What's reflection got to do with it?

Law is taught in institutions that are accountable to government, funding agencies and professional bodies. The government agenda for higher education is concerned with increasing participation, widening access and producing capable citizens. Professional bodies are concerned with providing the legal profession with high calibre individuals. This wider context impacts on the way that courses are organised and taught. Law teachers are now examining learning and teaching practices with a view to meeting the demands of these groups and providing a stimulating environment in which students can learn. This section discusses how reflective practice might be used to accommodate each of these aims and considers the levers for change affecting the use of reflection.

Creating lifelong learners

Over the last 20 years there has been a shift towards a more learner-centred curriculum that includes the use of reflective practice. This comes in part from teachers and practitioners, but also from the UK governmental commitment to lifelong learning (see The learning age, the Department for Education and Employment’s 1998 green paper, and the 1997 Report of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, colloquially referred to as the Dearing report after the chair Sir Ron Dearing). Other documents (for example the Fryer (1997) and Kennedy (1997) reports) also collectively raise the need to increase access and diversify learning and teaching methods. The Dearing report specifically speaks of the need to “put students at the centre of the process of learning and teaching”. Together, these documents have helped to set an agenda for further and higher education that celebrates diversity, flexibility and learner autonomy. A commitment to widening participation and a target figure of 50% participation by 2010 means that institutions are having to rethink curricula and consider how learning and teaching can be diversified to enable a wider, heterogeneous student body. For law teachers this means acknowledging that people learn differently and that existing didactic methods of teaching are unlikely to serve the needs of a diverse group. In this context reflective practice offers a flexible framework in which students can make sense of their own development.

Claxton argues that:

Lifelong learning demands…the ability to think strategically about your own learning

path, and this requires the self-awareness to know one’s own goals, the resources that are

needed to pursue them, and your current strengths and weaknesses in that regard…You have

to able to monitor your progress; if necessary even to measure it; to mull over different

options and courses of development; to be mindful of your own assumptions and habits, and

able to stand back from them and appraise them when learning gets stuck; and in general

to manage yourself as a learner – prioritising, planning, reviewing progress, revising

strategy and if necessary changing tack.

— (1999: 14)

Claxton goes on to explain that for him lifelong learning requires three conditions; resilience, resourcefulness and reflection (1999: 180). These are neat terms that encapsulate the personal skills and motivation required of a learner who is to continue learning beyond formal education. Reflective practice underpins on-going, individual achievement, and therefore is central to any aims to widen participation and access. In addition, it fulfils the demands of the economy and employers by providing a flexible workforce. Contemporary society requires individuals who can multi-task and respond creatively in any given situation. Law students need to express themselves both verbally and in writing, seek out information, choose appropriate courses of action based on facts, evaluate the implication of decisions and juggle a number of clients and problems at once. Today it is not just law firms but also society as a whole that requires these qualities in graduates. As the ways in which we work change so do the expectations of higher education. The following quotation by Stefani pinpoints the potential for reflective practice in the context of an increasingly diverse society:

In the context of the constantly evolving needs of the global employment market it is essential

that students are equipped to be flexible, adaptable and prepared to take responsibility for

their own learning and their own continuous personal and professional development. This places

a responsibility on teachers and tutors in higher education to develop teaching environments

which encourage students to take a more pro-active role in articulating and striving towards

self-determined learning goals.

— (1998: 339)

With information readily available to the masses at the click of a mouse society needs people who can search, select and discriminate between what is useful and what is potentially harmful information. Society needs people who can think on their feet and who learn from experience. To be able to learn autonomously is specifically recognised as emblematic of ‘graduateness’ in the law benchmark statement, and reflection on learning is a key element of this ability.

Reflection and benchmarking

There are seven areas of performance for law against which students must be judged capable. These are sub-divided into three categories:

• subject specific
  1. knowledge
  2. application and problem solving
  3. sources and research
• general transferable intellectual skills
  4. analysis, synthesis, critical judgement and evaluation
  5. autonomy and ability to learn
• key skills
  6. communication and literacy
  7. numeracy, IT and teamwork

The levels outlined in the benchmark statement indicate a minimum threshold standard of attainment to achieve a pass level honours degree:

A student at the very bottom of the honours class will have satisfactorily demonstrated

achievement in each area of performance on a sufficient number of occasions or over a

sufficient range of activities to give confidence that they have the ability or skill claimed

for graduates in law.

— (Quality Assurance Agency 2000b: 2)

The clarification of what is expected of a graduate is useful, since it breaks down what each programme of law should provide in terms of learning opportunities. Rather than seeing this as just another audit hoop to jump through, the process aids the transparency of learning and teaching processes for students and teachers. Law teachers have taken on the challenge of making skills more explicit, and where necessary have re-thought existing courses to reflect and make explicit the benchmark standards. In particular, thought has been given to where and how students are offered opportunities to develop transferable intellectual skills.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to teach learner autonomy through conventional didactic teaching methods. A more helpful approach might be to consider the teacher as a facilitator of learning experiences and opportunities, through which skills can be developed. Skills such as analysis, synthesis, critical judgement and evaluation, autonomy and ability to learn all encapsulate the need to reflect and make sense of what has been learned. As such, the benchmark statement can be seen as a useful lever for change, providing the impetus to re-think the syllabus and current learning, teaching and assessment techniques.

Exercise

Think about a module or course for which you are responsible and try to answer the following questions:

1. Are there opportunities for students to think about their own development built into the module?
2. Could students provide evidence of the achievement of skills such as analysis, synthesis, critical judgement and evaluation, autonomy and ability to learn through some kind of reflective statement or journal?

 

Law schools and teams have the freedom to make decisions about how they meet the benchmark statement, which means that reflection can be included and integrated to suit the particular module of programme.

It is for institutions to decide upon the appropriate form of evidence they require to be

satisfied that a student has an appropriate level of achievement in a required area of

performance…there is no prescription about the form of evidence provided by a student nor

the form of record kept by the institution. In one institution, a student might show knowledge

and general intellectual skills through passing sufficient law subjects, but might show key

skills through activities recorded in tutorial reports, a student file, or a record of

achievement or progress file.

— (Quality Assurance Agency 2000b: 5).

Conventional teaching and assessment procedures often fail to show the value-added elements of a programme. By contrast, portfolios and learning journals provide evidence of development over time. They achieve this through the reflective element, which allows thoughts, knowledge, ideas and observations to be distilled such that plans can be made for the future.

Another policy initiative that provides a lever for curriculum change is the Quality Assurance Agency’s Code of practice. The code has ten sections, including assessment of students, programme approval, monitoring and review, external examining, career education, information and guidance and placement learning. Regardless of any changes to the structure of quality assurance procedures over the coming years, the code of practice is still likely to be used by reviewers as a way of judging the quality and robustness of learning and teaching processes (Greatrix and Varnava, 2001).

As an example, the section of the code of practice covering assessment is concerned inter alia with feedback, the provision of criteria and consistency and standards. Precept 2 asks institutions to consider “how to make information and guidance on assessment clear, accurate, consistent and accessible to all staff, students, placement or practice assessors and external examiners” (Quality Assurance Agency 2000a: 5). The implication of the code is a need for greater transparency about what, how and why a course is taught and assessed in a particular way. Integrating opportunities for students to reflect on their development fulfils the requirements of the benchmark statement and is consistent with the aims of quality assurance. Reflection on a work experience option illustrates how one law school has gone about this.

Developing academic and professional legal skills

The traditional divide between undergraduate and vocational law programmes as perceived by providers and professional bodies is that the former provides students with a broad foundation in knowledge of and about law whilst the latter is concerned more exclusively with the development of the DRAIN (drafting, research, advocacy, interviewing and negotiation) skills used in legal practice. There are sound historical and practical reasons for this delineation, and it makes sense for new students of law to gain a broad understanding of legal issues and methods before choosing to specialise as a barrister or solicitor.

If we were to try to identify the common elements to both academic and professional legal education they might look something like the list below. In an ideal world, law courses would:

• help students appreciate that learning is individual, contextual, relational and developmental
• help students to become autonomous learners
• provide opportunities for students to develop critical and evaluative experience
• facilitate an holistic view of the law, involving knowledge, skills and ability to reflect on experience
• promote the idea that reflection is central to professional conduct

A case study from Manchester Metropolitan University illustrates how reflective diaries have been used on the Bar Vocational Course (BVC) to aid the development of these kinds of skills.

Exercise

Using the example above as a prompt think about how you could develop a set of questions to be used in diary form to help your students develop a particular skill.

Issues to consider include:

1. What do students find particularly difficult?
2. When do students receive feedback?
3. What opportunities are there for them to repeat the skill?

Developing understanding and subject knowledge

Reflection is not restricted to skills development, but can also be used as a tool to support student understanding of a particular subject area of law. Using human rights as an example we can see how reflection complements the teaching of a specific subject area.

Article 6 of the draft plan of action for human rights education (United Nations, 1995) advocates that human rights teaching has to “engage learners in a dialogue about the ways and means of transforming human rights from the expression of abstract norms to the reality of their social, economic, cultural and political conditions”. The implication for law teachers is that students have to have some sympathy with and acknowledgement of the human condition. As Williams forcefully argues:

The extent of that impact through practice will depend, if only in part, on the ability of lawyers to appreciate the possibilities that the HRA unveils. And the extent of that appreciation will depend on how human rights can be understood in practice. This does not mean only in the practice of law. Rather, it means in the practice of people, their lives and the values, needs, beliefs that people hold and wish to protect, or promote, or advocate.

— (Williams, 2002: 134)

Engaging in real life examples means that students have an opportunity to understand for themselves the complexity of human problems. Problem questions about the extent to which Mr Bloggs should reasonably be expected to endure his neighbour’s trombone practice can help students to appreciate how the law operates in civil cases. However, the complexity of cases involving racial, gender or sexuality disputes are less easily demonstrated by text. Students need to understand and make sense of the context and experience of another person’s life. Williams explains:

The role of experience and dialogue in the understanding of human rights is of acute importance. It implies an acknowledgement that monological means of teaching human rights cannot alone lead to their deeper appreciation or their potential application. It suggests that educating human rights is a dialogical and continual process, ever evolving and in constant need of reappraisal. The education of human rights is thus preferred as a collaborative enterprise, one that requires the student and educator to be engaged within communities, to experience the lived-lives of people, to become immersed in the messy world of ethics and justice.

— (Williams, 2002: 134)

The value of getting students to think about the relationships and context affecting the law is not unique to human rights teaching and can be applied to many subjects. Engaging in discussion and asking questions helps students to think about the situation and reflect on the options available to them. It is the process of thinking, reflecting and making decisions about what to do next that is important to the teaching of law.

LeBrun and Johnstone argue that since law is an “ethically saturated arena” it follows that students should be given “opportunities to discuss ethical issues and moral dilemmas so that they are better equipped to reach their own decisions about law and the legal system” (LeBrun and Johnstone, 1994: 165). Engaging students in real problems and requiring them to reflect on their own values is one way of providing this holistic appreciation. (See Williams 2002, Webb 1995, 1998 for more on ethics.) As Macfarlane suggests:

A reflective model encourages the development of both cognitive and affective theories of moral and ethical behaviour, challenging students to integrate these into their personal belief systems as a result of their experiences instead of (at best) passively absorbing the ‘rules’ of professional conduct.

— (1998: 16)

An example of this is the work being conducted at the University of Central England on the Human Rights LLM, where students are offered the opportunity to conduct an internship in the USA. As part of this they complete a reflective journal and a critical reflective essay.
A case study from the University of Central England illustrates how these are put into effect.

Exercise

Think about how you could use the reflective journal or critical essay to enhance the teaching of a specific subject in law. Consider the following questions:

1. Is it important for students to develop critical and reflective skills?
2. How are these skills currently developed?
3. How will these skills help the students to better understand the subject they are studying?

This section has identified the many reasons why reflective practice is important in legal education. It can help to support quality enhancement structures, aid the delivery and development of skills and promote a more holistic, contextual appreciation of law.

Last Modified: 4 June 2010