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Looking At You Looking At Me Looking At You: Learning Through Reflection In A Law School Clinic
Authors: |
Mary Anne Kenny BJuris, LLB(Hons), LLM
Senior Lecturer, Murdoch University School of Law
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Irene Styles BSc (Hons), PhD, DipEd, MAPS
Senior Lecturer, Murdoch University School of Education
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Archie Zariski BA, LLB, LLM, Grad Dip Higher Ed
Senior Lecturer in Law, School of Law, Murdoch University
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Issue: |
Volume 11, Number 1 (March 2004)
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Contents
- This paper describes an exercise in reflection by staff, students and researchers on clinical legal education conducted in the SCALES clinic of Murdoch University School of Law at Rockingham in Western Australia.
- Our guiding metaphor for this work (derived from one Schon (1983) uses) was the clinic as a multi-faceted mirror in which all participants (students, supervisors and clients) can see themselves reflected in the reactions of others to what they say and do, as well as in their own, internal mirror. Our principal focus was students: exploring what the process of reflection on the part of students can add to their learning in clinical legal education. We sought to engage students in thinking about their experiences via three workshops specifically targeted at three aspects of clinical education - the student/supervisor relationship, issues about interacting with clients, and the assessment process. Simultaneously, our aim was to involve their supervisors in considering the same three major aspects, and for the researchers to critically evaluate the process by which they sought to engage students and supervisors in the reflective process.
- Specifically, our project tried to:
-
Investigate students' needs and their views on what clinical education is and should be. What do students perceive the goals of clinical education? What are their own goals? How do they view their role as a student and that of their supervisor and their clients? What needs do they perceive they have, and how they can be met?
- Develop a Handbook with associated collaborative workshops to help students think about their clinical learning. To provide activities and information about aspects of clinical education such as self-evaluation, the role of the students, the role of the supervisor, time management, approaches to clients, and other issues that emerge from (1).
- The outcomes were not as expected by the researchers: this led us to postulate a set of external and internal constraints on students and supervisors which will need to be addressed if participants in the clinical education are to take advantage of the potential benefits of reflection for the process and outcomes of clinical legal education.
- The first part of this paper examines the process of reflection in the clinical setting; the next sets the scene for the reflection we embarked on at SCALES; the final part describes the method we used plus our reflections on the process.
- The legal profession and law schools throughout the English speaking countries have enthusiastically adopted the concept of the "reflective practitioner" as popularised by Donald A Schon (Schon, 1983, 1987). Law is not alone in this enthusiasm. Teacher education (Jay and Johnson, 2002) and nursing programs (Drevdahl et al, 2002) notably have also embraced the idea. The term "reflective practitioner" refers to evaluating elements of the self, the task and the environment (including the physical, social and cultural environment) in regard to their impact on practice in the past, present and future with the aim of guiding effective decision-making or action. The processing requires being metacognitive with respect to thinking about a situation, that is, being aware of the characteristics of the situation, being able to reflect on it, and being about to orchestrate or control all components of the situation with the intention of leading to a effective outcome (for example, see Flavell, 1979; Radloff, 1997; Radloff, de la Harpe and Styles, 2001).
- The abundant literature on reflection as an educational tool for the professions reveals a wide variety of ideas of what a reflective practitioner is and does. Varieties of reflection such as "critical reflection" and "self-reflection" have been identified (Brooker and O'Donoghue, 1993; Rogers, 2001) and methods of instruction in reflection have been elaborated, including journaling, drawing, autobiography and mentoring (Connolly, 2001). The advantages include evaluating an experience in order to inform future decision-making; clarifying aspects of the situation (including the task engaged in, the environment and oneself) and considering relationships amongst these aspects and the outcome of the experience. Building a framework for understanding the situation and allowing transfer and adaptation of learning/understandings to novel situations, thus providing flexibility and creativity of ideas and actions. Through an increased understanding for the task, the context and the self, to facilitate being able to teach and advise others as well as enhance effective problem-solving.
- The law clinic appears to provide a good opportunity to encourage habits of reflection in law students because of its focus on the practice of law under practitioner supervision. Indeed, helping to create "reflective practitioners" is often one of the key goals of clinical programs in law. For instance, the description of Murdoch's SCALES clinic includes the following statement: "Students learn a range of lawyers' skills and develop professional commitment and ethical standards. The subject adds a social dimension to academic training by creating an opportunity for students to assess the adequacy of law and legal processes in context." (Murdoch University, 2002) As one clinician puts it,
Law schools should teach students to approach their lawyering with greater understanding of the attitudes and beliefs that they bring to their practice and the impact they each can have on achieving justice. Clinics are an obvious setting to develop such reflective skills. (Barry, 1995: 155)
- In this article we focus on several types of reflection - students' reflection on past, present and future attitudes, beliefs and behaviours; staff reflections on the supervisory process; and the researchers reflections on the research process and outcomes as well as the implications for future action. In particular we wished participants to think about the ideas that are generated when we pay close attention to the impact and effects of our behaviour on others. When the other party is a fellow learner, staff member or researcher, reflection in this sense can be pursued as a collaborative process rather than as a solitary exercise in introspection (Smyth, 1993). Although we narrow our aim to the reflection stimulated by working closely with others, we are mindful of another dimension of reflection that has been identified: the "depth" of analysis of reflective thought. Teacher educators have reminded us that reflection may require several levels of critique, going from the immediate improvement of skills or strategy, to questioning more general assumptions of action and finally considering the most basic values and structures of the practice setting (Van Manen, 1977; Brooker and O'Donoghue, 1993). All of the occasions of reflection we describe here can be exploited to as great a depth as the collaborators desire.
- A teaching clinic can function as a mirror that allows participants - both staff and students - to reflect on their work and themselves. Donald Schon describes such an environment as a "hall of mirrors":
In the hall of mirrors, student and coach continually shift perspective. They see their interaction at one moment as a reenactment of some aspect of the student's practice; at another, as a dialogue about it; and at still another, as a modelling of its redesign. In this process, they must continually take a two-tiered view of their interaction, seeing it in its own terms and as a possible mirror of the interaction the student has brought to the practicum for study. In this process, there is a premium on the coach's ability to surface his own confusions. To the extent that he can do so authentically, he models for his student a new way of seeing error and "failure" as opportunities for learning. (Schon, 1987: 297)
- The mirror of clinical practice has several facets: the mirrors of pedagogy, of professionalism and of personality. Each of them presents a different possibility for reflection and learning by students and their "coaches" - the clinical supervisors.
- As a mirror of pedagogy (that is, a mirror for a way of teaching), the clinic can promote reflection by student and supervisor on these roles and the requirements and expectations of the other. Through such reflection the teaching and learning process may be streamlined and become more effective.
- The clinic is a learning and teaching environment that allows quick, salient feedback between supervisor and student. In this situation, an advantage is that the supervisor can see the results of instruction mirrored immediately in the behaviour of the student and the student can see the quality of their performance mirrored in the reaction of their supervisor. This promotes a learning curve for the student that spirals upwards in the direction of proficiency and independent action.
- Drawing on parallel experiences in teacher education, one reflective schoolteacher reminds us that reflection can be enhanced when students are valued as mirrors of teaching practice:
Strangely, it seems, some teachers have forgotten what it is to be a student. They seem unaware of how their students experience the learning process. They aren't interested in seeing themselves through their students' eyes. To engage in critical reflection, however, it is absolutely essential that we take on the role of learner, of student once again. We must understand from the inside out what it is like to be thinking and trying to figure things out as we ask our students to do. We must also be open to letting our students teach us and share with them the value of what they teach us. (Smith, 2002)
- Below we reflect on the process of learning from students how to improve the clinical experience for them.
- As a mirror of professionalism the clinic assists in the transmission of professional norms and capacities by allowing students and supervisors to enact and view them in each other. In this aspect student and supervisor act as collegial collaborators working for the benefit of those people the clinic assists. Instructor and student can see professional expectations mirrored in the actions of each other and learn from them. Each makes demands, and seeks support, from the other in a cooperative professional enterprise.
- Loughran (2002) describes reflection as an important tool for the development of professional competency and the improvement of practice:
Across many professions (science, nursing, medicine, law, teaching) the need for individuals to develop their understanding about the way they conduct their work, and to be skilled practitioners through their work, has been important in informing the profession about aspects of practice. By so doing, the knowledge base of the profession is developed and refined in ways that help the practitioner to be an effective and informed professional.
It is not surprising, then, that reflection continually emerges as a suggested way of helping practitioners better understand what they know and do as they develop their knowledge of practice through reconsidering what they learn in practice.
- Loughran emphasises the need for teachers to facilitate and encourage active reflection by students rather than simply filtering and refining students' practical experiences and feeding it back to them as professional knowledge. Reflection must be an active search for meaning to be effective in professional development. Through the process of fostering reflection a clinical supervisor may come to see her own professional insights replicated and possibly extended in the mirror of a student's reflections.
- Baker (1999: 69-70) argues that most models of supervision in law clinics focus on helping students acquire rational "theories of lawyering" that provide the blueprints for future action. He suggests a somewhat different model of "guided participation" that nevertheless contains a reflective element:
The expert/supervisor is also in a position to help the learner explore pluralistic interpretations of unfolding events. ... surveying a range of theories according to need and context is an integral part of expert problem solving. Accordingly, exploring multiple interpretations will generally be preferable to exploring only one.
- Neumann (2000: 412) notes the mirror of reflection can operate to advantage as well between student and client, an insight derived from the work of Donald Schon:
a more reflective practitioner is better able to collaborate with clients. For example, the "expert" will want "deference and status in the client's response to [the] professional persona," while the reflective practitioner will prefer a "sense of freedom and of real connection to the client, as a consequence of no longer needing to maintain a professional facade."
Professional practice is mirrored in the respectful, yet demanding, relationship between clinical mentors and novices.
- As a mirror of personality for both student and supervisor, the clinic allows participants to reflect upon and perhaps question their own perspectives through intense observation of other students and of the interaction between them. Clinics enable individuals to develop morally and spiritually through introspection fostered by close personal contact with others.
- Unlike the usual tertiary classroom, a teaching clinic inevitably fosters a close personal relationship between student and supervisor. Through working closely together in a limited space for many hours a week students and supervisors get to know each other as individuals more deeply. As interpersonal relationships develop each can see in the other the impact of differences in temperament and beliefs.
- Reflection that explores personal beliefs and values may be necessary to form the attitudes that underpin ethical professional practice. Hanifin (2000) found that reflection played an important part in teachers' moral and professional development and that emotion was a powerful factor in the process. Sumsion (1997) observes that the object and purpose of reflection can be wider than just acquiring technical professional competencies and extend to a more holistic view of personal development. Her study of student teachers led her to conclude, "processes such as emotion, imagination and intuition were integral to the reflection of many of the participants" (Sumsion, 1997: 261)
- One clinician sees opportunities for reflection in clinics arising from situations that "disorient" students in relation to their assumptions, values and beliefs. For Quigley, these "disorienting moments" experienced by students are opportune times for supervisors to encourage reflection that can lead to personal change:
The learning power of a disorienting experience can be blunted if the learner does not attend to the experience and reflect upon its meaning and impact on the learner's prior manner of understanding. The clinical instructor's role in the reflective process is to create occasions for the learners to identify their prior meaning schemes and consider why the new experience did not fit into those meaning schemes. (notes omitted) (Quigley, 1995: 4)
- The challenge of engaging in reciprocal reflection that touches the personal level is nicely put by Barry:
As educators concerned with developing the reflective capacities of our students, clinical supervisors should practice what we preach by considering the impact on supervision of our own and the students' inhibitions and prejudices. Such reflection informs our discussion of difference with students as we challenge them to apply similar analyses where suggested by their dealings with clients, colleagues and faculty. (Barry, 1995: 157-158)
- The next section provides an orientation first, to the clinical education setting for our study, and second, to the background of the research project.
- A Clinical Legal Education (CLE) unit is conducted at Murdoch University's law clinic - "SCALES" - a community legal centre which provides free legal advice, information and representation to low income people living in the area. This is an "in-house" clinical teaching facility where students are responsible for providing legal services to actual clients under the supervision of qualified legal practitioners.
Students participate in a weekly "advice only" session where they interview and assist clients. In addition they are given approximately 5 - 8 client files to work on. Work at SCALES is supplemented by a series of seminars some of which are skills based: interviewing, letter writing etc and others that are reflective of the experience at the clinic. (SCALES has also developed a specialised clinical stream in immigration and refugee law that is the only one of its kind in Australia.)
- By giving students a substantial amount of responsibility in making decisions on their assigned cases while providing the safety net of individual intensive supervision of those choices, the unit seeks to achieve a number of outcomes including:
- Gaining of legal knowledge and skills required to provide an effective legal service for clients and to work with others in an office environment.
- Embedding attitudes of professionalism, desire to serve society and a critical appreciation of the adequacy of law and legal processes.
- The clinical experience is very different from that experienced by students in the other parts of a traditional law degree. It is an experience that is very demanding for law students. Students are propelled into a number of challenging relationships with their supervisor, their clients, other students and finally themselves, as they grapple with the issues and pressures of legal practice.
- The balance amongst these different challenges is different for each student, and will change throughout the semester, as the student gains confidence and knowledge. Supervisors have to be responsive to students' needs; this requires a commitment to opening up communication and breaking down old perceptions of the relative position of teacher and student. At SCALES we try to work from a model of both parties being colleagues. In doing so we want to encourage a student's development along a path to independence, while offering the necessary support so the student can perform to the best of their abilities.
- At the beginning of their course, students often suffer from a lack of confidence and can struggle with the supervisory relationship because they are confronted with a novel learning situation which challenges their perceptions of themselves as highly competent learners. They, therefore, look to their supervisor for support, encouragement and feedback.
- One clinical student at a different legal clinic, reflecting on her clinical experience, has said:
Many of us felt as though we still had no idea how we were really doing, even after we had our sessions with our supervisors. What many of us finally settled on was the equivalent of "no feedback meant good feedback" and the assumption that they (the supervisors) would step in if we were about to commit malpractice. The trouble with this line of thinking is that I suspect it is not entirely accurate. (Howard, 1995)
- The supervisor/student relationship is not a stagnant one and as students progress through the course and a supervisor wants to encourage more independence, students can perceive this as confusing and feel that the boundaries are shifting. For example, one clinic student has reflected on the experience in this way:
It seems to me that the boundaries are unclear as to how much reliance can be placed upon a supervisor's insight into particular legal issues. As a student who has virtually no experience in criminal justice, I found myself frustrated with particular situations. It was unclear to me whether I should be asking my supervisor about what is usually done in particular circumstances or whether I am just supposed to determine that on my own. There are benefits to both approaches, and I often found myself relying on my own common sense in handling the situation with little or no guidance. I prefer this result, in many ways. However, I think it would be helpful to know for certain which approach the program intends to take. This way, a student like myself would spend less time pondering whether or not to ask a "stupid" question and spend more time on finding an answer (whether it be on my own or with the help of a supervisor). (Pinguelo, 1998)
- Another student has written of his feelings in a much more blunt fashion:
I am so damn frustrated! I can barely express my anger and aggravation connected with this class. I feel like I'm being toyed with for stupid pedagogical reasons or only being given half the information I need to do my cases. I've never felt like my professors played "hide the ball" before, but now I do think I'm being forced to participate in some game and it's very disturbing. (Rader, 1994)
- There is also the issue that students can find the responsibility of working with clients daunting:
In other units if you don't do it you wear it, at SCALES if you don't do it someone else will wear it and that can act as quite a motivating factor (reflection of a SCALES student)
- Students have clients that may be demanding, who do not seem to acknowledge students' assistance or come from a background that is completely different from their own. They have expectations that may make their relationship with clients trying at times. One clinic student reflects on this aspect of the clinical environment as follows:
As much as I hate to admit it now, my "desire to help my client" even made me frustrated with her at certain times.... Her seeming unwillingness to cooperate frustrated us in an almost "how dare she" kind of way (Howard, 1995: 188)
- At mid-semester, and again toward the end of semester, the students at SCALES take part in a review and discussion of their overall performance. These one-to-one reviews involve detailed systematic feedback against the Unit's assessment criteria. Prior to this review students are asked to complete a questionnaire evaluating their own performance; this means that when they come to discuss issues with the supervisor they have already engaged in some critical self-reflection that then forms the basis for the review. In relation to such reviews it was interesting to see the contrast between a social work student who had been on placement at SCALES and law students. The placement student was comfortable with setting herself up a learning contract and being responsible for her evaluation under that contract. For many law students, however, completing a report asking them to reflect upon their own performance was excruciating. Many students tried and found it a useful experience but others found it simply "too hard" and could not see the point of it, often complaining, "I am no good at these things."
- We concluded from these observations that what we were expecting these students to do was quite confronting to them and that they needed to have the tools to deal with it. We needed to explore ways in which students could develop reflective skills.
- Reflecting on this problem we realised that one of the positive aspects of the clinical experience is the relationship that students form with each other. It seems the supportive non-competitive contact they have with other students in the clinic is something they have often not experienced in other courses, and is an important part of their learning experience at SCALES. A student comments:
I think that it is the informal nature of the place that in order to function you have to work together and if you to get on with each other it is just a bonus and you enjoy coming to work and catching up with your friends.
- Students look to the views and experiences of their peers for support and encouragement. This project aimed to encourage students to reflect on their clinic experience so that their reflections could be used as a guide by future students at SCALES.
- A few years ago the authors completed an earlier project on the development of a professional development manual and video for clinical legal educators. In the course of that we realised that although we knew quite a lot about the views and attitudes of educators in law clinics, we knew very little about the perspectives, concerns and feelings of the students in those clinics. Indeed, in searching the literature, there is very little available research addressing this issue.
- As a result of this experience, we envisaged three purposes for the present project: first, to identify and understand students' views on the clinical legal supervisory experience; second, to conduct an analysis of students' needs in relation to this experience in order to understand how to make it an effective and fulfilling one for them; and, third, to utilise their views and experiences and see the students as participants in the development of a manual about CLE which might enhance the experience of future students. All three purposes would serve to provide students with the opportunities to reflect on their learning experiences within the clinical context, and model for them how this reflection could carry over into their professional practice. In other words, the methodologies we would use to accomplish the three purposes would all provide a mirror, an opportunity for reflection, for the students as well as for ourselves.
- As far as content went, we envisaged structuring the research and the resulting manual according to the issues addressed in our manual for supervisors, as follows:
- Perspectives on the purpose and definition of CLE
- Student/supervisor relationships
- Strategies used to learn in the CLE context
- The role of values
- Assessment
- In addition, in line with the three purposes mentioned, we would include these issues:
- The problems students face
- Interaction amongst students, and
- Comparison of CLE with other learning contexts
- In reflecting on the model we hoped to provide for students, we decided to collect information from students with several important principles in mind. First, students should be actively involved, rather than the research being conducted 'on ' them. Second, students would be encouraged to work collaboratively in workshop pairs and small groups to discuss the issues we presented, and to present their own. Third, in order to act ethically and also to try to make the project a joint one in which students felt some ownership and thus positively motivated toward the aims of the project, students would be informed of all the purposes of the project, its potential benefits for them and for future students. Fourth, we would hold regular workshops throughout the semester which would coincide with their likely major concerns at specific times, that is, the workshops would be developmental in some sense, and be targeted to the likely level of that development in students. Fifth, workshops and all other interactions with the students would be conducted by researchers not involved with the clinic (and thus not holding any supervisory or judgmental role).
- We approached two groups of students to participate - one was a group of 12 third-year students (the Novice group) who were enrolling in their first unit in clinical legal education. The other was a group of four students (the Experienced group) who were enrolled in their final year of law studies, and beginning their second experience of a clinical unit. Both men and women participated.
- A series of four workshops were planned at intervals through the semester and linked to the stages of progress of students through the unit (and thus were 'embedded' in the unit), as follows.
- The idea of learning to learn, reflection on learning and practice, and links to professional practice
- What is CLE?
- The supervisory relationship
- Activities associated with this workshop included writing short paragraphs, sharing ideas and discussion with other students and drawing or writing metaphors for the supervisory relationship.
- Comparison of CLE with other learning contexts
- Learning strategies used
- Problems encountered and solution strategies
- Activities to address these issues included paired student discussion, class discussion and role-play.
- Dealing with values
- Development of the student/supervisor relationship
- Problems encountered and solution strategies, in regard to theses topics
- These issues would be addressed through the use of role-play, personal reflection, and group discussion.
- Assessment
- Evaluation of workshops
- Advice for future students
- Activities associated with these topics included written paragraphs, small group and whole class discussion.
- The activity on generating metaphors representing supervisory relationships was well regarded and seemed to be both useful and enjoyable for the novice group of students, as were the discussions held with this same group in the first workshop. We consider that this was so because the metaphor activity is very personal, and is something people often do for themselves in thinking about and describing their reactions and opinions and feelings to other people. Metaphors embody not only cognitive, but also emotional information in a 'coded' form that helps people identify what they think and how they feel in a fairly non-threatening way. It can also generate humour, thus relieving the embarrassment or unease students may feel about verbalising how they see such a challenging relationship.
- In the Novice group, attendance at the workshops was poor after the first meeting. Although the workshop was held as part of a usual, required workshop away from the clinic setting, there was a reluctance to participate as many students perceived that part of the workshop to be intruding on their 'real' learning for the unit. On reflection, we seemed to put the case for the worth of the workshop well, and, on that first occasion, students did appear to be positively motivated and interested in participating. However, it may be that by the second occasion, the students realised the time and workload required by the unit was quite high. It also may be that students begrudged giving up an hour of their workshop time to this project as an impediment to learning the "content" they needed for clinic work. They did not see thinking through the process as helpful.
- In the Experienced group, whose workshop was held in the clinic itself, the workshop facilitator encountered reluctance to participate from three of the four students. Although the purposes were explained carefully, motivation was not changed enough to be able to continue the workshops. This group saw such activities as extremely intrusive - they saw they were there to do the clinical work which kept them very busy, and any other activity was seen as an unwarranted interruption. There was also a hint that some of these final year students felt insulted about being asked to recount their experiences in this context, because they considered themselves expert learners. It appeared that they tended to focus on a limited view of the purpose of the project, and it proved difficult to alter or expand this view. Meeting with them in the clinic setting where urgent work awaited them aggravated the difficulties.
- As a result of both groups' reactions, the workshops were discontinued and, instead, letters were sent to individual students later in the semester inviting them to an interview where they could discuss and reflect on their experiences one-to-one with a researcher. Four students chose to accept this invitation. The interviews worked well, although not all intended topics from the workshops could be addressed in the time available for an interview.
- Firstly, we could couch any such future research more in terms of students participating in the development of a manual for students and play down mention of how such reflection might aid them in the unit and in future professional practice. However, omitting the latter would seem to undermine a fundamental purpose of such an exercise. On the other hand, it would be important to discuss the merits of such workshops in more detail with all staff involved, and to make sure they are supportive and enthusiastic. This is difficult when unit requirements are many and time is a short and very valuable commodity for both staff and students.
- Secondly, the workshops could be embedded more as a normal part of the series of workshops that is held in the unit. There was the impression that students perceived the parts of the workshops dealing with the project as 'add-ons' (or inserts) and thus intrusive and irrelevant. This would be aided if reflection on learning process was also included as a natural part of other law units. The experience of one the researchers with 4th tear students in education is similar in that students seem to view reflection as not relevant to them . We postulate this is because it implies a challenge to their view of themselves as demonstrably competent learners who learned about learning at school and do not have to think about that further. Thus reflection is not valued either in study or work - and there is little enough time that should not be spent in reflection. Nor was there much understanding of understanding oneself better or of helping others in the learning process.
- Thirdly, workshops should be held away from clinic sites as the atmosphere there is geared toward getting on with the tasks at hand (and rightly so); students' attention and time is taken up entirely with their client concerns in that environment. It would also probably be best to avoid including students who are in their final semester of studies, as their entire concentration and motivation seems to be focussed on that last unit, and on completing only tasks that are absolutely necessary and relevant as they perceive them.
- Fourthly, there is a need to get students to consider the value of reflection both in their studies and in the workplace. This may happen if a reflective process is introduced earlier in law studies , or if exposure to clinical legal education occurs earlier in the degree course. Staff need to consider ways of overcoming entrenched understandings about learning- that it is a process one learns to do at school; that by the time of beginning tertiary studies one either "has it" or not. Staff need to communicate to students that learning can always benefit from being thought about; and that it, and the ability to reflect critically on performance in any context are lifelong processes. Making time for this to happen is one way of signalling how much it is valued by staff.
- It is inappropriate to judge an exercise in reflection by the standards of success or failure. A reflective process, if engaged in sincerely and with an open mind, should always yield benefits for the participants. That is the case here, at least for the project leaders.
- There are a number of insights to be gained from our own and the students' reflections:
- Students' views of the supervisory relationship in a clinic are often very different from those of supervisors, and they can change over time
- Motivations for taking a clinic and expectations of it vary widely amongst students; this affects their expectations of supervisors
- The clinic experience is so novel and engrossing that students find it difficult to step back and reflect on it for many practical and personal reasons; becoming a "reflective legal practitioner" cannot be achieved without further exposure to practice
- Students need to be given time and encouragement to be reflective and to see this as a relevant and salient part of their clinical experience
- Clinic students look to their peers for support and encouragement that they either cannot get or do not believe they can get from supervisors
- Researching in the clinic must be carefully integrated with normal clinic processes
- This project is not finished. Educated by the insights gained so far, we will continue to engage in collaborative reflection with students at SCALES. In the near future we hope to produce the student guide to clinical education as originally envisaged. That guide, too, will benefit from further reflection on the clinic experience.
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