides. Highly recommended is Alison Bone’s guide to Ensuring successful assessment.

My thanks to all those colleagues who have shared personal experiences and allowed me to reproduce examples of practice in this guide. I am also grateful to Professor Julian Webb for his helpful comments on previous versions of this guide and to Chris Clegg for proofreading and help with graphics.

Contents

• Introduction
• What is reflective practice?
• What’s reflection got to do with it?
• How can I introduce reflective practice into my teaching?
• Integrating reflective practice into the curriculum
• What’s in it for you?
• Support and resources
• References

Examples

• Reflection in legal clinic
• Reflection on a work experience option
• Reflective diaries on the Bar Vocational Course
• Reflective journals and essays on an LLM
• Reflection using a virtual chat room
• Reflection on a personal development skills module
• Reflection in law teaching: a personal account