IN PROCESS
- How to Encourage and Understand the Five Domains of Reflection for Law
This is a curated collection of published articles aligned with the five domains of reflection for law schools and the legal profession, as conceptualized by Michele Leering in her . This resource is presented in five separate tables focused on reflection on practice, self-reflection, critical reflection, integrative and collective reflection.
The tables are uniformly formatted as follows: the first column sets out related terms and concepts. The second column identifies the desired outcomes or changes that aligned with that domain of reflection. The third and fourth columns list opportunities, catalysts and methods from the general academic literature, and legal education literature respectively.
These resources are excerpted from Leering's . They are intended to provide guidance and examples from published authors on how to strengthen the reflective muscle in each of the five domains of reflective practice for law.
Review a graphic of the Five Domains of Reflection for Law
Reflection on practice is the term most often used to capture the instrumental domain of reflecting on learning and experience to construct professional knowledge. This first table captures related terms like learning by doing, knowing-in-action, deliberate practice, expert learner, intuitive practitioner, to name a few. It describes that change that we are trying to create by encouraging this domain of reflection as including becoming practice ready, developing metacognition, tolerating ambiguity, engaging in deep vs. surface learning, and generating professional knowledge and intuition, to name a few. Examples of opportunities, catalysts and methods are named, and some useful references are provided from the literature of other professions as well as law.
An essential competency for law is the domain of critical reflection....
Self-reflection captures a capacity that has not often been nurtured in the law school environment....
Collective reflection captures a capacity for reflection that has been under-recognized and utilized in law. Enabling collective reflective inquiry skills has tremendous implications for the legal profession and justice sector professionals - for how we solve problems, help transform or resolve conflict, provide constructive feedback, imagine and manifest different futures, re-envision justice, learn from each other and in systems and organizations, and create systemic change. It is particularly useful in the field of appropriate or alternative dispute resolution. It will help us to better respond to changing societal expectations around resolving disputes, creating people-centred justice systems, and respond effectively and constructively to the challenges and opportunities of generative artificial intelligence. It seeds innovation and creativity, supports mentalizing, empowers, and antidotes adversarialism. This table explores related terms, the change we seek to create, and provides examples of techniques from the literature of other disciplines and in law.
Integrative reflection envisions that all these dimensions of reflection for law can be brought together to ensure praxis - reflection embodied in action ...
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In summary, here are links to the five tables:
Critical Reflection
Self-reflection
Integrative Reflection