Spencer, R --- "Holding up the mirror: a theoretical and practical analysis of the role of reflection in clinical legal education" [2013] LegEdDig 18; (2013) 21(2) Legal Education Digest 9

• Holding up the mirror: a theoretical and practical analysis of the role of reflection in clinical legal education

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Holding up the mirror: a theoretical and practical analysis of the role of reflection in clinical legal education

R Spencer

International Journal of Clinical Legal Education, Vol. 17-18, 2012, pp 181-217

The clinical legal education literature suggests that reflection can take two main forms. The first form is oral reflection or ‘debriefing’, especially after an experience like interviewing a client or appearing in court. The second form is written reflection, suggested to be ‘[t]he best way to harness the powerful tool of reflection ... to provide a structured format for the development and nurturing of meaningful and considered student reflection’.

I coordinate and teach a course which has two main aims. The first aim is to broaden students’ awareness of access to justice issues and to develop a critical approach to legal ethics. The second aim is to develop professional skills and values, including the generic graduate qualities of the university in which the course is taught, with a structured analysis of, and reflection on, experience gained in the workplace or in a community service setting. In their reflective journals, students are required to analyse and reflect on their personal placement experience whilst also contemplating the role of legal professionals in the legal system and in society generally.

Experience has taught me that reflection and reflective writing are not innate skills and that students benefit greatly from being taught how to reflect. Ledvinka provides useful ideas about how to promote student reflection but notes that it may not be possible to ‘teach’ reflection. However, after several years of developing a pedagogy in this area, I believe that teaching reflection is indeed possible.

The concept of ‘reflective practice’ was brought into the academic arena with Donald Schön’s The Reflective Practitioner. Jennifer Moon points out that reflective practice was developed initially in the nursing and teaching professions and it is in those disciplines that the bulk of scholarship has occurred in this area. The rationale behind teaching students to be reflective is that it encourages reflective practice which, according to Schön and his disciples, is of benefit in professional practice. Moon also argues that ‘[r]eflection also plays an important part in employability skills and student work experience’. It is for these reasons that I teach students about reflective practice and use the (assessable) reflective journal as a tool for developing and encouraging reflective practice. The use of a journal is an example of what Schön calls reflection on action (conscious reflection after the event), which can lead to the skill of reflection-in-action (the ability of professionals to think about what they are doing while they are doing it).

Many of my students have discovered that the process of reflection enables them to articulate their thoughts, their goals and their career aspirations. Many have told me that keeping a reflective journal has helped them to identify how they hope to utilise their legal knowledge and skills and to articulate their goals. Ultimately, developing tools for lifelong learning is one of the most important aims of reflection.

In 1993, Sue Atkins and Kathy Murphy published a literature review of articles about reflective writing in the context of nursing ‘in an attempt to unravel the important aspects of reflection and to identify cognitive and affective skills required to be reflective’ (my emphasis).

Law students engaged in clinical programs are often confronted by unfamiliar feelings. Personal reactions to clients and to fellow students can create tension and anxiety. They can also promote a sense of satisfaction and achievement. One of the exciting yet daunting aspects of clinical practice is that no two days are the same.

The skills inherent in the act of reflection provide a vehicle for students to engage in a paradigm shift, from passive recipients of information to active learners who ask questions, view information critically and use emotional intelligence.

In the context of occupational health nursing, reflection has been said to be an important component of experiential learning ‘because it can promote the ability to engage in self-assessment, to adapt to change and develop autonomy’. Jane Harris Aiken takes the role of reflection an important step further in the context of clinical legal education. She points out that one of the four fundamental values of the legal profession identified by the MacCrate Report is striving to promote justice, fairness and morality. Aiken describes how using Fran Quigley’s phenomenon of the ‘disorienting moment’ in clinical legal education can encourage students to develop compassion and therefore encourage them to promote justice, fairness and morality.

Aiken explains that law students ‘typically come from backgrounds far more privileged than those of their clients’ so they are likely to experience ‘disorienting moments’ in the course of a clinical program, largely because the experience is new. Further, clinical programs can bring students into contact with emotionally challenging situations. Aiken found that ‘[s]uch emotional turmoil also created a willingness to engage in self-reflection and an openness to learning about privilege.’

There are a number of practical ideas that clinical teachers can employ. For example, the classroom can be arranged to encourage reflection by avoiding placement of the teacher in the ‘power’ role at the front; my own experience confirms that in a circle is best, although this is not always possible if the class is held in a lecture theatre, or a room with immovable furniture. The encouragement of genuine and egalitarian classroom discussion is indeed one of the most pleasurable aspects of clinical legal education, and provides a non-judgemental learning environment. Small group or pair discussions provide opportunities for peer and self-assessment and also encourage discussion amongst less extroverted students who prefer not to speak frankly about personal experiences in front of a larger group. James asserts that ‘[p]eer sharing helps [students] discover they may not be alone in having an emotional reaction or sympathetic response to a client’s situation. It is an opportunity for the students to discuss their attitudes and values, and the reasons for them, and can lead to very productive learning situations and long-lasting relationships.’

It is important to be responsive to students’ feelings of vulnerability with regard to the ‘confessional element’ of reflective writing and their nervousness about being judged when engaging with this unfamiliar genre.

I spend a great deal of class time generating an atmosphere of trust between myself and the students and between the students themselves, to encourage them to disclose personal feelings and to analyse their own reactions to events. Classes are structured so that this relationship of trust builds gradually. The first exercise involves students introducing themselves and articulating why they have chosen to enrol in the course. Subsequent written exercises involve personal goals, self-awareness, personality types, identification of strengths and recognition of opportunities for improvement. These exercises are private, and students are not required to divulge their thoughts. The next task involves discussing ‘an unexpected situation which I handled well’ in pairs. Then they select a different partner with whom to discuss ‘an unexpected situation which I handled badly’. After this, there is usually at least one student who is prepared to share this experience with the class, leading to a discussion about the best way to deal with unexpected situations that might occur on the placement or in a work environment. These early class exercises lay the foundation for later discussions about what they are learning in their clinical placement environments.

The next step is to generate reflective writing from the material that is mined from class discussions. The translation of an informal discussion into an assessable piece of reflective writing is not a simple progression. What do we want from our students when we ask them to produce ‘a piece of work which demonstrate[s] genuine depth of reflection’?

Moon explains that in the educational context,

‘reflective writing will usually have a purpose ... it will usually involve the sorting out of bits of knowledge, ideas, feelings, awareness of how you are behaving ... it could be seen as a melting pot into which you put a number of thoughts, feelings, other forms of awareness, and perhaps new information. In the process of sorting it out in your head, and representing the sortings out on paper, you may either recognize that you have learnt something new or that you need to reflect more with, perhaps, further input. Your reflections need to come to some sort of end point, even if that is a statement of what you need to consider next.’

Students in my course are required to produce three pieces of written summative assessment: a seminar presentation, a critical incident report and a reflective portfolio. The critical incident report is a short (1000 words) reflective exercise, designed to prepare students for the larger reflective portfolio. In the critical incident report, students are required to identify a critical incident or situation that has taken place either during the first few weeks of their placement or in preparing for their placement. Students are required to describe the incident and its impact and to reflect on the reason for the impact. This involves the students considering their own values, preconceived ideas and prejudices. It also involves a consideration of the perspectives of others involved in the incident. Students must describe how they dealt with the incident and its impact and what they learned from the incident, including if they have learned something about themselves. Finally, they have to consider how they will approach similar incidents in the future. The questions are designed as prompts to encourage the students to reflect and also to avoid ‘writers’ block’. This assessment is summative (it is worth 25 per cent of their final grade) as well as formative. It is submitted early in the term and students are provided with extensive feedback to assist them with their reflective portfolio that they must submit at the end of the term.

My original practice was to invite and encourage students to send me extracts from their journals each week so that I could address any difficulties they were experiencing in their placements and also to give them constructive feedback on their writing. Over many years, very few students availed themselves of this formative assessment opportunity. In 2011 I incorporated two reflective writing workshops into class time in order to ‘workshop’ their pieces and for them to critically examine each other’s writing. This formative experience offers students the opportunity to self-assess and peer-assess. This has resulted in a much stronger response from students seeking formative feedback on their journal entries. They then submit their final edited journals in the form of a portfolio at the end of the course. The reflective portfolio must contain a series of reflections written in a similar manner to the critical incident report. It must also contain reflections on and reference to the literature which has been included on their reading lists. Students are expected to draw from their own experiences in order to illustrate and explain the articles that they have read. The portfolio is assessed and graded. The two assessment pieces are integral components of the course design; the design of the tasks is intended to have a significant impact on student learning.

Showing students written examples of what constitutes ‘deep’ reflection is extremely helpful, such as excerpts from past students. However, it is not always possible to do this, given the private nature of some reflective writing. Moon provides a chapter entitled ‘Resources’ which includes a map of reflective writing, guidance for students, samples of reflective writing and exercises in reflective writing. These may be copied freely for use with learners.

Aiken recognises that peer pressure in law school can prevent students from discussing their personal feelings. Her strategy for overcoming peer pressure ‘not to be personal’ is to ‘create opportunities for learners to use their own sense of justice in analysing legal problems and to make that a part of the ‘normal’ discussion’ such as in small groups. Aiken also notes that journal writing is a way to ‘offer learners a chance to reflect on their experiences, bring their own perspective to a problem, and analyse the issues without the pressure and immediacy of a class discussion’.

The vulnerability of students writing about personal experiences merits consideration. Students completing my course are usually in their final year of a law degree, often uncertain about their futures and often lacking in confidence about their skills. Being objective about their performance in a work experience environment and submitting their reflection about their performance for scrutiny by the course coordinator can be a daunting prospect for many students.

Michael Devlin and others comment on the importance of providing feedback on reflective essays. Feedback can guide students to acknowledge, explore and learn from their emotional experience, potentially bolstering resilience and student well-being.

It is hoped that the compilation of these teaching ideas into one article will provide a useful resource for anyone involved in clinical legal education. For clinical supervisors, the suggestions may enhance their interactions with students and ultimately result in an improved service to clients. For academic staff engaged in classroom teaching, the ideas articulated here will hopefully contribute to student engagement with the aims of clinical programs and foster improved relations between students and teachers.