First year Law unit: LAWS1112 Law & Society: reflective essay
Developed by Moira Cordiner
Synopsis of the task and its context
This is an introductory core unit developed and trialed in 2008 by a senior lecturer at the University of Queensland. Advice on alignment of learning activities
and designing assessment tasks was provided by educational consultant, Moira Cordiner. The unit aims to develop students’ critical legal thinking skills,
comprising three components: critical knowledge, critical skills and a critical disposition1. Throughout the unit, the lecturer demonstrates these components by
consistently modelling them. The reflective essay of 1000 words is designed to assess students’ critical disposition by requiring them to use a range of critical
skills to reflect upon a critical incident from the unit. This incident is one that has significance for the particular student, leading to a shift in their disposition
towards the law or towards an aspect of the law. That is, it may have led to the student questioning an aspect of their beliefs, values, attitude or behaviour.
Examples of critical incidents are provided as well as a highly-structured template for the essay, with instructions under three headings (‘background’,
‘reflection’, ‘outcomes’). In a tutorial, students practice grading an example of an essay (using the criteria sheet) and discussing why the essay was awarded a
particular grade. In the week 10 tutorial, a draft of the essay is peer assessed and feedback given. The final essay is submitted in week 13.
Match between objectives and criteria for the task
Objectives/learning outcomes (revised from the original)
Task-specific criteria
On completion of this unit you should be able to:
To complete this task, you should:
1. Demonstrate critical legal knowledge about the law and its cultural, philosophical,
ideological, practical, ethical, social, political, and environmental context.
2. Use critical legal skills (recollection, comprehension, application, analysis,
evaluation, justification and synthesis) in different law related contexts.
3. Communicate in legal and reflective writing and use legal research skills.
4. Demonstrate a critical disposition
Reflect about your developing critical disposition towards the law by using critical skills
in an essay:
 background (recollect, comprehend, apply)
 reflection (analyse, evaluate)
 outcomes (justify, synthesise)
This criterion combines objectives 2, 3 and 4
Interpreting the criteria sheet
Note that, at the University of Queensland, the standards are 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, with the last two standards deemed to be ‘fail’. Standard 5 is equivalent to High
Distinction. The other grades don’t map exactly to UTAS standards.
A critical disposition is a tendency to self-reflect and change one’s views when required; a willingness to question orthodoxy and challenge ignorance and injustice; and an
awareness of which approach is the most appropriate in a given situation.
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reflective essay criteria sheet
criterion
reflect about your
developing critical
disposition towards the law
by using critical skills in an
essay:
 background (recollect,
comprehend, apply)
 reflection (analyse,
evaluate)
 outcomes (justify,
synthesise)
weighting 25% of unit
Standard 5
Standard 4
Standard 3 (passing grade)
Standard 2 (fail)
Standard 1 (fail)
In your reflective essay about
a critical incident you
provided:
 a background that
comprised:
In your reflective essay about
a critical incident you
provided:
 a background that
comprised:
In your reflective essay about
a critical incident you
provided:
 a background that
comprised:
In your reflective essay about
a critical incident you
provided:
 a background that
comprised:
In your reflective essay about
a critical incident you
provided:
 a background that
comprised:
 a detailed and thorough
description of what you
recollected about the
incident, including when
and where it took place
 a detailed description of
what you recollected
about the incident,
including when and where
it took place
 a partly detailed
description of what you
recollected about the
incident, including when
and where it took place
 an outline of what you
recollected as the order of
events in the incident,
including when and where
it took place
 a rough outline of what
you recollected as the
order of events, in the
incident including when
and where it took place
 a perceptive explanation
of why it was significant
(had meaning) for you,
that included applying the
important relevant
aspects of the incident to
your disposition towards
the law
 a comprehensive
explanation of why it was
significant (had meaning)
for you, that included
applying most of the
important relevant
aspects of the incident to
your disposition towards
the law
 an explanation of why it
was significant (had
meaning) for you, that
included applying some of
the important relevant
aspects of the incident to
your disposition towards
the law
 loosely-linked statements
about why it was
significant (had meaning)
for you, that made
passing reference to the
important relevant
aspects of the incident
 separate sweeping
statements about the
incident and what you
thought about it
 a reflection that involved:
 a thorough and insightful
analysis in which you
identified the thoughts
and feelings that were
generated during and
after the incident, and
clearly explained how all
of these related to each
other
 a reflection that involved:
 a reasonably thorough
analysis in which you
identified the thoughts
and feelings that were
generated during and
after the incident, and
clearly explained how
most of these related to
each other
 a reflection that involved:
 an analysis in which you
identified the thoughts
and feelings that were
generated during and
after the incident, and
explained how most of
these related to each
other
 a reflection that involved:
 a superficial analysis in
which you identified the
thoughts and feelings that
were generated during
and after the incident, and
made general statements
about how these related
to each other
 an reflection that involved:
 a repetition of the
information given in the
background
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reflective essay criteria sheet
criterion
weighting 25% of unit
Standard 5
Standard 4
Standard 3 (passing grade)
Standard 2 (fail)
Standard 1 (fail)
In your reflective essay about
a critical incident you
provided:
 a considered and
sensitive evaluation of
how much impact the
incident had on these
thoughts and feelings in
terms of affecting your
knowledge, values,
assumptions, beliefs or
perspectives
 outcomes that included:
In your reflective essay about
a critical incident you
provided:
 a considered evaluation of
how much impact the
incident had on these
thoughts and feelings in
terms of affecting your
knowledge, values,
assumptions, beliefs or
perspectives
In your reflective essay about
a critical incident you
provided:
 an evaluation of how
much impact the incident
had on these thoughts
and feelings in terms of
affecting your knowledge,
values, assumptions,
beliefs or perspectives
In your reflective essay about
a critical incident you
provided:
 a partial evaluation made
up of broad
generalisations about
how much impact the
incident had on these
thoughts and feelings
In your reflective essay about
a critical incident you
provided:
 a statement that the
incident did or did not
have an impact on your
thoughts and feelings
 outcomes that included:
 outcomes that included:
 outcomes that included:
 outcomes that included:
 a realistic and achievable
plan of action with
convincing reasons
(justification) that explicitly
related to your analysis
and evaluation of the
incident
 a realistic and achievable
plan of action with mostly
convincing reasons
(justification) that related
to your analysis and
evaluation of the incident
 a realistic plan of action
with partly convincing
reasons (justification) that
made some reference to
your analysis and
evaluation of the incident
 a plan of action with
reasons (justification) that
made some reference to
your analysis and
evaluation of the incident
 general ideas rather than
a plan of action, with
reasons (justification) that
paraphrased previous
information given in the
background
 a logically organised and
concise conclusion
(synthesis) that combined
the different parts of your
reflection into a new and
cohesive observation
about how your critical
disposition has changed
 a logically organised
conclusion (synthesis)
that combined the
different parts of your
reflection into a new and
mostly cohesive
observation about how
your critical disposition
has changed
 a conclusion (synthesis)
that combined most of the
different parts of your
reflection into a new
observation about how
your critical disposition
has changed
 a conclusion (synthesis)
that combined a few of
the different parts of your
reflection into a new
observation about how
your critical disposition
has changed
 a conclusion stating that
your critical disposition
has changed
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