Email this article 
Using A Reflective Court Report To Integrate And Assess Reflective Practice In Law
Abstract
In an Australian legal education context, there is minimal research on designing and implementing a court report as a summative assessment task. This journal article attempts to fill this gap by reflecting on the journey of a legal educator who pioneered a court report for a core final year course in a Bachelor of Laws program with large cohorts and improved it over 13 semesters in six years. Integrating reflective practice into the court report enhanced its level of authenticity. Notably, this journal article disseminates an example of a court report template and a criterion-referenced assessment rubric for a reflective court report that was grounded in the literature that conceptualises ‘reflective practice’ and has been refined over time with the benefit of a longstanding and rich experience.
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Armstrong, S., & McNamara, J. (2011). Transition pedagogy in first and final year law programs. In S. Kift, M. Sanson, J. Cowley, & P. Watson (Eds.), Excellence and innovation in Legal Education (pp. 207-238) Chatswood, Australia: LexisNexis Butterworths.
Ashford-Rowe, K., Herrington, J., & Brown, C. (2014). Establishing the critical elements that determine authentic assessment. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 39(2), 205-222.
Burton, K. (2006). Designing criterion-referenced assessment. Journal of Learning Design, 1(2), 73-82.
Burton, K. (2011). A framework for determining the authenticity of assessment tasks: Applied to an example in law. Journal of Learning Design, 4(2), 20-28.
Burton, K. (2014). Changing assessment tasks in legal education in turbulent times: Authentic or traditional? Australasian Law Teachers Association Conference, Gold Coast, 12 July 2014.
Burton, K., & Cuffe, N. (2005). The design and implementation of criterion-referenced Assessment in a first year undergraduate core law unit. Legal Education Review, 15, 159-175.
Burton, K., & McNamara, J. (2009). Assessing reflection skills in law using criterion-referenced assessment. Legal Education Review, 19, 171-188.
Field, R., Duffy, J., & Huggins, A. (2014). Lawyering and positive professional identities. Chatswood, Australia: LexisNexis.
Galloway, K., & Jones, P. (2014). Guarding our identities: The dilemma of transformation in the legal academy. Queensland University of Technology Law Review, 14, 15-26.
Hart, C., Hammer, S., Collins, P., & Chardon, T. (2011). The real deal: Using authentic assessment to promote student engagement in the first and second years of a regional law program. Legal Education Review, 12, 97-122.
Heath, M. (2011). Assessment strategies. In S. Kift, M. Sanson, J. Cowley, & P. Watson (Eds.), Excellence and innovation in Legal Education (pp. 269-294) Chatswood: LexisNexis Butterworths.
Herrington, J., & Herrington, A. (1998). Authentic assessment and multimedia: How university students respond to a model of authentic assessment. Higher Education Research and Development, 17(3), 305-322.
Herrington, J., & Herrington, A. (2006). Authentic conditions for authentic assessment: Aligning task and assessment. In Critical Visions, Proceedings of the 29th Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) Annual Conference, Western Australia, 10-12 July 2006. (pp. 146-151).
Herrington, J., Oliver, R., & Reeves, T.C. (2002). Patterns of engagement in authentic online learning environments. In Winds of Changing in the Sea of Learning, Proceedings of the 19th Annual Conference of the Australian Society for Computers in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE), Auckland, New Zealand, 8-11 December 2002. (pp. 279-286).
Hopkins, A. (2009). Teaching evidence law within the framework of a trial: Relating theory to practice as students take to their feet and take responsibility for the trial narrative. Journal of the Australasian Law Teachers Association, 9, 173-184.
Hughes, C. (2009). The modification of assessment task dimensions in support of student progression in legal skills development. Legal Education Review, 19, 133-148.
Hughes, C., & Cappa, C. (2007). Developing generic criteria and standards for assessment in law: Processes and (by)products. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 32(4), 417-432.
Johnstone, R., Patterson, J., & Rubenstein, K. (1998). Improving criteria & feedback in student assessment in law. Sydney: Cavendish Publishing.
Johnstone, R., Vignaendra, S. (2004). Learning Outcomes and Curriculum Development in Law: A report commissioned by the Australian Universities Teaching Committee, Higher Education Group, Department of Education, Science and Training.
Keyes, M., & Johnstone, R. (2004). Changing legal education: Rhetoric, reality, and prospects for the future. Sydney Law Review, 26(4), 537-564.
Kift, S. (2002). Harnessing assessment and feedback to assure quality outcomes for graduate capability development: A Legal Education case study. In Proceedings Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE), Brisbane, (pp. 1-26).
Kift, S., Israel, M., & Field, R. (2010). Learning and Teaching Academic Standards Project:
Bachelor of Laws Learning & Teaching Academic Standards Statement December 2010, Australian Learning & Teaching Council. Retrieved from http://www.altc.edu.au/system/files/altc_standards_LAW_110211.pdf
Laurens, J., Steel, A., & Huggins, A. (2013). Works well with others: Examining the different types of small group learning approaches and their implications for law student learning outcomes. Journal of Australasian Law Teachers Association, 6, 101-112.
Law Admissions Consultative Committee (LACC). (2009). Schedule 1: Prescribed Academic Areas of Knowledge. Retrieved from http://www1.lawcouncil.asn.au/LACC/images/pdfs/LACCPrescribedAcademicAreasofKnowledge-June2008.pdf.
Le Brun, M. (2001). Editorial. Legal Education Review, 12, iii.
Le Brun, M., & Johnstone, R. (1994). The quiet revolution. Sydney, Australia: The Law Book Company.
Mezirow, J., (1998). On critical reflection. Adult Education Quarterly, 48(3), 185.
McNamara, J., & Burton, K. (2009). Assessment of online discussion forums for law students. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 6(2), 1-14.
McNamara, J., Cockburn, T., & Campbell, C. (2013). Good Practice Guide (Bachelor of Laws): Reflective Practice. Australian Learning and Teaching Council. Retrieved from http://www.lawteachnetwork.org/resources/gpg-reflection.pdf
McNamara, J., & Field, R. (2007). Designing reflective assessment for workplace learning in legal education, in Assessment and Evaluation in Real World Learning, ATN Assessment Conference, Brisbane, 29-30 November 2007.
McNamara, J., Field, R., & Brown, C. (2009). Learning to reflect in the first year of legal education: the key to surviving legal education and legal practice, in Proceeding in the First Year in Higher Education Conference, Townsville, 29 June - 1 July 2009.
McNamara, J., Field, R., & Cuffe, N. (2008). Designing reflective assessment for effective learning of legal research skills in first year, in First Year in Higher Education Conference, Hobart, 30 June - 2nd July 2008.
Nichol, D. J., MacFarlane-Dick, D. (2006). Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in Higher Education, 31(2), 199-218.
Race, P (2001). The lecturer’s toolkit: A practical guide to learning and teaching assessment (2nd ed.). London: Kogan Page.
Shircore, M., Galloway, K., Corbett-Jarvis, N., & Ryan, D. (2013). From the first year to the final year experience: Embedding reflection for work integrated learning in a holistic curriculum framework. A Practice Report. The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 4(1), 125-133.
Stein, D. Teaching critical reflection: Myths and realities No. 7 (2000) ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education, 3, 4. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED445256&ERICExtSearch_ SearchType_0=no&accno=ED445256
Stuckey, R.T., Barry, M., Dinerstein, R.B., Dubin, J.C., Engler, R., & Elson, J.S. (2007). Best practices for legal education: A vision and a road map. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina School of Law. Retrieved from http://www.cleaweb.org/Resources/Documents/best_practices-full.pdf
Sullivan, W., Colby, A., Welch Wegner, J., & Bond, L., & Shulman L. (2007). Educating lawyers: Preparation for the profession of law. Stanford, CA: Carnegie Foundation.
Watson, P. (2012). Leading change in legal education: Interesting ideas for interesting times. Legal Education Review, 22, 199-125.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/jld.v9i2.217
Article Metrics
Metrics powered by PLOS ALM
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.