Reflective
practitioner
Critically
reflective
practitioner
Selfreflective
practitioner
Encouraging reflective practice at law school:
A conceptual model and promising practices
Poverty Law, Access to Justice, and Ethical Lawyering
(Osgoode Hall Law School)
Michele Leering
Executive Director/Lawyer - Community Advocacy & Legal Centre
Belleville, Ontario, Canada - leeringm@lao.on.ca
Key messages from
Encouraging reflective practice at law school:
A conceptual model and promising practices
• Reflection is critical for learning
• Reflective practice is an important capability at
every stage of professional development
(student  professional)
• Facilitating reflective capacity early and
pervasively benefits everyone
• Access to justice work is enhanced by
reflective practice
“I think it is actually cutting edge, it ought to be explored.”
Encouraging Reflective Practice - Osgoode Symposium 2011
Research participant
2
What is Reflection?
Why Care About Reflective Practice?
•
•
•
•
•
A more effective adult learner
Healthier and happier student/professional
Supports ethical development
Awareness of cultural incompetence
Increases sensitivity and commitment to
social justice and access to justice issues
• Encourages transformational learning
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Why Care About Reflective Practice?
• Enhances critical lawyering skills &
capacities
• Efficient and effective legal professional
• Holistic practitioner – law as a “healing
profession”
• Builds flexibility, resilience, and
leadership capacity
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If you had many members of the
profession who were reflective
practitioners, in particular selfreflective practitioners, I think you
would actually see differences in
what are accepted as the
predominant norms of the
profession itself.
Research
participants’
views
Anybody who is more
reflective is less
likely to be a
discourteous,
uncivil professional
I think that it’s something we are
going to hear more about and I
think that law faculties that
evolve to adopt these kinds of
tools and methods will be
better law faculties.
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What is reflective practice?
1. The literature review
2. Interviewing law professors
Reflection: An Evolving Recognition of
its Critical Contribution to Learning
Dewey
(1934)
Reflection
&
Thinking
Mezirow
(1979)
Reflection
&
Transformational
Learning
Schön
(1983, 1987)
Reflective
Practice
&
Professional
Development
Boyd &
Fales
(1983)
Reflective
Learning
Kolb
(1984)
Boud et al
(1985)
Experiential
Learning &
Reflection
Reflection &
Learning
from
Experience
Encouraging Reflective Practice - Osgoode Symposium 2011
Brookfield
(1995)
Critical
Reflection
Moon
(1999)
Reflection &
Professional
Development
11
Donald Schön and Reflective Practice
McNiff, J., & Whitehead, J. (2006). All you need to know
about action research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
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Views of Research Participants
“A reflective practitioner is
somebody who considers
who they are, where they
are, what they’re doing,
their position in the
community, the purpose
of the work they are doing
and how they are doing it,
and takes it as an
ongoing process of
learning and moving
forward… a continuous
iterative process”
Encouraging Reflective Practice - Osgoode Symposium 2011
The ability to engage
in critical selfreflection about
one’s professional
role and
experiences is an
important and
learnable skill
which is arguably
the key to
continuous
learning
throughout a
lawyer’s career.
13
Views of Research Participants
RP means for me the
opportunity to reflect in a
fairly systematic and
intentional way about
what has been donewhat has worked, what
hasn’t worked, what was
successful, why was it
successful or not
successful, and learn
from that reflection,
continually adjusting the
practice in ways in which
you will imagine, and it
will be made better as a
result of reflection.
Encouraging Reflective Practice - Osgoode Symposium 2011
..a bigger definition of
RP has one reflect
not simply on the
skills that one’s
acquiring, whether it’s
to think critically or
analytically, or more
effective questioner,
listener or interviewer,
but it’s to reflect on
the role of law in
society. It’s to reflect
on the implications
that law will have on
groups within society.
14
Setting the Aspirational Vision:
Creating a working definition for
reflective practice in legal education
and for the legal profession
Reflective
practitioner
(traditional)
REFLECT
ON
PRACTICE
Encouraging Reflective Practice - Osgoode Symposium 2011
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learn from experience
Schön
skill
Reflective
practitioner
integrate theory
& practice
action
Encouraging Reflective Practice - Osgoode Symposium 2011
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learn from experience
technical
practical
Schön
craft
skill
Reflective
practitioner
integrate theory
& practice
“think like a lawyer”
“hands”
professional discipline
action
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legal reasoning
technical
‘artistry’
Learning from
experience
practical
Schön
legal practice
craft
Reflective
practitioner
skill
instrumental
integrate theory
& practice
‘single loop’
“think like a lawyer” learning
make ‘tacit’ explicit
professional discipline
competency
cognitive
analytical
apprenticeship
Encouraging Reflective Practice - Osgoode Symposium 2011
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Critically reflective
practitioner
REFLECT ON
KNOWLEDGE & CRITIQUE
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challenge the status quo
knowledge
Critically reflective
practitioner
critical legal
“head”
studies
law as a social construct
critique
intellectual
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unpack assumptions & paradigms
emancipation
challenge the status quo
knowledge
‘double loop’ learning
(Arygris/Schön)
“head”
theoretical
Critically reflective
practitioner
critical legal
conscientization (Freire)
critical race theory
feminist analysis
studies
‘liberal’ education
law as a social construct
critique
intellectual
transformative
Intellectuals
(Giroux)
practicing theorist (Buchanan)
context
deconstruct
Encouraging Reflective Practice - Osgoode Symposium 2011
“enlargement of mind”
(Nedelsky/Arendt)
22
Self-reflective
practitioner
REFLECT ON
“You can’t grow, you cannot SELF
learn, you&
cannot shift,
you cannot respond without self-reflection.”
AS PROFESSIONAL
Research
participant
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self-awareness
“heart”
personal
Self-reflective
practitioner
values
moral commitment
ethics
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emotional and social intelligence
self-awareness
engagement
personal
Self-reflective
practitioner
philosophy of practice
introspection
values
moral commitment
insight
ethics
self- regulating
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3 Key Components
Reflective
practitioner
Critically reflective
practitioner
Self-reflective
practitioner
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3 Key Components
Reflective
practitioner
Critically reflective
practitioner
Self-reflective
practitioner
Encouraging Reflective Practice - Osgoode Symposium 2011
Integrated
Reflective
Practitioner (IRP)
27
Integrated Reflective
Practitioner
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
engaged
… is self-aware and can reflect on
practice, knowledge and critical
theory as a self-directed life-long
life-long learner
learner, and takes action to improve
his/her practice, and reflects in
ethical
community. Reflective practice
becomes a “way of being”. (Palmer)
holistic approach
“authentic”
“new” professional
a “way of being”
integrated knowledge, skills, values
reflects collectively
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Reflecting In Community
Reflective
practitioner
Critically reflective
practitioner
Self-reflective
practitioner
Encouraging Reflective Practice - Osgoode Symposium 2011
Integrated
Reflective
Practitioner
29
The Aspirational Vision
Reflective
practitioner
Critically reflective
practitioner
Self-reflective
practitioner
Encouraging Reflective Practice - Osgoode Symposium 2011
Integrated
Reflective
Practitioner (IRP)
30
Methods to increase reflection
•
•
•
•
•
Identify suitable methods
Experiment with methods (action research)
Be intentional and explicit with students
Model your own reflective practice
Share your knowledge & expertise – new
scholarship or innovative pedagogy
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Some methods - Research
participants
•
•
•
•
•
Learning contracts
Learning plans
Learning styles assessment
Rubrics for self-assessment
Debriefing
– OPIR group debriefs
– Experiential learning
– Group work
– Role plays
• Ethical ambassador
• Experiential (field trips,
exercises, intensives)
• Problem-based learning
– Innovative use of novel
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Mind-mapping
Reflective questions
Syllabus expectation
Use of metaphor
Innovative teaching methods
Co-curricular activities
Critical reflection on readings
Reflective writing
– Journaling
– Summaries of key learning
points
– One minute papers
– Reflective essays
– Personal code of conduct
• Teaching portfolios
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Methods to support reflection
See Mind Map # 2 (Resource Kit)
• Orientation
• Pre-orientation
Reflective exercises
• Planning exercises
• Reflective writing
• Reflective questioning
• Self-awareness
exercises
• Reading theory critically
• Experiential learning
• “Actual”
• “Staged”
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Course offerings
Graphic exercises
Contemplative practices
Debriefing exercises
Consciousness-raising
Aesthetic
Mentoring programs
Assessment & evaluation
methods
• Group process
• Faculty models RP!
• Innovative teaching
methods
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Opportunities at Law
School to encourage
reflection
Clinical Legal Education
Programs Lead the Way
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“I think it’s cutting edge, it
really ought to be explored”
- Research Participant
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A pervasive approach –
Strategic alignment
Faculty
Experiential
learning
Law school
admissions
Extra &
co-curricular
activities
externships
orientation
Clinical
Programs
Academic
Success
Program
Assessment
& Evaluation
Encouraging Reflective Practice - Osgoode Symposium 2011
Modeling
Learning
outcomes / core
competencies
Courses
Career
Services
Department
Strategic
plan
Faculty
Professional
Development
38
Closing Key Messages
for Faculty
•
•
•
•
•
•
Use at least one method to encourage reflection
Share your promising practices
Build on existing promising practices
Nurture your own reflective practice
Create a community of practice
Create new knowledge about teaching (scholarship
about pedagogy, action research)
• Model reflective practice for students
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Resource Kit Available
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Introductory memo to Resource Kit materials
Working Conceptualization for RP
Mind Maps: Benefits/Outcomes & Methods
Planning Tool “Where I want to Be” Adapted from Fritz (1999)
Sample Resource for Law Students: Reflective Journaling
Annotated Resources & Bibliography (work in progress)
“Ten Actions of a Reflective Practitioner” (Adapted from Kinsella, 2001)
Collection of quotes to reflect on
Matrix for planning reflective activities
Glossary of Terms (adult & higher ed lexicon)
For more information: leeringm@lao.on.ca
These documents can be found online at:
http://www.gaje.org/abstract-michele/
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What does reflective practice
mean to you?
“When I am at
my best, my
teaching is like a
___________.”
Parker J. Palmer, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape
of a Teacher’s Life (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998), p. 148
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There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
– Leonard Cohen in “Anthem”
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