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 theUniversity 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 disposition[1]. 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 hassignificance 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 thelaw 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. / 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
3. Communicate in legal and reflective writing and use legal research skills.
4. Demonstrate a critical disposition

Interpreting the criteria sheet

Each section of the sheet (background, reflection, outcomes) is equally weighted, matches the task description and the sections of the essay. The standards used for grades at the University of Queensland are numerical – these have been altered to HD, etc to show the match to UTAS standards.

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reflective essay criteria sheetweighting 25% of unit
criterion / High Distinction / Distinction / Credit / Pass / Fail
In your reflective essay about a critical incident you provided: / In your reflective essay about a critical incident you provided: / In your reflective essay about a critical incident you provided: / In your reflective essay about a critical incident you provided: / In your reflective essay about a critical incident you provided:
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)
/
  • a background that comprised:
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  • a background that comprised:
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  • a background that comprised:
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  • a background that comprised:
/
  • 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 whyit was significant (had meaning)for you, that included applying the important relevantaspects of the incident to your disposition towards the law / a comprehensive explanation of whyit was significant (had meaning)for you, that included applyingmost of the important relevantaspects of the incident to your disposition towards the law / an explanation of whyit was significant (had meaning)for you, that included applyingsome of the important relevantaspects of the incident to your disposition towards the law / loosely-linked statements about whyit 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:
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  • a reflection that involved:
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  • a reflection that involved:
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  • areflection that involved:
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  • an reflection that involved:

a thoroughand 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 reasonably thoroughanalysis 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 / 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 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 / a repetition of the information given in the background
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 / 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 / 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 / a partialevaluation made up of broad generalisations about how much impact the incident had on these thoughts and feelings / a statement that the incident did or did not have an impact on your thoughts and feelings
  • outcomes that included:
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  • outcomes that included:
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  • outcomes that included:
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  • outcomes that included:
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  • 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 mostlyconvincing 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,withreasons (justification) that paraphrased previous informationgiven 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 cohesiveobservation about how your critical disposition has changed / a conclusion (synthesis) that combinedmost of the different parts of your reflection into a new observation about how your critical disposition has changed / a conclusion (synthesis) that combineda fewof 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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[1] 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.